WARN applies to companies with 100 or more full time employees, so they could potentially be just shy of the number. There are also some exceptions that could apply. I worked at a place that from the layman’s reading you would think had an exception, they were sued in a class action and ended up having to pay some (although a tiny amount to most of us). It seems like the exceptions might be a pretty high standard to meet.
If the money is held in escrow, then it can't (shouldn't?) be used for anything else. If the owner cannot afford to pay it back, then it sounds like it wasn't really being held in escrow - it was being mingled with other funds.