That was fast

[JABIII]

Not the time it took for me to post this. I could have smoked a brisket in the time that took...

Charleston's Sweet Grass Vodka abruptly closed. Actor Jeremy Renner and investors lost big.
By Teri Errico Griffis


Jarrod Swanger used to be an errand boy. He pulled down about $35,000 a year getting oil changes, groceries, dry cleaning — even Honey Baked Ham gift certificates — for busy hospital workers in Greensboro, N.C.

Ten years later, he found himself kicking back on a private jet with two-time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner. Together, they soared off to the luxurious Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas to promote Swanger's company, Sweet Grass Vodka. The "Avengers" actor came aboard to lend some celebrity sizzle to the product in return for a seven-figure payday.

Life was good for Swanger. He had a million-dollar home in affluent Mount Pleasant. A swank tasting room in one of Charleston's hip new nightspots. A pair of $150,000 BMW Alpina luxury cars for him and his wife. And a passel of A- and B-listers to add some star wattage to his social media feeds and business endeavors.

Hobnobbing with celebrities had been a theme for Swanger since he transitioned from running errands to hawking retractable dog leashes and dipping into the South Carolina spirits industry. Years of social media posts show him mingling with pop star Paula Abdul, “Shark Tank” entrepreneur Kevin Harrington, Nickelodeon alum Daniella Monet and NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw.

Now, that shine is fading as his business fortunes appear headed for a crash.

Jeremy Renner Jarrod Swanger
Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger toasts with his celebrity brand rep, actor Jeremy Renner, in September 2023.

Provided
Swanger, 38, faces at least four lawsuits in South Carolina from investors and others. He's accused of defaulting on more than $750,000 in loans. He reportedly owes tens of thousands of dollars to local vendors and distributors. And the S.C. Department of Labor is investigating Swanger for allegedly stiffing his employees on wages.

On May 31, Swanger hired a bankruptcy lawyer.

Padlocks now seal the doors of a darkened Sweetgrass Lounge, a choice spot in The Refinery complex on Meeting Street Road where Swanger once hosted parties, happy hours and live music. It was also where Sweet Grass Vodka, billed as locally sourced and upscale, was bottled in a backroom from watered-down liquor that was distilled elsewhere, a dozen former employees and business associates told The Post and Courier. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they fear retaliation from Swanger.

Despite confirmation from the landlord that Sweet Grass's lease had been terminated in April, Swanger told the newspaper in a May 22 email that the company is "not closing."

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“We are just thinking about leasing the lounge because it wasn’t making money and we are not a restaurant revenue concept," he stated.

In another email a week later, Swanger told a reporter to contact his lawyer with all questions. Kevin Campbell of Campbell Law Firm in Mount Pleasant said he had no comment.

But nearly 20 other people have something to say.

Building a brand
The concept for Sweet Grass Vodka is said to have been launched in 2019 from a bar stool inside The Dinghy, a tiny bar and grill on Isle of Palms. The conversation included Swanger and his wife, as well as Victor Webster, a Florence businessman with ties to the beachside community.

The brand was introduced to the market in 2020 and landed shelf space in Total Wine stores across the Southeast and in restaurants and other liquor stores in six states, including South Carolina.

“Super excited that mine and Victor Webster’s vodka will be on 200+ shelves here shortly,” Swanger posted to Facebook in February 2020. “This has been a fun project amongst two drinkers.”

A year later, InterContinental Beverage Capital and Sweet Grass announced a partnership, including a minority ownership position by the New York-brd investment company. The announcement referenced a “rapid scale-up and expansion,” with Swanger and his co-founder Brian Friedopfer, a Chicago entrepreneur labeled at one time on the Sweet Grass site as a chief operating officer. The company, according to the release, planned a “state-of-the-art craft distilling and bottling plant in Charleston’s Brewery District.”

Noticeably missing was Webster, who reportedly had no idea he was being edged out.

In September 2022, Gov. Henry McMaster and other state officials lauded Swanger and Sweet Grass Vodka, which they called a “family-owned spirits and distilling company” with a product made from “South Carolina-grown potatoes.” Plans were announced for a $1.7 million bottling operations and tasting room at 1640 Meeting Street Road in a largely industrial stretch of Charleston's upper peninsula.

The project would be the first for Sweet Grass in Charleston County and was expected to create nearly 50 jobs, according to a press release.

THIRD-Sweet Grass Vodka (copy)
Sweet Grass Vodka, which started in the Upstate, added a location at The Refinery in Charleston.

File/Sweet Grass Vodka/Provided
“We are enthusiastic about launching our second location in South Carolina in the beautiful upper peninsula of Charleston,” Swanger said at the time. “We are proud of our quality, locally sourced vodka — and this new facility will showcase Sweet Grass Vodka on a larger scale.”

McMaster poured on an equal measure of praise.

"Again and again, South Carolina has shown it is one of the best places in the world to do business,” the Republican governor said. “This announcement by Sweet Grass Vodka is further proof of our pro-business environment, and we’re excited to see what this locally grown company has in store for the future.”

Roughly 18 months later, signs of financial trouble emerged and failed credit payments began to mount, according to lawsuits.

While money challenges played out behind the scenes, an A-list actor was about to take center stage.

And get sucked into Swanger's world.

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Jeremy Renner arrives
After months of negotiations, Swanger made an announcement on Instagram in July 2023 that immediately garnered national headlines: Sweet Grass Vodka had joined forces with Jeremy Renner, star of Marvel Comics’ “Avengers” and the Paramount+ show “Mayor of Kingstown.” He would be a “full-on brand owner,” Swanger said at the time.

“I’m so grateful for the progress I’ve made since the start of this year which allowed me to move forward with my interest in Sweet Grass Vodka,” Renner posted to Instagram later that month in reference to the new business partnership and his continued recovery from a devastating New Year's Day snowplow accident. “Their mission is rooted in community and shared experience, which is why the second I tried it, I knew I wanted to become a part of it. I’m excited for new ventures ahead.”

A couple of weeks later, Renner posted more support for the company on his social media.

“Find some quality time this weekend with quality people @sweetgrassvodka #happyfriday #sharedexperiences,” he wrote on Instagram Aug. 11, 2023.

Renner arrived in Charleston two months later for his big introduction with Sweet Grass Vodka.

Swanger set up a meet-and-greet at The Refinery, selling tickets for the event. For one set price, attendees could get a bottle of vodka signed by Renner. For those willing to shell out VIP money, they could get primo parking, access to an open bar and meet the actor.

A lavish three-room party soon overtook the Nest Rooftop Bar at Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms, where Swanger put up Renner during his visit.

The California-born star stressed the importance of learning about Charleston and its people. Partygoers noted Renner was often found talking to staff and ticketholders.

"I got to come on to this when the brand was developed enough, so I needed to learn more about South Carolina,” he told ABC Channel 4. “I had to learn more about this community. This is my first time in Charleston. It's awesome.”

SECONDARY-Jeremy Renner Nevada Film Production
Jeremy Renner poses for photographers upon arrival at the UK Fan Screening of the TV series "Hawkeye" in London, on Nov. 11, 2021.

File/Vianney Le Caer/AP
From there, Swanger and Renner flew to Houston for another signing. They then spent time in Las Vegas.

In several photos, Renner sported a Sweet Grass Vodka-labeled brball cap and vest. Other shots show him and Swanger toasting their vodka and laughing like old buddies on a couch. In another, Swanger visited the Disney+ “Hawkeye” star’s Reno, Nev., home. There, the two palled around amid the pines, lounging on patio chairs; Swanger tossing up a peace sign in a selfie.

Charleston resident and businessman Bill Mahar introduced the two in 2022 amid Swanger’s search to find a celebrity brand ambassador — an asset he found endeared him to investors. Mahar had known Renner through his work as a brand designer for national companies like Ralph Lauren and Under Armour.

During negotiations, Renner broke more than 30 bones in the snowplow accident and was hospitalized. Sweet Grass investors were willing to wait for him to recover to launch their partnership, Mahar said.

“We really loved him as a person and felt he was right for the brand,” Mahar said.

Renner, who was nominated for Academy Awards for his roles in “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town,” was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and promised equity in the company to serve as a celebrity face and market the company, Mahar said. Still, he was invested personally in the company’s success — even if he didn’t put any of his own money behind it.

“He came into this in good faith,” Mahar said.

The Sweet Grass Vodka logo also changed from the original man holding a rifle to a fly-fishing rod after Renner came on board. The tweak was at his request, Mahar said.

Renner was scheduled to be paid in early 2024. The money arrived late, sending up red flags, Mahar said.

Mahar said his concerns grew when he heard Swanger was not regularly paying employees.

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Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, Swanger often paid staff through PayPal and Apple Cash, an iPhone application, instead of an accounting system, according to transactions reviewed by The Post and Courier. Some employees were owed up to five weeks in back pay, while checks for others bounced, three workers confirmed.

Investors said they were further growing restless not seeing any returns on their investments in the last two years.

Swanger then canceled a photo shoot with Renner earlier this year, Mahar said, due to budget constraints and production issues.

As of March 2022, Swanger had been promoting Sweet Grass Vodka as a company allegedly worth $26 million, with projected revenue of $40 million by 2023, according to a slide deck he shared with investors.

If the company was worth tens of millions of dollars, there shouldn’t have been money problems, Mahar thought. He watched closely as April came to see if Renner would get his next scheduled payment.

Swanger again failed to come through, Mahar said.

Renner was informed of the issues and began working to sever all ties with the company, including canceling his contract, Mahar said.

The Post and Courier tried multiple times to reach Renner, who is currently filming "Knives Out 3" in London, but his publicist did not return requests for comment. Renner has scrubbed all references to Swanger and Sweet Grass Vodka from his website.

Similar stories are popping up from other investors who told The Post and Courier they trusted Swanger but now believe they’ve been duped.

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This includes people Swanger reportedly met on Facebook, people with families who invested their children’s futures on what seemed like a solid investment. Investors include a man with cancer and another who used his company as collateral for a loan used to invest in Sweet Grass Vodka.

“What Jarrod did to people, to their livelihoods, to their businesses, it’s not just the financial aspect,” said Beth Eggleston, whose Florida company ARE Concepts was hired by Swanger to oversee sales, marketing and national compliance for his distribution. “It’s emotional, and it’s mental.”

Eggleston is one of several former business associates and investors who are trying to recover some of the reported millions sunk into Sweet Grass Vodka.

Missing millions
Some details of Swanger's life are splashed across social media. He proudly touts his luxury car purchases, flashy watch collections and what appear to be exotic getaways.

Individual investors said they have collectively handed over millions to Swanger, eager to get involved in Sweet Grass Vodka and Swanger's ideas to buy up companies and take them all public.

The Post and Courier spoke with 19 people who invested money or time into Sweet Grass Vodka or Swanger’s other ventures. Only two said they have recouped some of their investments.

“Jarrod is an illusionist,” Eggleston said. “He knows how to make you want to be in his realm (while) at the same time, keeping you far enough away so that you don’t figure out what he’s really doing.”

In hindsight, Charleston investor Dr. Brian Mahon worries he could have done more to avoid getting wrapped up with Swanger and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. But he is a physician, not a financial expert. And he was introduced by a mutual friend who trusted Swanger, so he did, too.

“Jarrod said all these great things and that he had done millions in sales and secured $10 million in investments,” Mahon recalled.

All that was required was an investment of at least $150,000.

At the urging of his financial advisor, Mahon in December began asking for financial records to assess the health of his investment.

“(Swanger) couldn’t provide me with very basic accounting paperwork,” Mahon said. “It was then that I knew things weren’t right.”

Fourth-Sweetgrass Vodka pub Riverdogs
The Sweet Grass Vodka Charleston Pub at the RiverDogs' stadium on May 24, 2024.

Jason Cato/Staff
On June 4, Swanger reached out via email as The Post and Courier continued to interview investors, former employees, business associates and others about his entrepreneurial endeavors, both past and present.

“Today we got a call from no less than three of our investors about this matter which we have already put you on notice for that our legal council (sic) that represents all of us,” he wrote. “I think we’re gonna have to take next steps in this matter.”

Keeping up appearances
Swanger and his wife, Alicia, graced the January cover of Charleston Home + Design Magazine. Inside was a 12-page spread boasting the success of their “authentic, high-quality beverage” experience along with their custom-built residence in Mount Pleasant’s Snee Farm neighborhood — complete with a swimming pool, an indoor-outdoor bar and a bevvy of sleek, modern furnishings. Other shots showed Swanger and Renner sipping the company's spirits, along with a custom figurine of Swanger signed by the actor.

Signs were still up promoting the Sweet Grass Vodka Pub at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park when the Charleston RiverDogs brball team opened its season in April. But cracks in Swanger's operation had already started to show.

In March, the state Department of Revenue sent a letter to Swanger stating that he hadn’t filed his South Carolina income taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022 and did not have liquor liability coverage. The same month, the state denied renewal of his liquor manufacturer license along with permits to sell on-premises beer, wine and liquor by the drink.

Still, Swanger opened up his lounge on April 4 to the cast of Bravo’s “Southern Charm” to film an episode. He comped their entire bill, a staff member said. He held another party later in the month, and his wife purchased the liquor wholesale from a local store, according to staff at Six Mile Wine and Spirits in Mount Pleasant.

His wife was often involved in the company's work. On Sweet Grass Vodka's website, Swanger states that he “teamed up with local South Carolina potato farmers to distill the finest craft vodka on the market true to Polish traditions” — a detail he has attributed as a salute to his wife’s Polish heritage.

He proclaimed the vodka was locally sourced from potatoes grown at the former Three Sisters Farm in Bluffton, now called Daisy Branch Farm.

Farm owner Mary Connor said she hasn’t produced potatoes for two years after continued crop failures. She also confirmed she has never sold potatoes to Swanger.

In reality, Swanger and his team bottled liquor distilled by a third party, more than a dozen sources said. The grain neutral spirit — high-proof alcohols distilled from grains like corn, wheat, barley or rye — arrived in plastic vats to be proofed down with filtered water in a backroom of the Charleston lounge. Bottles were filled, labeled and shipped out from the Meeting Street Road establishment.

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The process isn’t uncommon for craft “distillers” who don’t make their own liquor. It’s just not the story that Swanger tells.

Swanger further presented investors documentation stating that under one of his South Carolina limited liability companies, Might Be Hungover, he owned several other businesses through investors. That roster included Charleston-brd and St. Maarten-made Topper’s Rhum along with Virgil Kane bourbon; Niagara Falls Distilling; and Allen Rose Wine, which is owned by country singer Kane Brown's wife, Katelyn.

Colden King, vice president of Topper’s Rhum, said Swanger is not and never has been an owner of the company, its importer and sales office on Meeting Street.

Swanger further included in his investor pitch that Grammy-winning country musician Luke Combs was a “celebrity owner” of Sweet Grass Vodka. Eggleston confirmed he is not.

Still, Swanger could put on a show — even if reality was far different than the story he sold, Eggleston said.

In 2023, Sweet Grass Vodka barely sold 2,000 cases, said Eggleston, who has copies of the distribution paperwork for that year.

Creditor Nick Logan was one of the first to take action against Swanger, filing a claim in April under the Uniform Commercial Code as more issues came to light, records show. These claims, filed with the S.C. Secretary of State, say a lender is entitled to assets owned by the debtor as collateral for an investment.

Eggleston, appointed by Logan's lawyer, went to The Sweetgrass Lounge in mid-April, keys in hand, in hopes of seizing $2.5 million in assets under Logan’s claim. That included accounts receivable, cash, inventory and anything related to future receivables, she said.

She grabbed everything she could, namely vodka and equipment. The haul fell well short of $2.5 million.

“We removed less than $60,000 because that’s all there was,” she said.

Lessons from Lucky’s Leash days
Through his site manager job with Errand Solutions in North Carolina more than a decade ago, Swanger developed a relationship with supervisor Michael Cook. Today, Cook is the owner of Odyssey Escape Game, a company with escape rooms in Georgia and Illinois. He is also author of the "Black Earth" saga book series and the FalconClaw detective series.

Like Webster, the original co-founder of Sweet Grass Vodka, Cook is well connected.

After Swanger’s errand job ended, he circled back with Cook around 2014, asking him to invest in a new venture: Lucky’s Leash, a dog collar with a retractable leash marketed for $19.95 apiece.

Cook came on board and introduced Swanger to investors like Atlanta businessman Piyush Bhula, who over time invested money and provided personal loans totaling more than $250,000 to help the business get off the ground.

Swanger marketed his business with an animated video, hitting up Las Vegas trade shows where he met Harrington of “Shark Tank” fame and, through him, Abdul. The choreographer-singer and former "American Idol" judge was often pictured with Swanger and her chihuahua Bessie Moo, wearing a Lucky’s Leash product.

Still, Bhula said, investors never saw a return.

In 2015, Bhula said, he personally loaned Swanger $20,000. The first payment he received back was $5,000 in 2017. After hounding Swanger for more later that year, Bhula said, he received another $5,000.

“Since then, I’ve called or texted. He used to answer or text back,” Bhula said. “Now nothing.”

Bhula added that Swanger never kept clear records and constantly pushed for “more and more” money to keep the company afloat, or investors risked losing everything.

Still, the investors trusted him. They had to if they wanted to recover any money, Bhula said.

“He’s a good talker. He is a handsome kid,” Bhula said.

Swanger later sold the company without telling investors, Bhula said, and the business collapsed.

What's next?
After the leash venture, Swanger relocated back to his hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. By 2020, he picked up again and headed to the Lowcountry to start his new business.

Many investors in Sweet Grass Vodka aren’t the wealthiest of the wealthy. Many are Charleston locals with regular jobs, like Mahon's physician career, and families who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pending lawsuits filed this year against Swanger and Sweet Grass Vodka include one that claims he defaulted on the final $37,000 to repay an $84,000 loan for his bottling equipment.

Another creditor is still trying to collect $113,466.45 as part of a defaulted loan.

And the South Carolina Federal Credit Union has filed a claim that Swanger owes it $25,154.39.

The biggest lawsuit filed so far stems from investor Stephen McCord, who claims he purchased 400,000 shares of capital stock of Swanger’s company Might Be Hungover last August and loaned him $600,000 two months later.

McCord still had not seen a dime as of May 1, according to his lawsuit filed in Charleston County.

“Jarrod made a lot of promises to a lot of people, and none of them came to fruition,” Mahar said. “That was the biggest disappointment."

A possible positive outcome to the overall situation is that many of the investors, who never knew of each other prior, are banding together in light of their losses and hope to create something new together, Eggleston said.

“Our goal is to recoup what these investors lost,” Eggleston said, and to help the roughly eight employees — not the nearly 50 as touted in the September 2022 press release — who lost everything in the downfall.

Some investors are even talking about reviving the company, though they’re unsure if the name Sweet Grass Vodka can rise from the ashes.

[scatter shot]

Long but interesting read
The guy sounds like a real dirt bag that's earned a dirt nap.