Potential Uncle Nearest buyers may include investor with SEC fraud judgment
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Potential Uncle Nearest buyers may include an investor tied to SEC judgment
- NexGen2780 aims to buy $108 million Farm Credit debt to speed sale process
- Solomon R.C. Ali faces 2018 SEC suit and past bar from corporate office roles
The investors considering purchasing Uncle Nearest may include a man tied to companies that have faced serious federal scrutiny.
A group called NexGen2780 told the federal judge overseeing the Uncle Nearest case that they want to buy out the $108 million debt to Kentucky lender Farm Credit. The Tennessee whiskey and bourbon brand Uncle Nearest and Nearest Green Distillery have been in receivership since last fall, and the investor group wants to speed things along.
Walter Miles, who is representing NexGen2780, said in an interview with the Herald-Leader he could not name the investors.
But he confirmed that the general manager of the group is Mark Jones, who Miles said has “put together an amazing team of people who have turned around and disrupted multiple industries.”
The original registration of NexGen2780 as a limited partnership in Georgia in June 2025 listed Jones and Miles as well as Chuck Speed, Eddie Morre and Kris Jester as general partners. An amended certificate in October dropped all but Jones and Miles.
Jones was identified in posts on Instagram as “the person behind the Uncle Nearest $108 million bid.” According to the posts, Jones was , among other things, involved in a spirits brand called Ronald Isley Liquid Gold.
Potential Uncle Nearest investor convicted of investor fraud
Another post by the same set of Instagram posters identifies “the team behind a once-in-a-generation cultural power move” of purchasing Uncle Nearest as Mark A. Jones, Walter L. Miles and Solomon R.C. Ali.
Ali is described in the post as a “legendary consultant and capital architect advising behind the scenes” and claims he “led the team behind the technology, patents, and licensing architecture that power the Ring Video Doorbell.”
Although this assertion of a link to Ring has been repeated in press releases and interviews with Ali, it’s unclear what it is based upon. Ring was invented by Jamie Siminoff and published stories about Ring’s development do not include any references to Ali.
Asked about the Instagram post, Miles would say only that Ali’s “name is trademarked and copywritten. It has a UCC1 filing in California. Any use of his name without his permission cost $500,000.”
Miles would not confirm or deny to the Herald-Leader Ali’s involvement in the bid for Uncle Nearest.
Ali could not be reached for comment for this story.
On Ali’s LinkedIn.com profile, he does not mention Ring but lists, among other things, that he is CEO-Director since 2010 of Revolutionary Concepts Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., CEO-Director of Universal Bioenergy and founder of Rainco Industries Inc. in Atlanta, Ga.
All three companies have been in hot water with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which wanted to bar Ali permanently from holding any corporate office or director’s position.
In 2018, the SEC sued Ali (also known as “Richard M. Carter)” and Ali’s then-girlfriend Nicole C. Singletary and lawyer Earnest H. “Woody” DeLong Jr., as well as associated companies Rainco Industries and Revolutionary Concepts Inc.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Ali was REVO’s senior vice president of corporate finance and investor relations at the time he made “false and misleading statements in press releases and public filings as part of a scheme to defraud investors.”
The SEC was awarded summary judgment against Ali in the U.S. District Court in Georgia, and he was barred from either serving as an office or director or from working in the “penny stock” industry for 10 years and fined him $107,500, according to court documents. Universal Bioenergy’s registration of securities was revoked by the SEC in 2018.
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 12:07 PM.
