If the ban was received precisely for these messages, then they were written back in 2017
Should when an offence was committed matter when its consequence is being dealt out ? I think a big NO.. The fact that they were posted in 2017 doesn't change the fact the it was a stolen content/opinion. However, I doubt anyone will spend much trying to dig into user's posts as way back as 2017 to find plagiarism if his/her posts have not being found fishy(or guilty) in recent times.