The computer is not his, it is the company's property, or likely more correctly the creditor's. It shouldn't have family photos and other personal information on it. If he wants to play dumb and say no one said where to send it, that is his choice, but it is still theft. You don't get to unilaterally seize property in a bankruptcy, you have to file with the court and the assets will be divided.
If the money owed is salary for hourly wages, that would be most likely paid first and in most localities if not completely paid he can sue executives personally for the balance.
He should remove the personal data from the computer and contact the court for where to take the computer. He can include a statement that he will accept the computer as partial payment, assigning a fair market value to it. Judges like reasonable people and honest people. Removing any assets or diminishing those assets (removing company data or making unauthorized personal copies) is a bad idea.
If the money owed was salary, that puts him second in line, but still ahead of most others. If the money owed was anything else, then the terms of the agreement may have some strength, but overall he is part of the pack of creditors and most will lose money on the deal.
Hope this helps, but with limited information, I did my best.
I concur.
Kingu has it correct.
It sounds like this poor guy was burned by a shutdown. Until he is paid in full for back wages, he can and should hold on to any and every “company” asset he controls. ALL his personal information and data should be removed from the “company” computers and they should be set aside, though.
These are his ONLY tools to force compensation for his work.
Dude is gonna get screwed, but at least he will likely keep his data. For whatever that’s worth.
Learning here. Who is first in line?