Welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Thursday, April 9. In today's briefing, three former First Brands Group executives have asked a bankruptcy court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging their participation in a fraud scheme, arguing that corporate governing documents shield them from claims of breached fiduciary duties. And 777 Partners co-founder Josh Wander has accused prosecutors of media leaks about a pending federal investigation, alleging the disclosures derailed a planned soccer team acquisition in 2024 and triggered a broader collapse at the firm.

Three former First Brands Group executives have asked a bankruptcy court to drop the company’s lawsuit alleging their involvement in a fraud scheme, saying that founder and former Chief Executive Patrick James acted alone.

The auto-parts seller sued James in November after discovering accounting irregularities following its chapter 11 filing in September. In January, First Brands added former Chief Financial Officer Stephen Graham, former Vice President of Finance Peter Andrew Brumbergs and former Chief Strategy Officer Michael Baker as defendants, alleging they helped James secure financing through doctored invoices and double-pledged collateral.

In filings Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the executives said that First Brands lacked evidence to show they committed fraud against the company alongside James. They contended that First Brands’ governing documents eliminated fiduciary duties, effectively barring the company’s claims for breach of duty.

777 Partners' co-founder Josh Wander, who was indicted by New York federal prosecutors in October for allegedly defrauding lenders and investors of $500 million, said in court records this week that leaks to the press about the pending investigation in 2023 caused the investment firm's proposed acquisition of Everton Football Club to fail.

Wander has asked the Southern District of New York to require the prosecutors, their supervisors and relevant law-enforcement officials to submit an affidavit stating whether they were sources of the leaks, followed by a hearing.

Purdue Pharma has reached a $125 million settlement with McKinsey & Company to resolve the consulting firm’s decade-long role in advising on strategies that boosted opioid sales that contributed to the national addiction crisis.

The agreement follows months of mediation led by the Honorable Shelley C. Chapman. Under the settlement, McKinsey will pay $65 million shortly after final approval and $60 million by the first anniversary of the plan’s effective date.

McKinsey has over the years agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle criminal and civil claims for its involvement in selling opioid products including Purdue Pharma's OxyContin painkiller. 

BlackRock went on an acquisition spree in the past few years to juice its growth in private markets, Wall Street’s hottest area.

But these days, with investors’ faith in that sector shaken, it is BlackRock’s steady, if less glamorous, public-markets business that has the company on stronger footing than rivals.

Every private-asset giant has taken a hit in the markets to some degree, but BlackRock is outperforming peers. That explains why the world’s biggest investment manager recently reclaimed a title it had ceded to one-time corporate cousin Blackstone for most of the last five years: Wall Street’s most-valuable publicly traded asset manager.

Share your tips, suggestions and feedback with the WSJ Pro Bankruptcy team: Alexander Gladstone; Jodi Xu Klein; Akiko Matsuda; Alicia McElhaney; Andrew Scurria; Becky Yerak. 

Follow us on X: @gladstonea; @jodixu; @AskAkiko; @AliciaMcElhaney; @AndrewScurria; @beckyyerak.