CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – The trail of debts – and the demands made in collecting them – that dogged Jim Justice long before he became two-term Republican governor of West Virginia has grown since the former billionaire became a U.S. senator earlier this year.
Justice was elected last November to the Senate seat vacated by retiring Joe Manchin, a Democrat who became an independent in 2024 near the end of his second full term.
Justice, who owns dozens of companies including coal and agricultural operations, had a fortune estimated at $1.9 billion by Forbes magazine over the past decade. Forbes stripped him of his billionaire title in 2021, when Justice’s fortune fell to an estimated $513 million. Earlier this year, Forbes estimated that Justice’s net worth had fallen to “less than zero” due to liabilities that far exceeded assets.
During a briefing with local media on Thursday, Justice broadly defended his companies, claiming that they are “complicated and complex” and that his children “do a great job” running them. He then reiterated previous claims that the debt collection efforts against him were politically motivated, before concluding: “Ultimately I would say just let it be and see how it all plays out.”
In recent weeks, the train of creditors claiming that Justice or his companies owe them money has become crowded.
On Oct. 2, the Internal Revenue Service filed liens totaling more than $8 million against Justice and his wife, Cathy, for unpaid personal taxes dating back to 2009. Politico was first to report on the liens.
Last month, state tax authorities filed $1.4 million in liens against the Justice family’s historic hotel, The Greenbrier, and the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Club for unpaid sales taxes.
A foreclosure auction for several hundred properties owned by the Justice family in a resort town near Beckley was paused Wednesday. At the heart of the auction, scheduled for next week, was a dispute between the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association and Justice Holdings over unpaid fees. The state Supreme Court plans to examine the case more closely.
Justice’s companies have dealt with the IRS before, including in 2021 when liens were filed for $1.1 million in unpaid taxes on the Greenbrier Hotel and another $80,000 on the resort’s medical clinic. This debt was paid off later that year.
Last year, Justice’s family settled their debts in a separate case to avoid foreclosure on the Greenbrier Hotel. The 710-room hotel that hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressmen was in danger of being auctioned off on the steps of a Lewisburg courthouse. That came after JPMorgan Chase sold a long-standing loan from Justice to a debt collection company, Beltway Capital, which declared it insolvent.
The state Democratic Party said the effort to seize the hotel from Justice was “a direct result of his own financial incompetence.”
Last year, a union official at Greenbrier said Justice’s family was at least $2.4 million behind on employee health insurance payments, putting workers’ coverage at risk. In 2023, dozens of Justice family properties in three counties were auctioned off as payment for delinquent property taxes. Others sought to recoup millions of dollars in fines over environmental problems and unsafe working conditions at his company’s coal mines.
Justice bought the Greenbrier Resort out of bankruptcy in 2009 for $20.1 million. The sports club is a private equity club and residential community on the property that opened in 2000.
The 1778 White Sulfur Springs resort also features a casino, spa and dozens of amenities and employs about 2,000 people. The resort hosted a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 to 2019 and hosted NFL teams for training camps and practices. A once-secret 10,080-square-foot underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in the event of a nuclear attack during the Cold War now offers tours.
Justice began the first of his two terms as governor in 2017 and switched parties seven months after taking office. Early in his term, he was sued for failing to live in the governor’s mansion in Charleston as required by law, and while he was there, the list of his accomplishments was neither particularly long nor notable.
Ultimately, the folksy politician with a pet bulldog named Babydog at his side focused on winning a Senate seat that national Democrats effectively vacated as soon as Manchin decided not to run.
West Virginia has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States. The country also lost the highest proportion of residents of any state over the past decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, an exodus that cost him a seat in Congress and continued into Justice’s second term.
