West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, is fighting to preserve his iconic Greenbrier hotel.
A legal notice announcing a public auction of the posh resort near White Sulphur Springs on account of unpaid debts was published within the West Virginia Daily News on Wednesday – and is just the most recent development within the Justice family’s financial troubles.
Justice, who owns dozens of firms and whose net value was estimated by Forbes Magazine at $513 million in 2021, was charged in quite a few lawsuits in court in arrears with the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts to family businesses and fines for unsafe working conditions in its coal mines.
He began his first of two terms as governor in 2017 after buying the Greenbrier Resort, which has hosted U.S. presidents and royals, out of bankruptcy in 2009. The PGA Tour hosted a tournament on the resort from 2010 to 2019.
His family also owns the Greenbrier Sporting Club, a non-public luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.” This property was to be auctioned this 12 months in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recuperate greater than $300 million in unpaid business loans from the governor’s family. However, a legal dispute between the Justice family and the bank delayed that process.
Wednesday’s announcement said the auction involves 60.5 acres – including the hotel itself and the adjoining parking zone – and is scheduled to happen at 2 p.m. on August 27 on the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg.
A spokesman for Justice said the upcoming auction just isn’t a state government matter and the governor’s office wouldn’t comment. Campaign staff didn’t reply to an email from The Associated Press on Thursday.
In an announcement to West Virginia MetroNews, Attorney General Bob Wolford accused JPMorgan Chase Bank of allying with Democrats “to weaken the next Republican senator from West Virginia.”
The statement said the Justice family originally received a $142 million loan from JPMorgan Chase in 2014 and that after payments made as recently as June of this 12 months, only $9.4 million in debt remained. On July 1, the governor was informed by JPMorgan Chase that the corporate had sold Justice’s loan to Beltway Capital Management, which declared the corporate insolvent.
A Senate financial report filed by the Justice Department on July 13, after the loan was sold to Beltway, puts The Greenbrier’s debt at between $25 million and $50 million.
“I want to make it clear that the Greenbrier is not being sold. The Justice family will take all necessary steps to ensure that their ownership of the Greenbrier or the operation of the Greenbrier is not impacted and that the Greenbrier can continue to provide first-class service to its guests,” Wolford told MetroNews.
Representatives of the West Virginia Democratic Party said in an announcement that the foreclosure of the resort was not the results of a political ploy, because the Justice family’s attorney claims.
“It is a direct result of his own financial incompetence,” they said.
JP Morgan Chase declined to comment.
