First Brands CEO Patrick James resigns from collapsed auto-parts giant - report

[Waste spare parts from a car repair shop.]
TAMER YILMAZ

Patrick James, the elusive CEO of collapsed auto-parts maker First Brands Group, has resigned from the company, according to a media report on Monday.

Charles Moore will be replacing James as interim CEO, Bloomberg reported, citing a company statement. Moore was named chief restructuring officer as First Brands declared bankruptcy last month.

“Our immediate priority is to ensure stability and dependability for our employees, customers, and partners,” Moore said [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-13/first-brands-founder-patrick-james-resigns-as-ceo?srnd=homepage-americas] in the statement, Bloomberg reported. “We remain laser-focused on operational execution while we take the necessary steps to conduct an investigation into the past use of various financing instruments and facilitate a sale process designed to deliver the best possible outcome for our stakeholders.”

It still remains unclear what exactly went wrong [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4503159-red-flags-at-first-brands-ignored-by-creditors] with First Brands, as many of its finances were murky. It was reported that one of the company's largest creditors to First Brands alleged as much as $2.3B [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4503116-justice-department-launches-inquiry-into-first-brands-bankruptcy#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews] "simply vanished" amid the company's implosion.

First Brands CEO Patrick James formed the company by buying local manufacturing firms through a web of holding firms. But, in 2011, a Fortress Investment Group unit filed a lawsuit, alleging he hid his control and ran undercapitalized, overlapped entities. James settled that case and an earlier fraud suit. Even so, his company, then Crowne Group, managed to raise $380M in 2014, as Wall Street continued to back him. From there, it rebranded to First Brands in 2020, and borrowed over $1B for more acquisitions, pushing its long-term debt to about $6B in subsequent years.

The failure of First Brands left a number of investment firms and lenders holding the bag, including Jefferies Financial Group (JEF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/JEF]), Western Alliance Bacorporation (WAL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/WAL]) and UBS Group (UBS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UBS]).

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