Justice private jet travel ties persist amid $1.3M in new WV tax liens, auction limbo

Justice faces new state tax liens against key assets in his family business empire and the lingering threat of a public auction of hundreds of residential community parcels in the empire’s portfolio.

Punchbowl News, a Washington-focused political news website, reported last week Justice has persisted in commuting almost daily to Washington from Greenbrier Valley Airport near Lewisburg via a privately owned jet.

The Gazette-Mail has identified that jet, registered as a 2002 Cessna 560XL 13-seater, as having made 22 flights from Oct. 9 to Wednesday, most of which lasted less than an hour, according to flight records via FlightAware, a flight tracking data platform. The trips between Lewisburg and Washington typically have taken fewer than 40 minutes, with flight speeds regularly exceeding 300 mph for an approximately 200-mile distance.

Meanwhile, the West Virginia Tax Division is looking to run to ground what it says are unpaid taxes owed by Justice businesses.

The state Tax Division has issued three tax lien notices to the Justice family-controlled Greenbrier Hotel Corp. and Greenbrier Sporting Club Inc. that were filed with the Greenbrier County clerk last month indicating roughly $1.36 million in unremitted taxes.

The notices indicate the companies are indebted to the state for that amount in unremitted sales and use tax in addition to interest and penalties, all of which became final in May and June this year. The notices show Greenbrier Hotel Corp. owes roughly $1.3 million and Greenbrier Sporting Club owes $55,415, with liens that expire in June 2035, per state code.

Tax liens secure government interest in property when a taxpayer doesn’t pay their tax debt, depriving federal, state or local governments of revenue for public safety, education, sanitation and other essential services.

State liens are meant to ensure the state gets priority as a creditor before any financial transactions like property sales or use of property as collateral for loans can occur.

Enforcement actions the Tax Division may take include levying a taxpayer’s bank account, garnishing a taxpayer’s wages or seizing and selling a taxpayer’s property.

The state tax lien notices are separate from federal tax lien notices Justice and his wife, Cathy Justice, issued by the IRS filed with the Greenbrier County Clerk on Oct. 2 indicating they owe over $8 million in unpaid taxes for assessments that span more than a decade. Those notices list unpaid assessment balances for tax periods ending in 2009, 2017 and 2022.

Seven tax liens issued by tax officials in February 2024 for the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. totaled over $3.5 million.

In July 2024, state tax officials withdrew two February 2024 tax liens totaling $897,615 against the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. A third lien was withdrawn in April 2024 that totaled $388,540.

Nearly 400 parcels owned by the Justice family-controlled Justice Holdings LLC have been slated for a public auction scheduled for Oct. 29 to be overseen by a court-approved special commissioner to satisfy liens of the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association, Inc.

But the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to put on hold a case that had built momentum toward the auction, granting a Justice Holdings request for the court to suspend underlying legal proceedings headed toward a real estate sale. Justice Holdings had asked the court to halt the case until it rules on the firm’s request to block the Raleigh County Circuit Court from allegedly exceeding its powers in ordering the sale.

Glade Springs Village is a community consisting of some 750 residences. Formed as a nonprofit in 2001, the Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association’s members are comprised of those who buy property within Glade Springs Village. The association has contended foreclosing on assessment liens is the only evident way to obtain funds that Justice Holdings owes it.

In December 2024, Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge Todd Kirby — a former state delegate appointed five months earlier by then-Gov. Justice — directed that there be a public auction in line with his finding that the association held lien interest covering fiscal assessment years spanning 2019 to 2023.

The Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association responded to the Supreme Court of Appeals’ Wednesday order by urging the court to grant its motion to dismiss Justice Holdings’ request to block the circuit court from allegedly exceeding its powers in ordering the sale.

The association in its Wednesday filing asked the Supreme Court of Appeals to grant that motion to “efficiently conclude this case” so the special commissioner could proceed “without further delay” with the planned Oct. 29 lots foreclosure.

The association noted a June 2023 Supreme Court of Appeals decision affirming the circuit court’s finding that a state statute governing planned community and real estate cooperatives and obligating real estate tax payment for unit owners applies to Glade Springs Village.

Justice Holdings has argued the real estate never was lawfully added to the real estate community obligating payment of real estate taxes, insurance premiums and other expenses per state statute governing planned community and real estate cooperatives. The Justice firm has asserted that it’s therefore not subject to Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association assessment.

In its Wednesday filing, the association said it “has had to wait far too many years to enforce its automatic, statutory remedies” under the statute and governing documents for Glade Springs Village, and to foreclose on Justice Holdings lots in line with past circuit court approval.

The association reported it and the special commissioner had “incurred costs and created in the marketplace a well-publicized expectation” the commissioner’s sale of the lots would happen on Oct. 29.

In April 2024, the Raleigh County Circuit Court appointed Lewisburg-based attorney David Hammond as special commissioner to oversee enforcement of liens held by the association.

Justice tax liabilities piling up beyond state liens

The debts further indicate persistent failures of the Justice family to meet its financial obligations.

Justice business interests also control 59 properties in Greenbrier County for which $855,932 is owed in delinquent property taxes, according to that county’s delinquent property list published by the West Virginia Daily News on Sept. 16.

The properties include Greenbrier Golf & Tennis, Greenbrier Hotel Corp. and Greenbrier Sporting Club properties spanning roughly 1,745 acres combined in the county’s White Sulphur District, in addition to 30 Greenbrier Legacy Cottage properties.

Before agreements ended them, public auctions of the Justice family’s Greenbrier Hotel had been scheduled for August and October last year in response to a loan default.

Property taxes for over 300 Justice Holdings LLC parcels, mostly in the Queensglade area of Glade Springs Village were listed as delinquent by the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office last month. Justice Holdings LLC’s listed 2024 property tax delinquencies totaled over $37,000.

The listings extend a lengthy history of property taxes for parcels that loom large in Justice’s business empire being listed as delinquent.

In an annual Senate financial disclosure report filed in July, Justice reported liabilities incurred in 2024 ranging from $80 million to $125 million, comprising most of the $85.8 million to $151.7 million in overall liabilities he reported. Members of Congress typically report financial figures in ranges.

Justice’s liabilities incurred in 2024 were reported as consisting of a $50 million-plus judgment owed to Martinsville, Virginia-based Carter Bank, a line of credit ranging from $25 million to $50 million owed to White Sulphur Springs-based Greenbrier Holdings LLC and a judgment of $5 million to $25 million owed to Chicago-headquartered Western Surety Company.

Carter Bankshares Inc., Carter Bank’s holding company, indicated in a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that what had been a $301.9 million debt owed by the Justices had been reduced to $235.5 million as of June 30.

Justice claims 'political moves' behind his tax troubles   

Justice has claimed in the past without evidence that legal proceedings looking to collect reported debts from his business interests have been part of a political conspiracy to sabotage his Senate candidacy.

Justice made a similar claim during a virtual news conference Thursday, suggesting his Senate candidacy played a role in his businesses not getting what he asserted were owed tax refunds in a dispute dating back to 2009, the year Justice sold Bluestone Coal Corp. to Russian coal producer Mechel for more than $400 million plus millions of shares of Mechel stock. Justice bought back Bluestone in 2015 for $5 million.

“[T]he Biden administration’s in, Jim’s running for the Senate. If you don’t think these are political moves, you’re crazy,” Justice said.

The IRS’ tax lien notices indicating $8 million-plus in unpaid assessments were prepared Sept. 30, according to the documents — eight months into the Trump administration.

An IRS spokesperson has declined to comment on the agency’s tax lien notices issued to the Justices, citing federal law, which generally bars the agency from disclosing tax information of specific taxpayers.

Justice claimed Thursday he would come out ahead in his dispute with the IRS.

“I promise you to God above that what will happen is, Jim will end up with significantly more dollars from the IRS than what we owe the IRS,” Justice said. “It’s just a situation we’ve got to go through.”

Justice’s news conference began 27 minutes late and ended 23 minutes later — at 11:20 a.m. — after he answered three reporters' questions. Just over three hours later, the same Cessna jet left Washington, landing at Greenbrier Valley Airport around 3 p.m., per flight records.

“I’d say just let it be,” Justice had said during the news conference, “and see how it all plays out.”