It is absurd to suggest that a reasonable person could accept that it was anything other than a scam.
I agree, and yet that's what happens. Such is the absurdity of Ponzi schemes and the way they turn large numbers of otherwise intelligent people into irrational morons.
If a PPT operator didn't know, then they should have know and are negligent. This standard applies once you take an active role, as they did. Those who solicit money, fabricate credit ratings, promote or shill for the scam bear a greater share of culpability. A free pass would be a mockery of justice, if that matters at all.
Why wouldn't this apply equally to everyone who deposited money with Pirate? If we can assume that every reasonable person must have known it was a scam, then everyone who deposited money with Pirate was paying Pirate to steal money from others and give it to them.
Ponzi schemes make people irrational. Scammers know how to exploit that. I want people to learn a lesson rather than punishing them for being human.