Governor Jim Justice often boasts that he is a businessman, not a politician. He likes to say he runs West Virginia like a business. If he runs the state the way he ran his own businesses, it’s no wonder so many agencies are struggling financially.
Two weeks ago, the Greenbrier Hotel, owned and run by Justice’s children, listed up for auction after the Justice Companies defaulted on the bank’s loan. According to a statement from the Justice Companies, the debt was reduced to $9.4 million, the equivalent of the average West Virginian’s salary for 235 years.
On August 27 at 2 p.m., the Greenbrier Hotel will be auctioned off on the steps of the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg. Luckily for Justice, the building is in his hometown, so he may just get there in time.
When Justice during his Briefing on Friday Of the auction, he said the sale of the loan was “so strange it’s unbelievable,” adding that it was politically motivated because he is running for Senate and will be the one to win the Senate majority in favor of Republicans.
“This is almost like blackmail,” Justice said.
But not only did the company fail to repay the loan, it also failed to pay taxes. Five liens totaling more than $2.7 million (or about 67.5 years’ salary for the average West Virginian) remain against the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.
When asked about the liens in his briefings, Justice acts as if it has nothing to do with his job as governor. In fact, he was so upset when Metronews’ Brad McElhinny asked him about the liens a few weeks ago that McElhinny was banned from Justice’s briefings.
Let me take this opportunity to return to the Governor’s words. speech at the Republican National Convention in July. Perhaps you missed Justice’s testimony because you were distracted by Babydog on the stage next to him.
“The truth is the foundation of my life. … I constantly challenge the media to find something that I knowingly told them that is not true. And they can’t do that because I won’t do that,” Justice said.
Yes, we can. And we do.
The judiciary is constantly talking about how clear he is and how he encourages others to be clear. Excluding a member of the media from your briefings is the opposite of transparency. Not answering questions about your personal affairs is not clear.
But back to Justice not paying his bills. Less than a week after the Greenbrier was put up for auction, the federal government filed a motion to prosecute 23 of the Justice family’s coal companies for violating the law for unpaid fines for health and safety issues over the past 10 years. Those fines total about $600,000, which is about the annual salary of the average West Virginian. Those fines date back to 2014 – before Justice was elected governor and running his companies full-time.
According to a 2020 settlement agreement, the entire debt – about $5.13 million – was to be paid off by March 1, 2024.
Some penniless paralegal sent dozens of emails to the companies’ legal representatives even weeks after the debts were due.
“The only constant in [the Justice companies’] “The reason for the frequent delay in payment is that payments are regularly made late,” write the federal prosecutors.
This applies not only to payments, but to justice in general. As I have written several times, he is regularly delayed for his own weekly Administrative meetings And Lecture events.
During Friday’s press conference, West Virginia Watch reporter Caity Coyne asked Justice if his coal companies will pay the fines and what the financial situation of the Justice family’s companies is. In the middle of her question, the audio cut out — interruption or intent? — and Justice said he couldn’t hear her well because she was speaking in a hushed tone.
However, he said he was “not nearly involved in the day-to-day operations … to the extent that I would be expected to know anything about our business,” and if there was a problem, it would be solved.
“We may be a few minutes late to the fire scene, but we are always there,” Justice said.
If you get to the fire after it has already engulfed the entire building, it is too delayed.
