The duo engaged in a series of schemes to defraud the company’s lenders and financing partners, according to the federal indictment. “Patrick James, together with his brother, Edward James, perpetrated a staggering fraud at First Brands Group,” Jay Clayton, the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. First Brands lenders now face “billions in losses” as a result of the alleged schemes, according to the indictment. The brothers were each charged with nine counts, including continuing financial crimes enterprise, wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. While financers believed the money would pay First Brands’ suppliers, it actually went to the company itself, the US alleges.