CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Governor of West Virginia. Jim JusticeRepublican candidate for U.S. Senate, is fighting to keep his iconic Greenbrier hotel.
A legal notice announcing a public auction for the luxury resort near White Sulfur Springs due to unpaid debts was published in the West Virginia Daily News on Wednesday — just the latest development in the Justice family’s financial woes.
Justice, owner of dozens of companies and whose net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine at US$513 million in 2021, was accused of numerous legal complaints of being late in paying millions of dollars he owes in debts to family businesses and fines for unsafe working conditions in its coal mines.
Justice, who began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, purchased The Greenbrier, which has hosted U.S. presidents and royalty, out of bankruptcy in 2009. The PGA Tour held a tournament at the resort from 2010 to 2019 .
His family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.” scheduled to be auctioned this year in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor’s family, but a legal battle between the Justice family and the bank has delayed that process.
Wednesday’s notice said the auction involves 60.5 acres — including the hotel itself and adjacent parking lot — and is scheduled for Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. at the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg.
A Justice spokesperson said the impending auction is not a state government matter and that the governor’s office declined to comment. Campaign staff did not return an email from The Associated Press on Thursday.
In a statement to West Virginia MetroNews, attorney Bob Wolford accused JPMorgan Chase Bank of aligning itself with Democrats “to undermine West Virginia’s next Republican senator.”
The statement states that the Justice family originally secured a $142 million loan in 2014 from JPMorgan Chase and that only $9.4 million in debt remains after payments made in June of this year.
On July 1, the governor was notified by JPMorgan Chase that he had sold Justice’s loan to Beltway Capital, which declared him in default.
“Let me make it clear that the Greenbrier will not be sold, and the Justice family will take all necessary steps to ensure that there will be no adverse impact on the ownership of the Greenbrier or on the operations of the Greenbrier and on the ability of the Greenbrier to continue to provide class-leading services. worldwide to its guests will be uninterrupted,” Wolford told MetroNews.
