I have yet to hear from someone who has gambled their bitcoins on Bitcoinmax who is shocked at the current state of affairs.
In other words, everyone associated knew, or should have known, that it was a scam. That means the operators knew, or should have known, that they were participating in a scam.
There might have been something to be said about trying to warn new folks about the risk. No more new folks are "investing" any longer. Perhaps after one of us clams we need an advocate you can try to assign blame for us, but I think everyone knows the blame lies with himself.
You're missing the point. The point is not what happened to the money they paid Pirate, the point is what they paid Pirate to do. The fact is, they knowingly paid Pirate to transfer funds to them that they knew, or should have known, were obtained from others on the fraudulent promise (credible or not, believed or not) that they would be legitimately invested, knowing that such a transfer is in no way a legitimate investment.
(Again, I am not pointing blame at any specific people. I'm just refuting the argument that people who funnel money into Ponzi schemes are blameless for doing so because the blame instead rests with others. Also, you should pick just one of "I didn't know what I was getting into" or "Everyone knew what they were getting into". You can't argue both at the same time.)