by Jeroslyn JoVonn
October 24, 2025
Weaver addressed the ongoing receivership battle at the ‘Inc. 5000 Conference’ on Oct. 24.
Uncle Nearest founder and CEO Fawn Weaver is denouncing what she calls a “smear campaign” in her company’s ongoing receivership case.
Weaver addressed the ongoing receivership battle during a fireside chat titled “Reclaiming Your Company in Turbulent Times” at the “Inc. 5000 Conference” on Oct. 24, discussing the company’s reported default on $108 million in loans to Kentucky lender Farm Credit.
“Martha’s Vineyard was a smear campaign tactic,” Weaver said, as captured by Inc. “Their hope was that the judge would see it, would accept the smear, and would turn over keys of my company to them.”
Earlier this month, receiver Phillip Young asked a judge to rule on whether additional assets tied to the Uncle Nearest distillery—including the whiskey, a restaurant and entertainment venue in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and a Martha’s Vineyard property purchased by the Weavers in 2023—should be included in the receivership.
On Oct. 21, Weaver, who founded the company with her husband, Keith, filed a response opposing the receiver’s request to bring 10 additional businesses under court control. The receiver had sought “clarification” on whether to include these entities, citing the apparent intermingling of finances with the distillery placed in receivership in September.
In their filing, the Weavers argued that the entities are separate from the distillery and not responsible for its debts, warning that placing them under the receiver’s control would strip them and others of their financial interests. The motion also claims that Uncle Nearest is not insolvent and has enough assets to cover the defaulted loans without involving other businesses.
“If you can get the judge to believe that we misappropriated funds to buy a property, a vacation home—let’s be clear, I’m from California, what I’m not going to do is buy a vacation home that’s not on the water in a town that is not sunny nine months out of the year,” Weaver said at the conference.
Weaver’s latest filing follows an August motion asserting that Farm Credit’s receivership request “ignores critical context” and that the lender failed to take proper legal steps to secure its claim on the property as collateral in the event of a loan default, a point Weaver reiterated during the conference.
“They didn’t have security over any of our collateral. And the question becomes, why not? Why did you not ask to perfect seven of our eight pieces of real estate? Martha’s Vineyard is just one of them,” Weaver said.
Nearest Green Distillery and Uncle Nearest whiskey were placed under a receiver’s control last month. Celebrated as the second-best-selling Tennessee whiskey in the United States after Jack Daniel’s, the brand has earned numerous awards and sustained sales growth despite a post-pandemic downturn in alcohol consumption.
But the distillery is among several facing financial challenges as Americans drink less and exports decline amid trade tensions from President Donald Trump’s tariff war. Despite the receivership, Weaver remains committed to the company she founded, viewing the struggles as part of the risks inherent in entrepreneurship.
“Every entrepreneur is going to have a moment in time where it looks like all is lost,” Weaver said. “The only difference between those who have been the most successful entrepreneurs in American history and those who have failed are those who gave up in the in between.”
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