CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) 鈥� The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has reached an agreement with a credit collection company to as he runs for U.S. Senate, the resort announced Thursday.
The Republican governor's family had been set to appear in court Friday to ask a judge to halt the auction of The Greenbrier resort's hotel, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. That hearing has been canceled.
鈥淚t鈥檚 taken care of, and we move forward, and The Greenbrier is as whole as it can possibly be,鈥� Justice said at a news briefing. 鈥淭he Greenbrier is going to be in our family forevermore.鈥�
The 710-room hotel has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats. The resort held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.
The hotel came under threat of auction after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by the governor to a credit collection company, McCormick 101 鈥� a subsidiary of Beltway Capital 鈥� which declared it to be in default. In a statement, the Justice family said it had reached an agreement with Beltway Capital to 鈥渞eceive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024.鈥�
The family said it had already secured the money, although the Justices did not specify the amount.
鈥淏eltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform,鈥� the statement reads.
A message left with Beltway Capital wasn鈥檛 immediately returned Thursday.
Justice defended his family's business practices at Thursday's briefing and repeated past claims that JPMorgan Chase's sale of The Greenbrier loan was a politically motivated effort to hurt his U.S. Senate campaign.
鈥淲e had a 14-year working relationship with JPMorgan, and then shortly after the primary where I was the winner 鈥� hands down, you鈥檙e going to the U.S. Senate, no matter what anybody says under the sun 鈥� it makes, it made, total no sense other than political, it made no sense at all,鈥� he said.
Justice said that his family had made payments on the JPMorgan loan as recently as June and that it was notified the loan had been sold in July without prior warning. JPMorgan Chase did not respond to an email seeking comment.
If the hotel had been sold, Justice said, 鈥渢here would have been carnage and devastation like you can鈥檛 imagine to the great people of The Greenbrier," referring to jobs that could have been lost.
The auction, which had been set to occur at a courthouse Tuesday in the small city of Lewisburg, involved 60.5 acres, including the hotel and parking lot.
Justice family attorneys filed a motion this week for a preliminary injunction to try to halt the auction of The Greenbrier. They claimed that a 2014 deed of trust approved by the governor was defective because JPMorgan didn鈥檛 obtain consent from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.'s directors or owners, and that auctioning the property violates the company鈥檚 obligation to act in 鈥済ood faith and deal fairly鈥� with the corporation.
They also argued, in part, that the auction would harm the economy and threaten hundreds of jobs.
About 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received notice this week from an attorney for the health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they would lose coverage Tuesday, the scheduled date of the auction, unless the Justice family paid $2.4 million in missing contributions.
Peter Bostic, a union official with the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board, said that the Justice family hasn鈥檛 contributed to employees鈥� health fund in four months, and that an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter the board received from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the fund.
The letter also said some contributions were taken out of employees鈥� paychecks but never transferred to the fund, concerning union officials.
Justice dismissed concerns about the claims Thursday, telling reporters that 鈥渋nsurance payments were made and were being made on a regular basis.鈥�
鈥淭here is no way that the great union employees at The Greenbrier are going to go without insurance,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here is no possible way.鈥�
Justice is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat Glenn Elliott, a former mayor of Wheeling. Justice, who owns dozens of companies and had a net worth estimated at $513 million by Forbes Magazine in 2021, has been accused in of being late in paying millions for family business debts and fines for .
He began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009.
Justice鈥檚 family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only 鈥渞esort within a resort.鈥� That property was in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor鈥檚 family, but a court battle delayed that process.
Leah Willingham And John Raby, The Associated Press
