ICYMI: ‘Stretched to the limit’: Jim Justice’s shrinking coal empire pelted by legal attacks [POLITICO]

New reporting from POLITICO highlights the “flurry” of unpaid bills and lawsuits that Jim Justice’s companies are facing. This follows previous reporting detailing Justice’s “long history” of failing to meet his “financial and work safety obligations,” including public safety violations, unpaid fees and taxes, and millions of dollars in debt.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

POLITICO: ‘Stretched to the limit’: Jim Justice’s shrinking coal empire pelted by legal attacks

By Scott Waldman

June 1, 2023

Key points:

• Jim Justice was once identified as the only billionaire in West Virginia, but the business empire he built on coal has shrunk to a small number of companies beset by lawsuits and struggling to pay their bills.

• A flurry of court filings in cases against Justice and his family indicates that his sprawling enterprises are short on cash, with his own lawyers calling them “disorganized.”

• The court documents show that Justice is facing a series of extraordinary actions for a sitting governor — including the potential garnishment of part of his $150,000 state salary to repay loans for coal equipment, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported earlier this year.
  
  
• As a defense in that case, Justice’s company lawyers referred to his family businesses as a “somewhat disorganized organization whose resources are stretched to the limit with respect to both finances and personnel.”
  
  
• Rep. Alex Mooney , a conservative firebrand running against Justice in the GOP primary, tweeted last week, “My RINO opponent @JimJusticeWV will bankrupt America just like his businesses and the workers he wouldn’t pay.”

• Previously schedules obtained by The Associated Press have indicated that Justice has spent little time at his office in the state Capitol and devoted significant time to his private businesses.
  

See also: ICYMI: Justice’s Finances Face Scrutiny as “Unpaid Fines, Fees, Legal Settlements [And] Defaulted Loans” Mount; Justice’s Finances Face Scrutiny as West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary Escalates; ICYMI: West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary Escalates & Justice Faces Scrutiny Over Debt.

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