You're the one who dances around questions going off on tangents, telling stories and trying to point somewhere else avoiding real answers. It doesn't matter what the PR MD did or didn't do. It's no different than a corporation: the CEO is accountable for the actions of his subordinates and the effect that has on the overall success of the organization and of the individual divisions. If the PR MD was not trying to do the things you list, then the higher-ups (who as you keep pointing out know the system after dealing with it for years) should have asked why that was and should have corrected it. If he didn't know he could to do it, they should have told him. If he didn't know how to do it, they should have helped him. If he didn't want to do it, they should have replaced him. They are responsible for ALL of the members. If something is not working for one discipline, it's ultimately on them. Period! Trying to shift that blame down to a completely new person who hasn't been there for all those years, and doesn't know how things work (the things you so proudly brag about knowing, that take years to learn) IS scapegoating.
Even if they didn't know the ranges where all going to be closed (which is a stretch), they didn't do a thing to try and mitigate the impact on those members. Now they know the ranges were closed and some members got jack squat. The proper, honest thing to do is refund them.