With an auction of the Greenbrier Sporting Club announced to satisfy a portion of $300 million debt to his longtime lender, Gov. Jim Justice says his family businesses will make some moves in response.
Justice alleged that the family’s longtime banker, Carter Bank, has been engaging in unfair business practices — although the governor said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement to not further describe supporting details. The Justices already have an active federal lawsuit against Carter Bank, and he suggested there will be another action.
“I don’t believe there will be one ounce of anything sold, period,” Justice said today during a weekly briefing. “Absolutely, we want to protect the Sporting Club and all those members in every single way.
“With all that being said, I really believe when we get the proper rulings and we move forward and we’re able to release what we really know and what I truly know right now that I can’t tell you — and I am biting the whole side of my cheek out because I want to tell you, I want to tell you so bad what these people have done.”
Justice’s comments came even as Sporting Club members were receiving a memorandum from an attorney for the Justice companies, referring to a “so-called notice of sale.”
That communication contended “the notice of sale is invalid, and the Justice organization will immediately seek to have it enjoined as contrary to state and federal law.”
The entire series of events had finances and politics colliding.
The governor, who is in a Primary Election campaign for U.S. Senate, said his political activity is being used as pressure by the bank — and he concluded his briefing by again asking for less public focus on the Justice family business holdings.
Later in the afternoon, a spokesman for the campaign of his Republican rival, Congressman Alex Mooney, said these matters are the public’s business and that Justice should be more forthcoming.
This has blown up following public notice by Carter Bank & Trust to auction the Greenbrier Sporting Club on the courthouse steps March 5 to satisfy a multi-million dollar debt from Justice and his family.
The Greenbrier Sporting Club is a private club offering memberships to people who buy real estate surrounding The Greenbrier resort.
Carter Bank & Trust has been moving to collect $300 million in debts that were personally-guaranteed by Justice, his wife Cathy and their son Jay, who runs the family’s coal operations. The debts applied to several branches of the family’s business network, including Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, Greenbrier Golf and Tennis Club and Greenbrier Sporting Club.
Those loans had come due April 15, 2023.
Lawyers for Justice’s companies responded by filing motions to set aside the confessed judgments in the 11 cases. They had argued that restrictions on the loans were so inflexible that Carter Bank was engaging in unfair business practices.
Last month, a circuit judge in Martinsville, Va., dismissed the Justice defense: “The defendants offer sparse analysis as to how these defenses are either adequate or dispositive.”
The Justices have countered with their own lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The lawsuit asks for more than $1 billion in damages, contending Carter Bank & Trust has engaged in unfair business practices, kneecapping the Justice family businesses.
The federal judge in that case is considering whether to toss the lawsuit, largely because of venue. Carter Bank has contended southern West Virginia doesn’t make any sense for jurisdiction because the bank, its board and the Justice business headquarters are all actually in western Virginia.
In Justice’s remarks today, he seemed to be alluding to yet another action against Carter.
“All I would say is stay tuned, watch what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’d just stay tuned and not react to a bank, bad actors, the use of media to hype something about their position and use it to pressure us into doing something that isn’t the right thing to do.
Justice, a two-term Republican governor, is strongly positioned in a race for the U.S. Senate seat that Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has opted out of defending.
That race is unfolding as Justice’s businesses have been fighting claims by a range of lenders and businesses who claim to have been stiffed.
Justice said the political pressure is being used as a form of financial leverage.
“I just hate that I’m the governor, I’m a senatorial candidate and everything – and Carter wants to use just that to be able to use the media to cause a firestorm to be able to put pressure,” he said.
At the end of today’s briefing, he asked the public not to give the financial stories credence.
“Please don’t get occupied with what our family businesses are doing and everything else,” Justice said.
The campaign of his Republican rival, Alex Mooney, had its own press conference later in the afternoon: “Mooney for Senate Campaign Discusses State of the Race Following Jim Justice’s Financial Collapse.”
Mark Harris, a spokesman for the Mooney campaign, said Justice’s debts are the public’s business.
“He is the governor. He is a candidate for U.S. Senate. You know, if he was a private citizen, this would still be newsworthy. But he’s not. He has chosen to run for governor. He has chosen to run for Senate, and he owes the people of West Virginia clear answers,” he said.
Of Justice’s comments, Harris responded, “That’s a completely outrageous thing to say. How he has run his family business and legal issues and financial troubles he in — it’s relevant to the people of West Virginia. They are deserved an answer.”