In the months leading up to the final closure of McHenry’s Brake Parts Inc., employees said they were told their jobs were safe.

“They told us, point blank, they would not lay us off and would not be shutting the doors,” even after the parent company, First Brands Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, said Thomas Croissant of Fox Lake.

The company, in a 267,000-square-foot building on McHenry’s south side, had gone through bankruptcy before, employees said they were aware.

“They explained this has happened three times in the past, and each time they found a company to buy them out, and the company was restructured and no one lost their jobs,” Matt Loiacano said.

Instead, he and Croissant are among 389 employees at the McHenry brake supplier who found out Tuesday that their jobs were either gone or were about to be.

Croissant’s job involved packing brake parts onto pallets and getting them ready for shipping across the county.

“It was very stressful, mentally and physically,” Croissant said. “They just put us under so much pressure to get out the orders in a certain amount of time.”

Robert Lemker says he believes that stress led to him getting seizures. He started as a temporary employee at Brake Parts beginning in 2008, going full-time in February 2010.

Working first shift, Monday through Friday, the Richmond man had multiple roles over the years, he said, “including order picking, receiving dock work, processing returns and UPS shipments and fulfilling customer orders.”

Like Croissant, he said workers had no warning the company, incorporated in 1988, would be closing its doors this week.

“Management did not inform employees about the bankruptcy at all. During weekly pre-shift meetings, when employees asked questions, team leaders and work leaders would avoid answering and instead direct employees to ... the plant manager. Those questions were never addressed,” Lemker said.

He said he recently went on short-term disability after having a seizure in January.

“I began experiencing seizures due to severe stress and anxiety related to work ... because I was extremely anxious and stressed about returning. While the job paid the bills, it was not an environment I felt safe or comfortable returning to,” Lemker said.

Over the past several days, he’s been messaging every email he could find to determine next steps with his short-term disability status – or if he still even has it.

Neither did Lemker get two emails that went out last week to other employees on Jan. 26 and Jan. 29, which were shared with Shaw Local informing staff they would be furloughed from Jan. 26 through Feb. 8.

Lemker said he saw changes in the work starting in 2025.

“Throughout my entire time ... overtime was consistently available from March through October each year. In 2025, however, it was the first year I did not receive any overtime at all, which was unusual compared to previous years,” he said.

Then, on Tuesday, the company sent WARN Act notices – a reference to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act – telling workers the company was permanently closed “and further expects your termination to be effective on February 3, 2026.”

According to that letter, the company had been seeking additional financing to avoid the shutdown.

The letter also mentions “a number of additional unforeseeable business circumstances,” including “confirmation from major customers that they are withholding payments and unwilling to support the company, drastically impacting the company’s financial situation.”

The letter did not mention that parent company First Brand Group’s founder and former CEO, Patrick James, and his brother, former senior executive Edward James, were indicted on multiple fraud charges last week, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.

Instead, Loiacano said, “They specifically brought up the owners being charged federally and told us it’s all just rumors.”

Attempts to reach a spokesperson from the parent company or local Brake Parts management representatives were not successful.

Both James brothers have pleaded not guilty to the charges – some of which include penalties of life in prison if found guilty – and were released on bail, according to published reports.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Southern District of New York, the parent company was being run as a “Ponzi scheme.”

“New loan proceeds were used to pay back old lenders and to fund their extravagant lifestyle,” Executive Special Agent in Charge of the IRS-CI Washington, D.C. Field Office Kareem Carter said in the release.

After Brake Parts employees received their termination notices, the online timekeeping portal and app were no longer showing anything for them, such as hours worked, sick time or vacation time accrual, Croissant said.

His last paycheck did come Friday, via direct deposit, Croissant said.