Company won't pay salary

[fl-engineer]

What is the name of your state?I live and work in Florida and my employer has been having financial difficulties since mid May 2004. Investors in the company have stopped funding activities, so even though employees worked for several weeks, paychecks were never issued due to lack of funds. We were last paid on May 15th, and we were allowed to continue working until June 9th, when we were told the company was "suspending operations" until the funding could be procured. We were told to wait week to week after that, as the funding was "just around the corner". We were promised that the new investors wanted to keep the employees together and happy, so that all salaries would be paid to date, even though we weren't working. In the meantime, 9 weeks have now passed and we were just informed that the new investor they've been working with for several months has fallen through. Now they promise that there are other investors out there that may possibly fund the company. The remaining employees that have been loyal to the company during this time by not getting another job are now forced into finding another job quickly. In the meantime, we are all out our salaries for the last 9 weeks, and I still have travel expenses that have not been reimbursed by the company. My two questions:

1) Is there a limitation on how long a company can be financially obligated to their former employees before it is forced into a bankruptcy situation? I hope that the shareholders and CEO don't spend the next 2 years looking for money when I'm already out several thousand dollars.

2) Once a company goes into bankruptcy, is it possible that their debt to their former employees gets wiped out in court?

Any advice is appreciated...Thanks in advance.