The family-run business led by Senator Jim Justice has leveled new allegations that the owners of the Omni hotel chain participated in a deceptive scheme to seize The Greenbrier resort through an unlawful acquisition of the property’s debt.
According to a revised complaint filed in circuit court in Greenbrier County, TRT Holdings used confidential information and violated standstill agreements to sabotage the hotel’s refinancing efforts and trigger a fraudulent default.
The suit lawsuit claims these actions were designed to eliminate competition for the Omni Homestead, a rival luxury resort owned by TRT Holdings less than an hour’s drive from The Greenbrier.
“We’ve obtained information that TRT intends to take over The Greenbrier and run it with employees from the Homestead, which is another resort about 40 miles away in Virginia,” Steve Ruby, a Charleston attorney representing the Justices, said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
“That would put the jobs of hundreds of West Virginians who work at The Greenbrier at risk.”
TRT Holdings is owned by Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, whose son Blake serves as the company’s president. Omni operates more than 50 luxury properties.
TRT’s newly formed White Sulphur Springs Holdings bought nearly $300 million in first-lien debt on The Greenbrier and related properties from longtime lender Carter Bank & Trust, which has been in conflict with the Justices for years.
The TRT subsidiary then moved for receivership of the historic hotel, essentially asking the federal court to appoint a third-party caretaker.
The Justice family, which bought The Greenbrier in 2009, has filed counterclaims arguing that TRT’s purchase of the debt and supporting legal documents should be disallowed, alleging that the buyer used insider information to gain a premature and unfair advantage.
The most recent filing by the Justices is in the case they filed in Greenbrier County.
The Justices are seeking legal rescission of the loan sale and at least $500 million in damages for fraud and antitrust violations.
“If successful, Defendants’ efforts will put hundreds of employees of The Greenbrier at risk of losing their jobs. The calamitous effects of Defendants’ actions on those individuals, the residents of Greenbrier County, and the people of West Virginia cannot be overstated,” lawyers for the Justices wrote.
Their lawsuit contends the Omni hotel chain owners are “are executing a multi-year scheme designed to snatch The Greenbrier from the local and longstanding ownership of the Justice family by unlawful and deceptive means and in violation of laws designed to prevent such anticompetitive conduct.”
In early 2024, according to the Justice lawsuit, a private equity firm entered into a confidentiality agreement with The Greenbrier to evaluate a potential financing deal.
The agreement included a standstill provision prohibiting the firm and its advisors, which included TRT, from acquiring any of The Greenbrier’s debt.
The lawsuit by the Justices alleges that TRT used the situation as a pretense to visit the resort in September, 2024, and gain access to proprietary pricing, marketing and financial records that the hotel chain owners later used to facilitate a hostile takeover.
Despite the standstill agreement, the Justices allege the TRT owners began secretly acquiring debt as early as September 2024.
Then, while publicly claiming interest in a partnership, TRT’s owners secretly met with representatives of longtime lender Carter Bank in January 2026 to negotiate the purchase of the resort’s primary loans, according to the Justice allegations.
The complaint alleges that Carter Bank conspired with TRT by blocking the Justice family’s numerous efforts to pay off their loans.
The Justices claim they presented multiple payoff proposals and commitment letters, but Carter Bank allegedly raised payoff demands arbitrarily or set impossible deadlines to ensure the Justice family could not settle the debt before it was sold to TRT.
“In any case that I’m in, I advise my clients to to look for opportunities at reasonable resolution. And on the one hand, it’s it’s really important to The Greenbrier and to the Justice family to to stand up for their legal rights and to make sure that they’re not taken advantage of,” Ruby said in the press conference.
“On the other hand, certainly, certainly they did not come into this situation last month looking for a court fight, and I think any, any reasonable option for for resolving this would certainly be on the table.”