Awesome. More DMCA abuse. And this is why we need penalties against bad actors who knowingly file fraudulent takedown requests.
Does empireflippers know they are also the bad guys in this story?
I'm sure the transfer deal when you buy the site will include an IP provision, whereby, if you reverse the charge, or don't pay in some way, you don't own the copyright to the site and its contents. That sounds like a valid case of a DMCA complaint being made.
I remember the story of a client who got an agency to do a load of branding work. Said he didn't like it, and would be going elsewhere, having only paid the deposit - that's fine, it's part of the terms and conditions ... however, said client then went and used that exact branding.
Last I heard, a DMCA claim took the website down and he came crawling back to pay the balance at he had a regional advertising campaign about to go live.
If you're talking about the fact that they logged in to the scammers accounts, I'm not going to fault them for that. I'd do it too if I had the chance. I'm not going to sit by and let that happen to me. There's no legal recourse that can help you, the laws and enforcement agencies are too far behind. Hell, in the US we have people that don't use email dictating laws on internet regulations.