Uncle Nearest’s Fawn Weaver faces another gag order
The receiver for Uncle Nearest has requested a gag order against the whiskey brand’s co-founder Fawn Weaver.
If granted, it will be the second gag order placed on Weaver since the lawsuit began, with the first instated by a federal judge to ensure the case was not ‘tried in the media’.
The receiver, Phillip G Young Jr, made the request after Weaver attempted to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy despite the business being under his control.
The judge denied Weaver’s bankruptcy petition, with Young subsequently seeking financial sanctions against her for the unauthorised filings. He had originally suggested sanctions of US$25,000 for each unauthorised filing, totalling US$75,000.
In response, Weaver claimed her signing of the bankruptcy petitions “was not unlawful or frivolous and was undertaken only after review of the status of the applicable law by several sets of experienced counsel”.
Young has doubled down on his request for sanctions, now both monetary and in the form of a gag order.
He said: “In this case, there are abundant facts and findings that allow this court to infer that Ms Weaver acted knowingly, and in bad faith, by filing unauthorised bankruptcy petitions and talking about them, at length, on social media and to employees, vendors, distributors, and creditors.”
He emphasised that the court has repeatedly warned Weaver about her use of social media, despite which she has continued on multiple occasions.
Young added that her communications on social media have caused “widespread confusion”, with the receiver being contacted by “dozens” of employees, creditors, vendors, shareholders, distributors and potential asset purchasers following her posts.
One potential asset purchaser has allegedly “put on hold” their transaction due to Weaver’s posts.
Furthermore, five senior Uncle Nearest employees have contacted Young in confusion about their roles, with one employee resigning over the “whiplash”.
Young added: “This has to stop. The confusion created around the company since the autumn by Ms Weaver’s filings and her social media communications has cost this receivership countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Regarding the gag order, Young specifically requested that it enjoin Weaver and her husband and co-founder Keith, as well as Grant Sidney – an investment holding company wholly owned by Fawn Weaver – from discussing the receivership action publicly.
The Weavers have not yet responded to the motion either in court or on social media.
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