August 12, 2026, by Eyoel Lundberg

First Brands. Five findings, and the paper to get.

The book, rebuilt from the bankruptcy filings, read the way Burry reads every book: schedule against bank statement, row by row.

[Caption: the dollar image][Credit]

This is the report Burry sends on every book, every cycle. None of these findings is a verdict. Each names what doesn't add up, the rows behind it, and the one document that settles it.

What was read

BookFirst Brands, rebuilt from the Chapter 11 filings
Window23 months, January 2024 to November 2025
Schedule419 rows, $80,322,589.79, two facilities, five debtors
EvidenceThe borrowing-base schedules; the operating account's bank statement
FindingsFive, all flagged, none proven

Findings

  1. The schedule claims more than the bank saw — Advance Auto Parts, $6,562,156.23 unexplained.
    The schedule claims $26,421,110.54 across 85 rows. The bank saw $19,858,954.31 arrive.
    Behind it: 85 rows, 79 collections.
    Get: The invoices behind these rows, and the debtor's own confirmation.
  2. The same invoice counted twice — 44 rows, 31 payments.
    Same debtor, same cents, two invoice numbers, one payment. One dollar cannot secure two claims.
    Behind it: 44 rows across both facilities, 31 collections.
    Get: Debtor confirmations.
  3. Money to an entity no paper knows — $810,000.00.
    Not a held statement, not on the disclosed list — yet twelve transfers move $810,000.00 through it, January 2024 to November 2025.
    Behind it: 12 transfers out of the operating account.
    Get: The paper, and the authorization behind it.
  4. A round trip through the dark — $70,000.00 out, $69,300.09 home.
    Out of the operating account to that entity on 24 May 2024; home from a debtor 17 days later. No paper knows one end.
    Behind it: 2 flows.
    Get: The paper behind both legs.
  5. A second round trip — $70,000.00 out, $69,300.39 home.
    Same shape, eight months on: out on 24 January 2025, home 12 days later.
    Behind it: 2 flows.
    Get: The same.

What this read can't see

A fabrication small enough to hide inside the noise every honest book already has — a couple of percent of one debtor's schedule — does not show on bank data alone. Three such rows were planted in this book. They passed. The paper that would catch them is the credit memos, row by row, and that is the next thing to ask for.

About this report

It's a replay, not a catch. The book was rebuilt from the public record — the five debtors, the spreadsheet-only financing, the double pledging, the founder transfers, the self-collection — and the fraud the examiner found was planted in it. The mechanics are the record's; the row-level dollars are stand-ins at about a thousandth of scale, and the founder's vehicle goes unnamed. Burry got the schedules and the bank statement, nothing else. Every finding above is what it sent back.

The record: the court-appointed examiner's report (Martin De Luca / Boies Schiller) and the Chapter 11 docket, S.D. Tex., case 25-90399, both on the claims agent's site; Jefferies' 8-K letter of October 12, 2025 (SEC EDGAR); Raistone's Chapter 7 filing. About $2.3 billion couldn't be located. The factors, per the examiner, "did not independently receive or review" the invoices.

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