These kinds of cases are very difficult to make, and very difficult to prosecute.
One of the biggest issues seems to be over WHO has jurisdiction to prosecute? Is it the jurisdiction where the victim resides? or the jurisdiction where the fraud was perpetrated? Most commonly, the crime occured where the victim resides ... but, this is not always such an easy determination. And the feds will almost never get involved in something like this.
Then, you have to add in the difficulty of conducting an investigation involving an incident that originated 1,500 miles and several states away. It's often hard enough to investigate an offense in the next county within the same state ... but several states away? I can tell you that it can be a very difficult obstacle.
Ultimately, this may come down to your willingness to pursue a civil action and not a criminal action. If you obtained a product and it was not what you ordered, you DO have a cause of action. Depending on the acts and the photos, claims, etc., you MIGHT have a cause for a criminal charge of fraud - IF you can get your local county to prosecute ... and that is doubtful.
Yes, it IS frustrating. And yes, it does appear you were ripped off (I finally got the PDF to download). But this is a HUGE grey area of the law and unless intentional fraud can be proven (and proof as a legal requirement is much more than common sense or saying, "Look at the whole picture!"), then it will likely be written off by law enforcement as a civil matter.
To be honest, if this occurred in my jurisdiction, we would be at a loss ... I know that our local DA would never touch it, and even though all the circumstancial evidence and suspicious acts you have collected to this point point to something rotten, it might not spell out enough to compel an out of state agency to pursue it (at great expense).
Unless you can get some action through the AZ Attorney General's office for fraudulent business practices or something, you may be out of luck on the criminal side. But I think you might havea strong civil case. The problem being, does he have any assets you can seize? And do you have the funds to pursue a civil claim without a guarantee of collecting in the end?
Good luck. It's a mess ... and just one reason of many that I never use E-Bay.
- Carl