Justice sues Justice, again: Feds try to collect $5 million in mining penalties from West Virginia governor's businesses

Gov. Jim Justice (Official photo)

For more than a decade, Jim Justice, now West Virginia's governor, has been behind in paying fines for violations at his coal mines. Wednesday the Department of Justice sued 13 of his businesses to collect $5 million in penalties the Department of the Interior levied on them for strip-mine violations.

It's not the first time Justice has sued Justice, but it's the first time the former Democrat has been a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “The Biden administration is aware of the fact that, with a win for the U.S. Senate and everything, we could very well flip the Senate,” Justice said. “Government agencies sometimes can surely react, and this could be something in regard to that.” U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh of Virginia's Western District "said in a news release the violations posed health and safety risks to the public and the environment," the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

In 2020 ProPublica reported that creditors of Justice's businesses had often sued to collect what they were owed, and often had to fight to get paid, even after being ordered to do so by courts. That story was written by Ken Ward Jr., who reported for Mountain State Spotlight May 5 that "by late 2020, the total in judgments and settlements for Justice family businesses had reached $140 million. . . . Since then, his family business empire has faced more turmoil. Lenders are trying to hold him personally responsible for hundreds of millions in debt. Courts are ordering payment of long-standing environmental penalties. . . . For years, Justice had been considered West Virginia’s richest man and listed by Forbes as a billionaire. But in 2021, Forbes removed that listing. The magazine cited a dispute over $850 million in debt to the now-defunct firm Greensill Capital. The Justice companies settled that dispute with a payment plan. But last week a longtime banking partner of Justice’s, Carter Bank & Trust, filed documents seeking to collect on a separate $300 million debt. Justice’s son, Jay Justice, said in a statement that the bank had refused a reasonable repayment plan."