Regarding PPT's: I think either they take action on behalf of their depositors, or the depositors should take action against them. Without the PPT involvement the victims can't even prove they have made any investment to BTCS&T, there is no direct connection. Goat is on the right track here, but he needs more PPT operators transparently on board. Not likely of course.
Regarding legal claims: If the fraud can be proven (yes even with monopoly money), the motivation should be to make the victims whole again. What the nature of Bitcoin is doesn't really matter at that point. I have very low trust in law but I would very much like to see the outcome.
Yes, me too would like to see Pirate put to justice.
But let's be relistically for a second.
If law enforcement is involved we have the following hurdles:
1. We would need competent investigators that actually knew about bitcoin, and knew their way around everything IT.
2. We would need cooperation across country boundaries, even on various continents.
3. As long as the one filling the case is just an individual, I doubt that law enforcement will care much.
4. It could drag out for years..
The ones I've seen sucessfully track international Internet crime are big law agencies, or big law agencies assisted by powerful private cooperations.
I think a private investigation would yield better results than an official investigation, then when the criminal (Trendon Shavers or whatever his real name is) is found, he could be handed over to the real police, with all evidence readily available, or the organization behind the private investigation could select to to aim for alternative methods..
We don't hear so much about it, but there are private companies helping individuals in achiving 'justice' outside the established system. I suspect these organizations may be just a effective, if not even more so than most national law agencies.