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Coal companies in U.S. Sen. Jim Justice’s business portfolio that owe the federal government $434,000 in delinquent mine safety fine penalties want to keep tax returns and other financial information from public view as federal prosecutors look to collect on their debt.
Nearly two dozen coal companies in the West Virginia Republican’s struggling family business empire asked a federal court Monday to approve an order they proposed that would allow them to designate tax returns and other financial or business information as confidential in litigation of the case.
The Justice coal firms proposed the protective order after a Jan. 16 hearing in which their attorney asserted they had no ability to pay the mine safety fine debt, which accrued from 2014-19 and was due in full March 1, 2024.
The Salem, Virginia-based attorney, Aaron Houchens, told a Virginia federal court judge bankruptcy organization was “long overdue†for the Justice coal companies.
Judge scoffs at case’s ‘political connection’
Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., speaks during a Jan. 16, 2025, Senate confirmation hearing.
The judge, Senior District Judge Michael Urbanski, asked the parties at the Jan. 16 hearing to send him a proposed protective order that would shield documents shared in the evidence-gathering process between the companies and prosecutors from public view after Houchens asked that the companies’ financial information not be made public.
Houchens cited a “political connection†to the case, alluding to Justice’s Senate seat won in November after two terms as West Virginia’s governor.
“I’m not going to even think about that, OK?†Urbanski responded at the hearing. “I’m just not, and it’s not relevant. But what we have here is a number of corporations, regardless of who owns them, we have a number of corporations who made an agreement with the United States to pay these fines over time, and they owe the money.â€
Urbanski warned Houchens that if the case progresses to an open court proceeding, any items submitted for decision-making purposes would be considered “presumptively public†documents. Urbanski set an evidentiary hearing in the case for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 25 in Roanoke, Virginia, after saying the court lacked proof that the companies can’t pay the remaining debt.
Urbanski noted “on the flipside†that the defendants had paid roughly $4.5 million of the $5.13 million debt.
Justice companies agreed in 2020 to pay the debt
Prosecutors asked the court to find the companies in civil contempt in August, contending the firms knowingly failed to comply with their payment obligations under the 2020 agreement and a 2023 order from the Virginia court to comply with that agreement. The 2023 order required the companies pay over $409,000 in delinquent payments within 10 days after they failed to make required monthly payments from February through June of that year.
In a July 2023 status report citing “financial difficulties†among the companies filed with the court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the companies agreed to make weekly payments of $51,221 for 10 weeks to pay its past due balance.
But in August 2024, prosecutors asked the court to find the Justice companies in civil contempt, saying they still owed $579,041, five months after the debt was due in full, despite government reminders about their tardy and missing payments. Prosecutors said the companies were making an “attempt to escape†their financial obligations.
The prosecutors’ request for the court to hold the companies in civil contempt was pending until Thursday’s hearing.
Delinquent federal mine safety fines for mines controlled by the governor and his adult children, James C. “Jay†Justice III and Jillean Justice, comprised over 13% of total debt nationwide in August 2024, according to a Gazette-Mail analysis of Mine Safety and Health Administration data.
Long history of mine safety issues at Justice mines
Justice coal companies’ mine safety violations have grown as their collective debt has lingered.
The MSHA on Jan. 16 announced it issued 19 citations last month following an “impact inspection†at the Jay Justice-controlled Tams No. 1 Surface Mine in Raleigh County.
The MSHA reserves impact inspections for mines deemed in greater need of enforcement oversight due to poor compliance history, accidents or injuries.
Of the 19 citations issued for the Tams No. 1 Surface Mine, five were categorized as “Significant and Substantial,†a designation MSHA uses for hazards reasonably likely to result in serious injury.
The MSHA issued 20 federal safety and health violations responding to another Justice family mine impact inspection in July 2024. The agency found miners were exposed to a wide range of serious hazards at the Jay Justice-controlled Frontier Coal Co.’s Belcher Branch Mine in Wyoming County.
The Justice companies’ mine safety fine debts — consistently among the nation’s highest such totals — have contributed to hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and other legal liabilities mounting across the governor’s personal and business finances.
Justice’s companies have allowed intermittent lapses in prescription drug coverage that have endangered the health of retirees and their dependents in recent years.
Virginia-based Carter Bank scheduled an auction of Greenbrier Sporting Club property last year to help satisfy a nine-figure Justice family debt to the bank.
The auction was later canceled, and the Justice family and the bank announced the settlement of the dispute, in which the bank has sought $300 million-plus in debt admitted by the Justices.
Carter Bank reported in a news release last week that interest income lost from overdue loans owed by entities in which Justice has an interest grew $7.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 to amount to $65.1 million since the Justice portfolio was put on nonaccrual status during the second quarter of 2023. Nonaccrual status refers to loans no longer generating interest due to nonpayment.
Justice commuting by private jet
Meanwhile, Justice has been flying via a privately owned jet between Washington, D.C. and his Lewisburg home since he joined the Senate two weeks ago, according to a Wednesday , a Capitol Hill-focused news website.
Justice has been commuting to D.C. from his home nearly every day, slashing what would be a four-hour drive to a 40-minute flight, according to the report.
Justice’s Senate communication director William O’Grady declined to comment on the coal companies’ move to shield financial information from the public or the Punchbowl News report, though he did underscore the story quoting Justice as saying he would stop the private jet travel “as soon as I get a place to live†in Washington.
Last year, federal marshals seized a helicopter owned by Justice’s Bluestone Resources Inc. in response to Bluestone not paying any of a roughly $13 million 2021 judgment against it.
