The Deadbeat Billionaire

The inside story of how West Virginia’s governor, Jim Justice, ducks taxes and slow-pays his bills.

- Christopher Helman

James C. Justice II is many things. He is a coal mining billionaire, with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. He is the 36th governor of West Virginia. He owns (along with his kids) some 100 companies. He was elected as a Democrat but switched parties once in office. He is the owner of the Greenbrier, a gaudy 710-room luxury resort near White Sulphur Springs that dates to 1778 and once housed the nuclear fallout shelter of the United States Congress. Justice is 68 years old, 6 foot 8 and weighs 368 pounds. He has a sandwich named after him at the local Arby’s, while at Har dees there hangs a handwritten note: “Hardees Gals—Please take care of Big Jim—A great guy—Donald J. Trump.”

He is also a man who has a hard time paying the bills.

Since 2016 courts have ordered Justice and his companies to pay more than $10 million to more than a dozen suppliers, workers, and government entities. Over the same time, his companies also piled up $13 million-plus in tax liens. He claims to have paid off many of these. Still looming: another $60 million in potential damages in a civil case awaiting final judgment, plus up to $3 million in fines in Kentucky. And then there’s mine reclamation. By federal law, when a surface mine closes, the operator has to restore the landscape. Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy estimates that Justice’s coal companies face $200 million in reclamation liabilities. (Justice claims it will cost closer to $10 million.)