A business should know approximately when it will run out of money. Ethically, they should have warned their customers that their financial situation was poor and thus they might close.
They should have done that months ago... Maybe they would have been acquired without all the drama...
Problem is, if they thought that there was any chance of making it, telling people “we might have to shut down soon” will ensure that they do shut down.
I'm not defending what they did, but doing the work even one more week was not an option afaik. At best they could have wrapped up earlier?