Governor Jim Justice would like you to believe that the loan default facing The Greenbrier Resort, which he has owned since 2009, is all just politics.
“It makes no sense unless it was politically driven a hundred percent,” Justice said when asked about it at a news briefing last week. “This is all about Jim Justice being the one that flips the United States Senate.”
Justice, who is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is right when he says flipping the seat currently held by Joe Manchin to Republican is a priority for the GOP. However, charging that his family business financial problems can be blamed on the Democrats strains credulity.
At an earlier briefing, Justice specifically accused the international financial firm JPMorgan Chase of having a political motive for selling a $40 million loan made to Jim Justice for The Greenbrier to Beltway Capital/McCormick 101. That loan acquisition firm immediately declared the loan to be in default, filed a lawsuit against Justice, and scheduled a foreclosure sale of the resort for later this month.
“This deceitful move by JPMorgan is nothing more than the latest political stunt by the Democrats to undermine the next Republican Senator from West Virginia,” said the Justice family in a statement.
But what Democrats? There is no evidence to support Justice’s claims that JPMorgan—for an unknown reason—is trying to help Justice’s Democratic opponent, Glenn Elliott. In fact, recent news reports suggest that if Donald Trump is elected, he is considering appointing JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as his Treasury Secretary.
Trump and Justice are friends. They are supporting each other’s campaigns, and Dimon has softened toward Trump. What possible interest would Dimon’s financial services company have in making it harder for a Senate candidate who backs Trump to be elected?
Those dots just do not connect, but the allegation gives Justice an easy out, especially in today’s highly politicized atmosphere. He can charge that The Greenbrier’s financial problems are about politics instead of non-payment of a loan.
The theory of Occam’s Razor applies here. The simplest explanation, and the one the information points toward, is that JPMorgan Chase got tired of not getting paid and wanted to take a bad loan off its books. The bank sold the loan to a firm that specializes in providing an “effective solution to the problem of sub-performing and non-performing loans,” according to their website.
Justice claims The Greenbrier is not being treated fairly by the lender. “It almost approaches blackmail,” he said. Again, that is Justice misrepresenting the situation to try to make himself and his companies look like victims.
Maybe Justice really think “politics” are behind The Greenbrier’s financial problems. That is clearly what he wants everyone to believe. But the facts support the conclusion that this is what happens when you don’t pay your bills.