It was once deemed the fasted growing whiskey brand in the country. Now, the fate of Uncle Nearest and its owners are up in the air after a lawsuit has rocked the spirits world. Now that shocking claims against the Black-owned brand have made news, a federal judge just handed down a ruling… and *spoiler alert* it’s not in favor of the Nearest brand owners.
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As we previously reported, Farm Credit Mid-America, a Kentucky-based agricultural financial company, filed a lawsuit against the Uncle Nearest in July claiming the company allegedly defaulted on loans worth over $100 million. Company owners Fawn and her husband Keith Weaver founded Uncle Nearest in 2017, but now for the first time, they won’t have control over it.
A judge granted part of Farm Credit’s legal request to hire a receiver–a third party who would take over the Nearest company– amid all the controversy, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. This marks a devastating blow to the Uncle Nearest brand. The founders responded the lawsuit calling it “salacious and inaccurate.”
What’s in the Lawsuit?
Farm Credit claimed that in exchange for the multi-million dollar loans, Uncle Nearest would put list their 77,000 barrels of whiskey as collateral. The issue, according to the lawsuit obtained by WSMV, is when Uncle Nearesy stopped making payments on their loans, and Farm Credit went to collect the whiskey barrels, they discovered the brand had fewer barrels than they promised– $21 million less to be exact.
Farm Credit accused the Nearest brand of providing them with “apparently inaccurate Borrowing Base reports” regarding the whiskey barrels. Additionally, Farm Credit alleged Uncle Nearest borrowed $2 million to invest in a property, that they instead a separate LLC from Uncle Nearest, which was beyond the lender’s reach.
The alcohol company was named after Nathan “Nearest” Green, a former enslaved Black man credited with being one of the first masters of whiskey. He reportedly was also responsible for teaching Jack Daniel– who would later have his own famous whiskey brand– the ropes.
In response to the 700-page lawsuit, the co-founder took to Instagram to address the backlash. In the video’s caption, Fawn wrote, “Dang… you’ve got to be doing something really big for people to spend their energy writing hit pieces.” She and her husband also filed an official response insisting they maintain control of the company.
They also asserted that Farm Credit was fully informed of the pause in their loan payments. They said this was advised after Uncle Nearest’s former Chief Financial Officer was fired several months earlier.
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