CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – The owners of The Greenbrier Resort announced Thursday a deal to avert public auction of the prized resort, yet that is just the latest development in a series of financial problems mounting for West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family-owned businesses.
It’s an issue WSAZ has been reporting on for years, starting with $4 million in unpaid West Virginia taxes that came to light when he first ran for governor in 2016.
In August 2018, Justice said this in a sit-down interview at WSAZ.
“It’s been paid,” he said in the studio. “It’s been paid in full, and we need to move on.”
Justice, still in 2018, even added this to reporters at a press conference about paying those debts:
“One of your questions today very well may be yeah, ‘Well what about Kentucky? What about Virginia,’” he said. “I think if you just bide your time and wait, you will see the exact outcome there as well.”
But that outcome would be more lingering money problems.
In 2019, our sister station WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, found the Justice family companies owed more than $2 million in delinquent taxes in 10 localities.
So we wanted to know where the Justice family’s tax debts stand now in those 10 Virginia localities.
WSAZ’s Curtis Johnson called several. The station is still waiting on some answers, but we’ve learned this so far:
In Tazewell County, Virginia, Justice companies owe more than $570,000 in delinquent taxes dating back to 2018.
In Lee County, Virginia, the treasurer says the county was forced to sell 29 Justice family company properties last summer for non-payment of taxes.
Money problems also have landed the Justice, family-owned companies in federal court.
In 2020, a federal judge in Virginia ordered several Justice companies to pay more than $5 million in fees associated with safety violations at family-owned mines.
Fast-forward more than four years, and court records this month show more than a half-million dollars of that court order remains unpaid. The federal government asked a judge to hold those companies in civil contempt, and just this week, the Justice coal companies argued they “have an inability to pay the current amounts due.”
Meanwhile in Kentucky earlier this summer, a federal court was asked to take property from two Justice companies to pay off about $35 million in debt.
Then, there is the Justice family crown jewel — The Greenbrier Resort. It employs nearly 2,000 during peak season, but the Justice family not even keeping up with debts on that prized possession.
Just days ago, those hotel employees received a letter stating they may lose their health insurance. The letter alleges Greenbrier owners are more than four months delinquent on payments to the health fund.
Then Tuesday, WSAZ learned another bank is suing The Greenbrier for more than $35 million. It alleges the hotel has made no payment on a federal government loan it received during the COVID pandemic.
And next week, the main hotel was set to be auctioned to the highest bidder.
A trustee’s notice saying The Greenbrier’s owner is late on payments for a loan used to finance the property. The family asked this week for a court order to stop the auction.
Thursday, the family issued a statement saying a last-minute deal has been reached with the lender.
WSAZ asked the lender to confirm that deal but have not heard back. The station also asked the Justice companies for details of that deal, including how much they will be paying and where the money is coming from, but again no response.
So Thursday, Johnson went to the governor to ask about the growing delinquent debts.
“Every month, families across West Virginia have pay bills,” Johnson said in asking his question. “Simply put, I think many of those families wonder — why are the Justice companies, with so much expertise, continually accused of not paying their bills?”
“Well, Curtis, I, I don’t know that’s really fair,” Justice answered. “You know, I would be again, to be brutally honest, I would tell you that we’ve gone through our bumps. That’s for sure, and we’ve gotten behind, but we’ve someway somehow always caught up and, you know, so Curtis, you know, I don’t really know. I don’t know many businesses that don’t have great times and some tough times.”
“Whether it was smart or dumb, you know, we have done one thing,” he added. “That is this — every time we have done well, we have reinvested, and for the most part, we have reinvested in West Virginia. Now sure, we stub our toe from time to time, but we always seem to try to make it right.”
Regarding health insurance for Greenbrier employees, Justice says he does not know the particulars, but pledged there is no way those employees will go without insurance.
The deadline to make that payment is next Tuesday.
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