[masukomi]

I wouldn't bother seeking legal means to recover your money. The problem with that strategy is that it only works if there is a company remaining with money to pay you. They will go out of business. the company will have no money. In the best case scenario you pay legal fees to sue them, you win, the judge says they have to pay you, and they have no money to pay you so... you just loose more money.

Don't bother. The money is never coming. Move on to something else quickly.

[toast0]

I wouldn't bother with filing a law suit, but it may be worthwhile contacting the appropriate government agency; in California, you can file a claim online [1]. It likely won't be quick, and they might not be able to get any money out of a stone, but it shouldn't cost you any money, and it shouldn't take a lot of your time.

Wage theft is also a crime, and you can go through the police and district attorney to pursue that, if you can get them interested.

It's possible that the wages may be recoverable from the individuals even if the corporation is bankrupt, although how much time and effort you want to invest in that, I dunno. Would depend on the amount owed, I would think; I've not been in the situation, but I'd like to think I would stop working at a place where a paycheck bounced or went missing until that was resolved; with maybe some amount of flexibility for a paycheck a couple days late, or a really convincing explanation about why what happened happened, and how it was going to be resolved. Anyway, I don't think I'd be willing to make a big fuss about one or two paychecks, but I'd certainly file a report.

[1] https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm