LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Fayette County grand jury has indicted Darin Dillow of Scott County on one count of theft by deception after he allegedly used a neighbor's farm equipment and cattle as collateral to get a $100,000 loan.
Dillow operates Limestone Farms Distillery, now called LF Heritage Distilling Co., in Scott County. Earlier this week, a Scott County judge ordered the foreclosure and sale of the business.
According to the indictment, Dillow obtained money from a financial institution in August 2024 by intentionally creating or reinforcing a false impression that he owned a certain property offered as collateral for a loan, when in fact he did not own that property.
Scott County farmer William McIntosh said the farm belongs to his family. It's located at the corner of Soards Road and Frankfort Road, right next door to Dillow's property.
"I could not believe that this would actually happen to us. It's something like out of a movie, but just the betrayal of this person. I mean, it's, again, it's someone we've ate with, we've been on vacation together. We've, we've been friends for over 10 years," McIntosh said.
"I mean, it's just terrible. That's a relationship... that's more than done," McIntosh added.
McIntosh told LEX 18 he and his family only found out about the alleged theft after Dillow defaulted on the loan and the property was about to be seized.
"They were filling out the paperwork when he called me. They were actually filling out the paperwork," he said.
McIntosh said the alleged betrayal is bad enough, but his own father and uncle happened to be at their farm the day a loan officer met Dillow next door.
"He said those were his employees, seasonal employees, according to what he had told the loan officer, and according to the pictures my dad's truck and my uncle's truck were there. They've never worked a second for that man," McIntosh said.
Dillow is scheduled to appear in Fayette Circuit Court on April 24th.
LEX 18 was unable to reach Dillow for comment. An indictment is only a formal written accusation, issued by a grand jury in the court system, which charges an individual with a crime and signals that there is enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial.
See LEX 18's previous coverage below:
