This Former Billionaire, And New U.S. Senator, Is Now Broke
When West Virginia Governor James Conley Justice II finishes out his gubernatorial term in mid January and reports to Washington, D.C. to be sworn into the United States Senate, he will become one of the nation’s poorest senators.
How can that be? After all, for nearly a decade until 2021 Forbes figured Justice to be a billionaire, the richest man in the Mountain State, thanks to a lifetime amassing a fortune in coal and real estate with gems like the historic, 710-room Greenbrier resort in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, with its golf course that has hosted the annual LIV Golf tournament.
But a closer look at Justice’s finances reveals that his empire is severely troubled. The Greenbriar, for example, is suffering from years of neglect and may now be worth less than half the $1 billion value Justice long claimed. Justice’s coal companies, led by Bluestone Resources, still mine about 500,000 tons per year, but that is down from 2 million tons a decade ago. They likely generate $150 million in revenues and have an enterprise value less than $200 million.
Those are substantial assets, but Justice's liabilities are much greater. According to Forbes estimates, Jim Justice is in hock to the tune of more than $1 billion, in the form of personally guaranteed bank loans, debt, court judgments and environmental liabilities. By Forbes reckoning the new Republican Senator from West Virginia has a net worth of less than zero.
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How could Justice, having bought the Greenbrier out of bankruptcy for $20 million in 2009, now be at risk of losing it? Because over a long career of breaking contracts, defying court orders, slow-paying bills and paying old loans with new ones, Justice has worn out every lender he has dealt with. Coal industry executives disown him for being an untrustworthy counterparty. “Bills are optional and negotiable. He pays bills by waiting for people to sue,” says one senior coal executive, who requested anonymity.
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