First Brands Group founder Patrick James ordered members of the finance department to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars of corporate cash to his personal bank account, a family trust and various businesses he controlled, the company’s new chief executive said during testimony in federal court Monday.
Charles Moore also testified that within weeks of arriving at First Brands, he uncovered evidence of massive financial fraud at the auto-parts company, from fake invoices to using the same assets to win loans from different lenders, a process known as double pledging collateral.
Moore told US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, who ...