My boyfriends company sent out a letter they are closing the business in two days and will not be paying severance

Hello everyone

So my boyfriend got some quite distressing news today. He works for a smaller IT company, today they sent out a letter to all employees saying that they will be closing the business in two days from now, and that everyone's employment would end then as well. In a meeting the higher ups held someone asked about severance pay. This meeting was being held virtually and I was listening in from the other room. The CFO said that the company can't pay severance to the employees, and that the company is not going to file for bankruptcy because that would cost money they don't want to spend right now.

I am a graduate student in academia and so the corporate world is quite foreign to me but something just seems really fishy to me about this situation. One of the other employees is already asking others about speaking to a lawyer. Can anyone give me any insight as to whether they can do things this way? Thanks so much!