From the date of the bankruptcy, the court can go back 90 days and pull back any monies that the company paid out to suppliers, and wages paid to the principal owner, especially if they are excessive. My bet is that they are trying to run out the clock on the 90 days so he can keep the money that he received. Now, if they can determine ill intentions by the principal then they can go back as far as they can prove the ill intentions. The company didn't get into financial difficulties in the 3 or 4 months before closing down, so if he saw the handwriting on the wall, and kept bleeding off money into his accounts, then he is going to be in a world of hurt. If the IRS steps in and starts looking for irregularities in the books, it gets even worse. I wonder how many prepaid orders were in the queue for production every week? At what point were they saying 90 days, 120 days, 180 days? If the present shop was inadequate for production to get ahead of orders, then I would have put on a second or a third shift to get caught up. If they couldn't find the labor/welders to put on a 2nd or 3rd shift, what would magically change when they got into the new building?