Brake Parts Inc. has permanently closed its McHenry operations, and 389 employees there will be or have already been laid off, according to documents filed with the state.

The company filed its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity on Tuesday.

The company has three locations in McHenry: 4400 Prime Parkway, 1100 Corporate Drive and 1380 Corporate Drive.

A total of 332 employees were laid off this week, according to the company’s filing. Another 57 employees “will be retained past that date to assist with matters related to the closure,” the filing said, but they’re expected to lose their jobs eventually.

The parent company, First Brands, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, following “several months ... actively seeking additional financing that it reasonably believed could be obtained and would have been sufficient to avoid or postpone this shutdown,” according to the firm’s state filing.

Last week, two former executives of First Brands were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. The allegations include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of wire fraud and bank fraud, according to the Jan. 29 release.

“As alleged in the indictment, [First Brands founder and former CEO] Patrick James, together with his brother, [former senior executive] Edward James, perpetrated a staggering fraud at First Brands Group,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said in a news release.

“The James brothers obtained billions for First Brands – and millions for themselves – by presenting their lenders with the impression of a successful, growing international business. The indictment and the guilty plea unsealed today describe a very different reality: a business run through fraud, fake documents, and false financials. Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue working tirelessly to uncover every aspect of this fraud and vindicate the rights of every victim," the release states.

The men were arrested in Ohio that morning, according to the release. A third man, Peter Brumberg, pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors, authorities said.

“At the time of its bankruptcy, First Brands – a company that reported approximately $5 billion in net annual sales worldwide – declared just $12 million in cash in its corporate bank accounts and over $9 billion in liabilities. As a consequence of the defendants’ fraudulent schemes, First Brand’s lenders and creditors now face billions in losses," according to officials at the Justice Department.

According to news reports, the brothers both pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.

Incorporated as Brake Parts Inc. in 1988, the company at 4400 Prime Parkway was known for its aftermarket Raybestos brand brakes.

According to Northwest Herald archives, the company had 850 employees and five facilities in McHenry in 2005. The year before, New York-based Cypress Group had bought the company from Dana Corp. for $1.02 billion.

Ohio-based First Brands Group purchased the company in July 2020, for a reported $510 million.

On Jan. 26 – days before the charges against the James brothers were announced – First Brands announced it had “commenced a wind down of certain of its North American business operations, including its Brake Parts Inc.” after it was unsuccessful in securing new funding, according to a news release.

The closure is a huge loss for McHenry, said McHenry County Board member and former McHenry Mayor Pam Althoff.

Former management at the company “was very engaged in economic development on the county and local level. With the United Way, they were very, very engaged,” Althoff said, adding, “how sad, how very, very sad” to see it close.

Calls to the McHenry company’s listed phone numbers indicated the numbers were no longer working.