Uncle Nearest Founders Share New Claims As Receiver Shows Interest In Sale, Adding Shareholders Will Receive ‘Significantly Less Value’ – AfroTech
Uncle Nearest is reportedly attracting buyer interest.
As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Uncle Nearest whiskey brand, founded by Fawn Weaver and her husband, Keith, has been opposing a court order that placed them under receivership in August 2025. This decision stemmed from claims by lender Farm Credit Mid-America that Uncle Nearest defaulted on more than $108 million in loans.
In August, Tennessee attorney Phillip G. Young Jr. was named receiver by U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr., so he now oversees Uncle Nearest’s assets, including its distillery in Shelbyville, TN, as well as “real estate holdings, intellectual property, affiliated ventures, and related entities,” according to Moore County Observer.
The Weavers had placed fault with Uncle Nearest’s former chief financial officer, Mike Senzaki. They claimed he inflated the company’s whiskey barrel inventory, which resulted in a $24 million credit increase from Farm Credit, according to a separate article from AFROTECH™.
However, the pair is now pushing back with new claims. In the latest update from the Lexington Herald Leader, the Weavers filed an emergency motion on Nov. 24. seeking to prevent the receiver from taking further actions related to their business. In addition to disputing the amount owed for the Farm Credit loans and wishing to re-litigate the receivership, the couple claims “there has not even been an adjudication as to whether the Farm Credit debt, that is the basis of the proceeding before this court, is validly owed and or is reduced in whole or in part due.”
This claim comes in the midst of the company’s receiver “moving toward a potential permanent disposition of the defendant’s assets.” Young Jr. is working with investment banker Arlington Capital Advisors and is exploring either to refinance Farm Credit’s loans or market “substantially all assets of the debtors.” This could potentially encompass the Tennessee distillery.
The Weavers share that they felt “blindsided” by the creditor’s move to place the business in a receivership. They also said that selling the distillery and whiskey barrels available now “when the spirit industry overall is in a lull will undoubtedly result in a price that does not accurately reflect the full market value of the company.”
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Uncle Nearest — named for Nathan “Nearest” Green, the formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel the craft of whiskey-making — surpassed a $1 billion valuation in 2024.
The Weavers also say that “valid claims” of Farm Credit will be honored but “a sale in the receivership will undoubtedly result in the shareholders of Uncle Nearest receiving significantly less value.”
Already the Weavers allege that several of its spirits competitors are in talks with Arlington Capital Advisors attempting to gain access to the brand’s “trade secrets,” among other information not disclosed to the public.
With a deadline for responses to the emergency motion set for Dec. 2, the Weavers’ await a decision in hopes of filing counterclaims against Kentucky-based Farm Credit, per the Lexington Herald Leader.
