Of course the employees went there to make money, that's obvious to all but I'm positive the owners didn't have them there to loose money.
As for the owners loosing more than the employees, if they are silly enough to have their personal assets unprotected they really should think twice about running a business.
The reason this irks me with the employees being left in the dark, just imagine if you had been saving for a house deposit for the last 10 years and yesterday you put that deposit down on a new house that you now have no way of paying and loose the lot.
27 years ago I was working for a small building company and I was going to buy a new/used car. The car was bought to my work for me to look at. My boss asked me if I was going to buy it, told him I was going after work to sign the finance papers, he said there's no need to rush into it and take a couple days to think about it. After work he asks me again about the car and I told him I'm on my way to sign for it. He then says he can get in a lot of trouble for what he's about to tell me but the administrators will be here in the morning. He saved me from an $18k contract that I wouldnt be able to service. That's how you treat employees.