West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice agrees to pay practically $5.2 million in overdue private taxes

Republican Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia has agreed to pay practically $5.2 million in overdue private taxes, the most recent saga for the previous billionaire who has been adopted by a path of monetary challenges going again effectively over a decade.

An legal professional for Justice and his spouse, Cathy, entered right into a joint movement for consent judgment with the federal authorities on Monday, the identical day the federal government filed a lawsuit saying the couple “have uncared for or refused to make full cost” for the revenue taxes courting to 2009. An legal professional for the Justice Division’s tax division signed off on the settlement.

Justice had a fortune estimated at $1.9 billion final decade by Forbes journal, which stripped his billionaire title in 2021, when Justice’s value had dwindled to an estimated $513 million. Earlier this yr, Forbes estimated that Justice’s web value had disintegrated to “lower than zero” as a consequence of liabilities that far exceeded property.

A spokesperson for Justice’s workplace did not instantly reply to an e-mail looking for remark Tuesday. 

Throughout a briefing with native media in October, Justice asserted that his firms “are difficult and complicated” and that his youngsters “are doing a powerful job” operating them. He then repeated previous assertions that assortment efforts towards him have been politically motivated, earlier than concluding: “On the finish of the day, I would say simply let it’s and see the way it all performs out.”

Justice, a former two-term governor who owns dozens of companies that embody coal and agricultural operations, was elected final November to the Senate. He took over the seat vacated by the retiring Joe Manchin, a Democrat who grew to become an unbiased in 2024 close to the top of his second full time period.

Justice nonetheless has different monetary challenges to work out.

The Inner Income Service final month filed liens totaling greater than $8 million towards Justice and his spouse on unpaid private taxes. In September, state tax officers filed $1.4 million in liens towards the Justice household’s historic resort, The Greenbrier, and the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Membership, over unpaid gross sales taxes.

Final month, a foreclosures public sale on a number of hundred tons owned by the Justice household at a resort neighborhood close to Beckley was paused. The public sale centered on a dispute between the Glade Springs Village Property House owners Affiliation and Justice Holdings over unpaid charges. The state Supreme Court docket plans to evaluate the case extra carefully.

In 2021, the IRS filed liens over $1.1 million in unpaid taxes on the Greenbrier Lodge and a further $80,000 on the resort’s medical clinic. These money owed have been paid off later that yr. 

Justice’s household settled money owed final yr in a separate case to keep away from the Greenbrier Lodge’s foreclosures. The 710-room resort, which has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats, had come underneath risk of being auctioned off on the steps of a Lewisburg courthouse. That was after JPMorgan Chase offered a longstanding mortgage taken out by Justice to a credit score assortment firm, Beltway Capital, which declared it to be in default.

The state Democratic Get together has mentioned efforts to grab the resort from Justice have been “a direct consequence of his personal monetary incompetence.”

Final yr, a union official on the Greenbrier mentioned that Justice’s household was no less than $2.4 million behind in funds to an workers’ medical health insurance fund, placing employees’ protection in danger. In 2023, dozens of properties owned by the Justice household in three counties have been auctioned as cost for delinquent actual property taxes. Others have sought to recoup thousands and thousands in fines for environmental points and unsafe working situations at his firm’s coal mines.

Justice purchased The Greenbrier resort out of chapter in 2009 for $20.1 million. The sporting membership is a non-public fairness membership and residential neighborhood on the property that opened in 2000.

The resort in White Sulphur Springs that dates to 1778 additionally has a on line casino, spa and dozens of facilities and employs round 2,000 employees. The resort held a PGA Tour golf event from 2010 till 2019 and has welcomed NFL groups for coaching camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot underground bunker constructed for Congress on the Greenbrier in case of nuclear assault in the course of the Chilly Battle now hosts excursions.