We’ve written about the Justice family’s debts a lot. Because, frankly, there are a lot of them — seemingly multiplying by the day — and therefore we have much to say. But there are two debts, one of which recently came to light, that are of particular interest, because it wasn’t Justice family or big bank money that vanished. Rather, it was taxpayer and employee money that disappeared into the financial blackhole that seems to surround The Greenbrier.
As previously reported, The Greenbrier has faced a series of liens placed against it for failing to remit to the state sales taxes it collected. (Companies collect sales tax at the point of sale, then send that money on to the government.) Two of those liens amounting to $897,615 were released in recent weeks. The Greenbrier’s remaining five liens total nearly $2,753,000.
Here’s the thing: That is not Justice family money. That is money that patrons and customers paid.
The new revelation is that The Greenbrier hasn’t paid Amalgamated National Health Fund — the company that provides Greenbrier employees with health insurance — in four months, and owes $2.4 million in insurance premiums, with another $1.2 million coming due soon. But here’s the kicker: Those delinquent payments include money that was withheld from employee paychecks to cover the employee contribution.
For months, The Greenbrier has been collecting money from customers, patrons and employees yet that money never made it to the intended recipients — the state tax department and the Health Fund, respectively.
Where did that money go?
Was it used to pay top executives and shareholders, even as creditors came calling? Was it shifted to cover the Justices’ other debts?
The one place we can say it likely hasn’t gone is in to Jim Justice’s Senate campaign. He hasn’t personally contributed to his own campaign coffers, and although the James C. Justice Companies have contributed to the national and state Republican parties, they have not donated directly to Justice’s campaign, according to Open Secrets.
So where did the money go?
It’s one thing for the Justices to play fast and loose with their own funds. It’s another for them to do it with customer and employee money.
Justice swears all of this is a political witch hunt because he’s running for Senate. If anything, Justice’s presence in politics has likely protected him, his family and their businesses for years. If any other individual or small business owner failed to pay vendors and creditors, they’d have been facing lawsuits long ago and facing bankruptcy now. If they failed to pay the government the way the Justices have — not just sales taxes, but property taxes, too — they’d likely be facing criminal charges for tax evasion or fraud. Ditto if they pocketed employees’ health insurance premiums.
What we’re seeing now is unlikely related to politics. Rather, once one creditor called in its debt, revealing the shakiness of the Justices’ financial house of cards, other creditors followed suit, hoping to get something of what they were owed before there was nothing left.
And while all that is of public interest, it’s the disappearing sales taxes and insurance premiums (and, to a lesser extent, the unpaid property taxes) that require a full reckoning and disclosure. The public has a right to know: Where did the money go?
