Hi, you need to provide more information, as it seems there is a lot missing here.
You mentioned TAM which belongs to *A, could it be that he got the miles credited to a *A carrier?
When the tickets where purchased, to which FF program was the flights credited to?
Under what program or OTA where the tickets purchased?

I do not suggest opening another AA account in order to get miles credited, just stay with the old one, however make sure that the account name matches the passport name.

Typically getting credit for flights flown all it takes is just sending the record locator and flight details to AA, along with the AA # for the credit to be applied. It usually takes about 2 weeks, sometime less. I presume that you have already done the online credit miles request on AA, I suggest sending a letter to AA with the details. Something is missing on your request which is probably causing issues.

Good luck.