Agusto Croppo (sp?) is legally entitled to the reward, under the law of very state in the Union.  He did everything that could be possibly expected under these circumstances to procure the return of the bitcoins.

Reward offers are legally binding (even if only verbal, and in this case they are in writing).

Apparently, Phoenix and Maui have decided to ignore the reward issue, in spite of the fact that they got exactly what they wanted as a result of their reward offer:  The work of highly skilled computer experts to track their BTC (with no guarantee of success).

Time for the sleuths to get the real names of Phoenix and Maui so he can get his reward.

And BTW, this was pretty cool.  The free market of ideas at work.  Not pretty, but it works.