Do we know for sure that it was sold? I will unlock it if he will be able to prove that it wasn't hacked by going through the recovery process, however, my "hacked" radar is off the charts

All I see in the seclog is the account woke up, but I'm sure you have access to older records. If it was hacked wouldn't the password have changed also? Just an email change doesn't really mean much in my opinion.
He did say the email was changed alongside IP and posting patterns. I wasn't able to see that information from BPIP except the recently woke up warning
Well spotted! It appears that
this account has indeed changed hands as the email address was changed on July 22, 2017, alongside with posting and IP patterns. I've now locked it!
To me, I think his judgement is right. Not sure about the forum policies thou.