METHUEN — The couple whose home and strip club were raided by the Internal Revenue Service have not been criminally charged and they don't know what sparked the investigation, their lawyer said yesterday.

Agents from the IRS' criminal investigation division on Thursday searched the Kimball Road home of Kevin and Debra Moury, as well as their business — Kittens Gentlemen's Club on Route 1 in Salisbury. They left the home with eight cardboard boxes.

The couple was "very much" surprised and "they've always conducted a clean business," their attorney, Arthur Broadhurst of Andover, said during an interview.

"They're good people. They run a business that operates under the rules and regulations of the laws and they haven't violated any of those," Broadhurst said.

Agents left with "information that they seized as part of an investigation," Broadhurst said. "I don't think anything will come of it," he said.

The IRS remains tight-lipped.

"We were out there on our official duties," said IRS Special Agent Jessica Crocker yesterday, reiterating the statement she made the day before.

The IRS had a search warrant from federal court, Broadhurst said."You have to have some probable cause and an affidavit (to obtain a search warrant), and that information obviously we aren't privy to yet," he said. "We will get that information."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said she could not comment about search warrant applications and affidavits. "The information is not public," the spokeswoman, Brandy Donini-Melanson, wrote in an e-mail.

Broadhurst said he does not know the substance of the allegation that prompted the searches.

"Could be a lie. Who knows? We'll find out," he said. "They haven't been charged with any crimes, so we're not entitled to anything yet. At some point, if they're charged, then we'll be entitled to it or when the investigation is over, we'll be entitled to it then."

Broadhurst and fellow Andover attorney Neil Faigel represent the Mourys.

Moury is Methuen's parks and recreation superintendent and has worked for the city for at least 15 years. He was a Methuen city councilor for two terms until 1992.

The Mourys bought the former Lion's Den strip club on Route 1 in Salisbury in 2003 for $1.33 million and renamed it Kittens.

The IRS' criminal investigation division looks into potential violations of tax law, Bank Secrecy Act violations and money laundering allegations, according to the IRS Web site.