BEDFORD COUNTY — In a newly filed declaration and legal response, the leadership of Uncle Nearest, Inc. is pushing back hard against the emergency motion that seeks to appoint a receiver to take control of the company’s operations.
In that suit, Farm Credit alleged, among other things that Uncle Nearest et all overstated the company’s whiskey barrel inventory and failed to make principal and interest payments multiple times. The original suit also characterized the purchase of an over $2 million home of Martha’s Vineyard as as both deceptive and a misuse of company funds.
Former CFO responsible for whiskey barrel reporting, Weavers say
Two new documents obtained by The Times on Sunday, and filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee on Saturday, assert that a now-terminated Chief Financial Officer Michael Senzaki acted alone in significantly overstating the company’s whiskey barrel inventory – an act that allegedly secured a $24 million credit increase from Farm Credit Mid-America, the plaintiff in the civil lawsuit. The filings describe the move as fraudulent and emphasize that neither CEO Fawn Weaver nor other executives had knowledge of the inflated numbers.
In the declaration, Fawn Weaver states under oath that the former CFO was the sole point of contact responsible for inventory reporting and for signing off on all funding requests tied to those barrels. She says the discrepancy only came to light when updated and verifiable inventory reports were submitted in early 2024 – months before Farm Credit filed suit. Uncle Nearest has since launched an internal investigation and is reportedly weighing legal action against the former CFO…