Its not about allowing criminals or not, its about giving everybody a voice whether you are saying the right thing or not. If the attackers are banned out-rightly, it then means any scam projects will not be given right to defend itself because all critics have been banned due to the forum rules. This alone will create more problem than what it would have stopped.

The issue here is simple even if they are banned, nothing stopped them from creating another account and start the attack. Although, to be me, its a clear case of extortion and I expect the admin to do something about it though but you can just send a message to them because one account that I followed has not been tagged yet.

Also, the claims that is being spread should be addressed and you can create a new thread to be self moderated but make reference to the old thread and state the reason why because of new people coming in.