Lawmakers have dealt with this problem for a long time. It’s well solved.
If they wanted to prevent this kind of behavior there are two straightforward approaches:
- make it also illegal for the consulting company to pay a ransom.
- attach Strict Liability to any ransom payment, even if made through an intermediary. The executives quoted above from the paying company could still face criminal liability for such a payment disguised with plausible deniability https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_liability