It appears that there are a number of sources that are questioning the indictment of Gonzalez as a ring-leader such as the NY Times . I agree that Gonzalez is wrongly accused as the “ring-leader” of the operation - but for different reasons. 1. Gonzalez is likely just a low level carder (one who gathers and sells credit and debit card information), and one that was once on the secret service payroll to infiltrate the carder network. No different than other junkies that break into cars to steal ID information for drug money, but he just happened to use a more efficient method. SQL injection and wifi-sniffing are not very sophisticated attacks - nor was Albert’s MO - including leading a very lavish and noisy personal life. He used ICQ to chat with other affiliates and didn’t try to hard to protect information related to his wrong-doings. 2. The eastern European individuals named in the indictment appear to be MUCH more sophisticated as they organize the processes of converting the stolen