West Virginia governor and current GOP Senate candidate for Joe Manchin’s soon-to-be open seat has been the center of multiple lawsuits, all focused on his refusal to pay back loans, to pay taxes, and to pay penalties related to breaking the law.  You can read previous stories about his financial issues here.

The Greenbrier is a hot springs-centered resort in southeastern West Virginia, with a history going back 100 years as resort. You may remember it as the place where the federal government would evacuate in the event of a nuclear attack. Jim Justice bought the hotel in 2009 after it was placed into bankruptcy.

Now why someone who is terrible at business would buy a failing hotel is a mystery to me, but it’s no mystery that the Justice family continued to drive it into the ground, leading to a judge putting the property on the auction block earlier this month to satisfy the debts Justice owes.

On Monday Justice filed for an injunction to stop the sale and I thought that was the end of the news about this for a while. Then on Monday we found this out:

Around 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received a letter Monday from an attorney representing health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they will lose coverage Aug. 27 unless the Republican’s family pays $2.4 million in missing contributions, Peter Bostic of the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board said Tuesday.

The coverage would end the day the hotel is set to go to auction, which Justice family attorneys have asked a judge to stop. They argue in part the auction would harm the economy and threaten hundreds of jobs.

The Justice family hasn’t made contributions to employees’ health fund in four months, and an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the Amalgamated National Health Fund.

The letter also said that some contributions were taken out of employees’ paychecks but never transferred to the health fund, which concerned union officials.

Huh? Justice is already tied up in multiple lawsuits already and now we find out he’s stealing from his employees? WTF is going on with him?

But wait, it gets worse:

The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, owned by Gov. Jim Justice’s family, faces yet another financial strain — a $36 million lawsuit filed over a defaulted loan that was part of the federal government’s response to the economic threats of the covid-19 pandemic.

First Guaranty Bancshares filed the lawsuit last month in federal court for the Middle District of Louisiana, where the bank is headquartered.

[deletia]

The filing agrees with the basic terms that The Greenbrier did not owe anything at all through the first year. Then, in the second year after taking out the loan, The Greenbrier was supposed to make monthly interest-only payments.

Following that, The Greenbrier was supposed to make a payment by Dec. 22, 2023, of 15% of the outstanding principal balance. By Dec. 22 of the current year, another 15% of the principal was to be due. And then at the maturity date of Dec. 22, 2025, the loan was to be paid in full. 

First Guaranty alleges the loan became delinquent at that first real due date when The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation did not pay that first 15% installment. The bank contends no payments on principal or interest have been made in the months since then either.

Jim Justice is a crook. He cannot be elected to serve in the Senate. It is beyond past time that the national media begins to build on the solid work of local reporters to let everyone know how unfit for office he is.

This seems fitting: