NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Fawn Weaver speaks at Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 on September 11, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images) By Andrea Bossi ·Updated March 2, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Uncle Nearest officially entered the eighth month of a fiery legal battle with its lender, and things are only escalating in court.

A motion filed Feb. 25 showed that the Black-owned whiskey brand — which ESSENCE previously reported is financially insolvent and owes millions of dollars to external parties — may soon undergo asset liquidation. The next day, the court-appointed receiver filed a bombshell update that showed Uncle Nearest, Inc. founders Fawn and Keith Weaver may have tried to obscure $20 million from lenders in a linked entity.

In the Feb. 26 filing, receiver Phillip G. Young Jr. pointed to the Weaver-owned Grant Sidney company, saying it was actually used in an attempt to hide assets from Farm Credit, including $20 million in loans, arranged by Fawn Weaver. He flagged nearly 500 money transfers between Uncle Nearest and various company accounts, which indicates a “substantial commingling of funds,” per the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Even though the U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. ordered the Weavers to turn over all bank records, Young said that they, in fact, had not. Two new bank accounts surfaced instead.

In briefs filed the next day, the Weavers shot back saying that their company is solvent and that the receiver “has yet to find evidence constituting fraud by current management.” Fawn Weaver also added a section to her website, titled “Follow the Case,” with links to court updates and documents.

This case began late July 2025, when the Black-owned whiskey company’s main creditor, Farm Credit Mid-America, filed a lawsuit against Uncle Nearest Inc. and its founders. Farm Credit claimed it was owed $108 million and alleged the spirits company had been in default on its loans since as early as January 2024. Uncle Nearest was placed under court-ordered receivership in August 2025. 

Though the Weavers have been advocating for the court to drop the receivership so that they can take back the reins of their company, Young has only continued uncovering revelations. To start, he claimed the company was worth closer to $100 million, a fraction of the billion-dollar valuation it touted years before. Young also found the whiskey brand’s records before 2024 were deleted, that it struggled to make payroll, and that it hadn’t filed federal tax returns since 2018, per The New York Times. He also claimed the company was losing roughly $1 million per month.

Fawn Weaver has called the suit “attempted robbery in broad daylight” in a mid-February video.

After Farm Credit brought its case against Uncle Nearest, the whiskey brand sued its ex-CFO Michael Senzaki in January 2026, alleging fraud. The Weavers accused him of “abusing his position of trust to divert funds, conceal liabilities, and improperly transfer or encumber Weaver’s personal equity interests without her knowledge or consent,” per The Lynchburg Times.

“The need for the receivership has been shown to be even greater,” Farm Credit said in a recent brief. “The evidence clearly demonstrates that Fawn Weaver and the prior management team have an egregious inability to effectively manage Uncle Nearest and navigate it out of its distressed situation.”

The judge is expected to make a decision on the receivership this month.

The post Uncle Nearest Founders Accused Of Trying To Hide $20 Million In New Court Filing appeared first on Essence.

Author: Kimberly Wilson

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