Debt problems that dogged Sen. Jim Justice as West Virginia's governor continue to nip at his heels

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The trail of debts — and claims made trying to collect them — that dogged Jim Justice well before he became West Virginia’s two-term Republican governor has ballooned since the former billionaire became a U.S. senator earlier this year.

Justice was elected last November to the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Joe Manchin, a Democrat who became an independent in 2024 near the end of his second full term.

Justice, who owns dozens of businesses that include coal and agricultural operations, had a fortune estimated at $1.9 billion last decade by Forbes magazine. Forbes stripped his billionaire title in 2021, when Justice's worth had dwindled to an estimated $513 million. Earlier this year, Forbes estimated that Justice’s net worth had disintegrated to “less than zero” due to liabilities that far exceeded assets.

During a briefing with local media on Thursday, Justice gave a rambling defense of his companies, asserting that they “are complicated and complex” and that his children “are doing a magnificent job” running them. He then repeated past assertions that collection efforts against him were politically motivated, before concluding:. “At the end of the day, I’d say just let it be and see how it all plays out.”

In recent weeks, the bandwagon of creditors claiming they’re owed money by Justice or his companies has gotten crowded.

On Oct. 2, the Internal Revenue Service filed liens totaling more than $8 million against Justice and his wife, Cathy, on unpaid personal taxes that go as far back as 2009. Politico was the first to report on the liens.

Last month, state tax officials filed $1.4 million in liens against the Justice family’s historic hotel, The Greenbrier, and the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Club, over unpaid sales taxes.

On Wednesday, a foreclosure auction on several hundred lots owned by the Justice family at a resort community near Beckley was paused. The auction, which had been scheduled for next week, centered on a dispute between the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association and Justice Holdings over unpaid fees. The state Supreme Court plans to review the case more closely.

Justice’s companies have dealt with the IRS before, including in 2021, when liens were filed over $1.1 million in unpaid taxes on the Greenbrier Hotel and an additional $80,000 on the resort’s medical clinic. Those debts were paid off later that year.

Last year, Justice’s family settled debts in a separate case to avoid the Greenbrier Hotel’s foreclosure. The 710-room hotel, which has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats, had come under threat of being auctioned off on the steps of a Lewisburg courthouse. That was after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by Justice to a credit collection company, Beltway Capital, which declared it to be in default.

The state Democratic Party has said efforts to seize the hotel from Justice were “a direct consequence of his own financial incompetence.”

Last year, a union official at the Greenbrier said that Justice’s family was at least $2.4 million behind in payments to an employees’ health insurance fund, putting workers’ coverage at risk. In 2023, dozens of properties owned by the Justice family in three counties were auctioned as payment for delinquent real estate taxes. Others have sought to recoup millions in fines for environmental issues 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 sporting club is a private equity club and residential community on the property that opened in 2000.

The resort in White Sulphur Springs that dates to 1778 also has a casino, spa and dozens of amenities and employs around 2,000 workers. The resort held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.

Justice began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, switching parties seven months after taking office. Early in his administration, he was sued for not living in the governor’s mansion in Charleston as required by law, and when he was there, his list of accomplishments wasn’t particularly long or noteworthy.

Eventually, the politician with the folksy manner and a pet bulldog named Babydog by his side turned his attention to winning a Senate seat that national Democrats pretty much conceded as soon as Manchin decided not to run again.

West Virginia has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States. It also lost the highest percentage of residents among any state over the past decade, an exodus that cost it a seat in Congress, and continued through Justice’s second term, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.