Kentucky distillery owner facing foreclosure charged with criminal loan deception
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- Owner indicted for theft by deception for falsely claiming collateral ownership.
- Foreclosure sale ordered to satisfy over $800,000 in liens on Soards Road property.
- Multiple liens, lawsuits highlight widespread financial strain in the whiskey industry.
A Kentucky distillery owner already facing a foreclosure sale of a property is now facing criminal charges, too.
Darin Dillow, co-owner with his wife, Beth, of LF Heritage Distilling in Georgetown, also known as Limestone Farms Distillery, was indicted March 23 by a Fayette County grand jury on one count of theft by deception, $10,000 or more. It’s a Class C felony, which carries a potential five to 10 years in prison in Kentucky.
According to the grand jury charges, “on or about the 8th day of August 2024, in Fayette County, Kentucky, (Dillow) committed the offense of Theft by Deception when he obtained money from a financial institution by deception ... by intentionally creating or reinforcing a false impression that he owned certain property offered as collateral for a loan, when in fact he did not own that property.”
Dillow is scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. April 24 in Fayette Circuit Court before Judge Thomas L. Travis.
Last week, a Scott County judge ordered foreclosure and sale on property linked to the financially troubled distillery, which is now on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. But the distillery’s website now appears to be down, and it is unclear if it is still open.
The distillery once included Kentucky football legend Tim Couch as an investment partner and released a commemorative bottle honoring Couch’s 2024 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Couch and his brother, Greg, appear to be no longer involved and are not parties to the lawsuit.
The sale order, which was also entered on March 23, sends to the master commissioner in Scott County the 26-acre property at 197 Soards Road in Georgetown that is owned by the Dillows and listed as the address of their LF Heritage Distilling Co., as well as the Dillows’ home.
The sale was ordered to satisfy more than $800,000 in liens and other debts related to the construction of a distillery, bottling plant and other facilities on that site.
LF Heritage Distilling and the Dillows are facing millions more in liens on another distillery property on Paynes Depot Road in Scott County. A motion to set a schedule in that case has been postponed after the attorney for the Dillows withdrew. They have until April 23 to obtain new counsel.
In that lawsuit, Colt Engineering Inc, doing business as Thoroughbred Engineering, has asked for that property to be sold to pay off more than $741,000 in liens owed to them. The property is owned by Dudley and Wanda Jennings, who are defendants along with Darin Dillow in that lawsuit.
Limestone Farms Distilling hired Thoroughbred Engineering to design and build a distillery and visitors center. The property was cleared, but no construction appeared to have been done as of last summer. Another company, Woodford Excavation and Transport of Versailles, also filed a lien last year against Limestone Farms for nearly $1.3 million for site development work on the Paynes Depot Road property.
Limestone Farms, which joined the Kentucky Bourbon Trail despite its financial and legal troubles, is part of an ongoing wave of litigation involving the whiskey industry: Kentucky Owl and owner Stoli are in bankruptcy. Uncle Nearest in Tennessee is in a messy receivership. Garrard County Distilling Co. is in receivership and has been recently purchased by Sazerac. Luca Mariano in Boyle County filed for bankruptcy owing at least $34.5 million and is for sale. Whiskey House in Elizabethtown was subject to a lien from Buzick Construction. And Bardstown Bourbon Co. is being sued for discrimination.
