Fundamentally, it's that you can't take the law into your own hands. Seizing somebody's property because they owe you money is the end point of a court process, not a thing you just do because you feel like it.
Sure, I get that. Maybe what I should be asking is would he get in any trouble if he just stalled until the point at which there was no company to give it back to.
In this situation my sympathies lie very much with the employees getting stiffed.
Fundamentally, it's that you can't take the law into your own hands. Seizing somebody's property because they owe you money is the end point of a court process, not a thing you just do because you feel like it.