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Editor’s note: Lawyers representing former First Brands CEO Patrick James issued a response to the allegations.
Auto parts supplier First Brands will retain 345 employees previously slated for layoffs at its TMD Tiffin facility in Ohio. The company announced in February that it would close the site and cut 407 workers on April 30. It now plans to keep 345 of them through May 31, with the remaining employees losing their jobs as scheduled.
The February WARN notice listed impacted employees, which included press operators, production handlers, engineers, maintenance workers and quality control staff.
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First Brands said the postponement stems from ongoing attempts to sell certain U.S. facilities. These efforts followed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September 2025, when the company reported more than $10 billion in debt. In January, it launched a process to sell all or parts of the business, including brands such as Autolite spark plugs, Anco windshield wiper blades and FRAM filters.
The company’s struggles began last October when its CEO and founder Patrick James resigned amid an accounting scandal that left lenders scrambling to find over $2 billion in missing funds. Federal prosecutors indicted James in January—along with his brother Edward, a senior executive at First Brands—accusing the siblings of perpetrating a yearslong, multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
A recent Wall Street Journal report said an examiner alleged First Brands maintained two sets of books and that James built the company into a network of more than 25 auto parts brands to generate and extract liquidity. The report alleged James used inflated acquisitions to divert more than $700 million to himself or entities he controlled.
A James spokesperson directed IEN to excerpts from his lawyers’ response to the allegations, which argued that the examiner’s report did not identify any documents showing James engaged in wrongful conduct.
The lawyers added:
“The report’s description of $700 million of transfers to Patrick James and the related entities is one-sided. The examiner neglects to mention that the transfers were not concealed and that they appeared in the company’s ledger. The report also declines to address Patrick James’ arguments that the transfers should be considered in the aggregate, and, that over the same period, Patrick James and the related entities transferred no less than approximately $600 million back into First Brands and other accounts to which First Brands had access, including approximately $400 million in 2024 and 2025.”
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