Hint: Pirates don't play by the rules.
I know only what I've seen and read. I imagine there are two ways to look at it but one way would be to assume that if "Bank" ships are shared between players and one of those players decided to give things away for free then I can't see there is much can be done. Nothing was stolen, it was "abandoned".
For what it's worth, my advice, humble as it may be would be to pay up and accept there needs to be a review of procedures.
Good insight.
If the accounts were shared between EIC players and The Code was able to get a hold of one through guile that's one thing. I don't think I've an issue with that!
If they're not, like how I only have my one account and have sole control over it, that's another.