> My friend is a paid customer of Google Apps. In part of the process he called called Google Apps, and they immediately disabled his Apps account but -- but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything else including helping him escalate to the right people

I would be calling sales and support until I got someone who could do something. I would call any number related to Google - including for services not even related to gmail.

> Meanwhile the scammer is making threats to his family and pretending to be him send out emergency BTC loan requests and resetting bank passwords.

But if his account is disabled how is the scammer sending out emails?

> He could be SWAT'd at any moment.

That is very unlikely and if it did it would have to churn through the legal system first.

> a trivial 5 minute look at the account and seeing the ransom artist texting him

That is a sticky situation - many would argue that Google shouldn't read another user's email. And that's probably why support is an issue.