Amid mounting financial troubles and allegations against businesses owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family – new developments this week show that the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation is four months behind on payments to its employees’ health insurance – the West Virginia Democratic Party on Tuesday called on Justice to drop out of his race for U.S. Senate.
Justice, the Republican candidate for Senator Joe Manchin’s (IW.Va.) seat, is considered the clear favorite for the general election in November. He is running against former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, a Democrat.
In a press release Tuesday, state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said the latest news on The Greenbrier – first reported by RealWV, a Greenbrier County-based news station – was further evidence of the governor’s “imploding financial empire.”
“His financial house of cards is collapsing around him, making him a candidate irreparably compromised,” Pushkin, Democrat of Kanawha, wrote in the press release. “Under these circumstances, (Justice) cannot continue to run for the U.S. Senate. He has become a national disgrace.”
The Real WV reported on Monday that hotel employees covered by the company’s health insurance plan received a letter informing them that they could lose their health insurance coverage on August 27 if the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, a company owned by the Justice family, fails to pay required premiums.
In the letter, Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP representing the Amalgamated National Health Fund, wrote that the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation is four months behind on its contributions to the health fund. The company owes about $2.4 million in past-due contributions, with another $1.2 million due soon.
The Greenbriers’ delinquent contributions included contributions that were deducted from employees’ salaries but not transferred to the health fund, the lawyer wrote.
“It’s one thing not to pay a bank loan or a tax debt, or even a fine from a regulator,” Pushkin said. “But it’s quite another thing not to pay employees’ health insurance premiums with money that doesn’t even belong to you.”
In a press release on MondayPeter Bostic, chairman of the Greenbrier Council of Labor Unions, said unions representing the hotel’s employees were deeply saddened and disappointed to learn that the Greenbrier is seriously behind on its health insurance payments.
“Greenbrier’s insolvency has seriously jeopardized our members’ health insurance benefits and is morally and legally wrong,” Bostic wrote. “Our members have fulfilled their obligation by working hard every day and paying their share to Greenbrier. Greenbrier has neglected its obligation to its employees.”
The Council of Labor Unions represents seven different unions with employees at the Greenbrier. In separate legal documents, attorneys for the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation say the company directly employs “nearly 2,000” workers. According to Richman’s letter, if the company fails to make payments by Aug. 27, health insurance will be suspended for all covered employees.
Justice family lawyers request halt to Greenbrier auction
While employees worry about the fate of their health insurance, another question will also be on their minds that same day: Who will own the Greenbrier Hotel when it goes up for public auction as planned on August 27 at 2 p.m. on the steps of the Greenbrier County Courthouse?
The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation filed a motion Monday seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the hotel’s planned auction. The company argues, among other things, that selling the property would “irreparably harm” the Justice family’s businesses because the assets that could be sold are unique and irreplaceable.
They also argue that the Justices’ son, Jay Justice, and his daughter, Jill Justice, are the majority owners of the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, but neither of them consented to the trust deed and that the sale notice in the West Virginia Daily News did not list all parties involved in the deed.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday before Greenbrier Circuit Court Judge Robert Richardson.
The Greenbrier auction was First announced in a Legal notice was published earlier this month in Lewisburg’s West Virginia Daily News. At the auction, the ad says, the property will go to the highest cash bidder.
The property being auctioned totals 60.5 acres and is not the entire Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs. It does not include several amenities, including golf courses, vacation homes, water tanks, and several other properties. These properties are owned by other Greenbrier-affiliated companies that are also mostly owned by the Justice family.
If the hotel and parking lots were auctioned off and separated from those facilities, the other businesses would suffer significantly, the company’s lawyers said.
“The threatened sale would therefore divide the Greenbrier Resort in a way that would be disastrous for the Greenbrier’s business,” the lawyers wrote. “Golf and other amenities are a primary reason guests visit the Greenbrier. Many guests visit the Greenbrier for the opportunity to stay in its cottages. The sale would leave the Greenbrier without a place to park guests’ vehicles during the busy peak season. And all guests use water; the loss of the Greenbrier’s water supply would render it incapable of operating at all.”
The auction will take place after the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation failed with millions in bank loans. The Greenbrier Hotel is one of the largest assets of the Justice family’s corporate conglomerate.
Justice has repeatedly and persistently maintained that the move to place The Greenbrier under foreclosure, as well as other challenges brought against his family businesses, nothing more than political attacks.
“This is about Jim Justice being the one who is going to flip the United States Senate,” Justice told reporters at a press conference Earlier this month“It’s about twisting or damaging Jim Justice from a political point of view. There is no doubt at all that it’s about anything but that.”
Justice also continues to claim that he is not involved in his family’s business. In response to news earlier this month that the federal government ask a court To 23 Justice family coal companies convicted Justice said he was “not even remotely involved in the day-to-day operations” of the companies, citing millions in fines for unpaid health and safety concerns at the mines.
Instead, his children are at the helm of all family businesses, he says.
