West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is fighting to keep the iconic Greenbrier Hotel.
A legal notice was published in the West Virginia Daily News on Wednesday announcing that the luxury resort near White Sulphur Springs will be put up for auction because of unpaid debts, just the latest development in the Justice family’s financial woes.
Justice, who owns dozens of companies and has a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at $513 million in 2021, Numerous lawsuits The family business is behind on millions of dollars in debt and fines. Dangerous working conditions in coal mines.
He began the first of his second term as governor in 2017 after buying The Greenbrier, which has hosted U.S. presidents and royalty, back from bankruptcy in 2009. The PGA Tour held tournaments 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.” Will be auctioned this year Carter Bank of Martinsville, Virginia, has tried to collect on more than $300 million in business loans that the governor’s family has defaulted on, but the process has been delayed by a legal battle between the Justice family and the bank.
The auction, which includes 60.5 acres of land including the hotel itself and the adjacent parking lot, is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg, according to Wednesday’s notice.
A spokesman for Justice said the impending auction is not a state government matter and the governor’s office would not comment. Campaign staff did not respond to an email from The Associated Press on Thursday.
In a statement to West Virginia MetroNews, Department of Justice attorney Bob Wolford accused lender JPMorgan Chase of working with Democrats “to undermine West Virginia’s next Republican senator.”
According to the statement, the Justices originally received a $142 million loan from JPMorgan Chase in 2014, and after a repayment in June of this year, only $9.4 million remained in debt. On July 1, the governor was notified by JPMorgan Chase that it had sold Justice’s loan to Beltway Capital Management and was in default.
After the loan was sold to Beltway, a financial disclosure report Justice filed with the U.S. Senate on July 13 identified Greenbriar’s debt as between $25 million and $50 million.
“Let me be clear that The Greenbrier is not for sale. The Justice family will take all necessary steps to ensure there is no adverse impact to their ownership of The Greenbrier, the operations of The Greenbrier, and no interruption to The Greenbrier’s ability to continue to provide world-class service to its guests,” Wolford told MetroNews.
West Virginia Democratic Party officials said in a statement that the resort’s seizure was not the result of political machinations, as Justice family lawyers have alleged.
“This is a direct result of his own financial incompetence,” they said.
JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.