West Virginia's richest man, now a candidate for governor, is paying his debts to the state's poorest county.
Just days after a front-page story in the Lexington Herald-Leader detailed how Justice-affiliated companies owe $3.5 million in delinquent property taxes to Kentucky counties, Jim Justice began paying down the remainder of the property taxes he owed in West Virginia.
Over the past two days, Justice-owned companies have made payments of about $43,000, $74,000 and $92,000 to McDowell County to cover delinquent property taxes, chief tax deputy Shelia Woolridge said.
Justice also made two payments to McDowell County, totaling nearly $1 million, in April and June.
The $43,000 payment covered a delinquent property tax debt on a piece of real estate that was scheduled to be auctioned off by the county today, McDowell County Sheriff Martin West said.
The two larger payments cover personal property taxes on mining equipment held by two Justice-owned companies, Justice Highwall Mining and Justice Energy.
Justice still owes two years of delinquent real estate taxes on a coal seam in McDowell County. The State Auditor's Office has placed a lien on that property, owned by James C. Justice Companies LLC, giving Justice 18 months to pay the back taxes and fees to get the property back.
On that property, Woolridge said, Justice owed about $100,000 in 2013 taxes and fees to the auditor's office and about $95,000 in 2014 taxes to McDowell County.
The back taxes relate to Justice's February purchase of mining and coal-processing complexes in Wyoming and McDowell counties from Mechel OAO, a Russian-based company.
Justice had sold the mines, under the name Bluestone Coal, to Mechel in 2009, receiving more than 80 times the amount that he ended up buying them back for.
In 2014, when Mechel still owned the mines, the county sheriff's office sued the Russian company for back taxes, eventually receiving a payment of $800,000.
Mechel had idled the mines, saying it had been losing an average of $60 million annually before selling back to Justice.
"He owed us $1.2 million from when he took over the coal mines again," West said. "I told him I was going to meet him at the 18th hole, where he was giving out them hundreds."
In Wyoming County, Justice paid delinquent property taxes in February and March, soon after repurchasing the mines.
Tom Lusk, a spokesman for Southern Coal, another Justice company, said the tax debts in West Virginia - initially nearly $4 million - were racked up by Mechel.
"There was no hope of these counties ever being paid. These were not Justice obligations, they were Russian obligations," Lusk said in a prepared statement. "Many county services to the good citizens of these counties did not have to be curtailed because these obligations were paid."
In Kentucky, Lusk blamed the flagging coal industry and said the taxes would be paid in full.
"It should be pointed out that many other companies have opted for an easy out - bankruptcy - where taxes, vendors and workers are all devastated," he said.
Justice's repayments - his companies still owe $3.5 million in Kentucky - come as the West Virginia gubernatorial campaign shows signs of beginning in earnest.
On Tuesday, Justice's opponent in the Democratic primary, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, reiterated his call for Democratic debates, one he first issued in September.
"Jim Justice can only hide behind his handlers and the walls of his multi-million dollar resort for so long," Kessler's campaign manager, C.D. Marshall, said in a prepared statement. "West Virginians deserve to know where this billionaire stands on issues that affect the lives of hardworking families."
Grant Herring, a Justice campaign spokesman, labeled the call for debates "political grandstanding."
"There will be plenty of time and other ways to discuss the issues," Herring said.
Justice, who bought the iconic Greenbrier resort out of bankruptcy in 2010, released the first television ad of the campaign on Wednesday.
Like Justice's campaign to date, it is long on personal accomplishments and short on policy.
About a dozen Greenbrier employees appear individually on screen, crediting Justice with saving their jobs, restoring their health and pension benefits and expanding the resort.
"What I've done for The Greenbrier, I can do for the state of West Virginia," Justice said.
The spot will air in "heavy rotation" in markets around the state, Herring said, but he declined to release the amount spent on the ad buy.
The unpaid taxes are the latest revelation in a string of payment disputes involving Justice's companies. He owns dozens of companies, primarily in coal and agriculture, and has long insisted that each company will stand, or fall, on its own.
"I'm running 81 companies now, and you can't commingle everything that they do," Justice said in 2013. "You may have an agriculture company doing really good, but you can't run ag funds over here with XYZ and move XYZ to ABC."
He has often blamed the downturn in the coal industry for his companies' financial problems.
In May, a Pennsylvania resident sued two Justice companies, alleging unpaid debts from a 2013 coal deal. That case is pending.
A National Public Radio report last year found that his approximately 70 mines owed nearly $2 million in overdue fines. His mines had 500 overdue penalties, four times as many as any other delinquent mine owner, the report said. NPR said Justice's mines employ about 1,200 miners in five states.
In November 2013, seven Justice companies were sued by a Beckley-based coal machinery company for about $1.1 million in unpaid services. Justice filed a $7.5 million countersuit, calling it a dispute with "good friends."
In June 2013, The Associated Press reported on nine lawsuits filed against Justice companies in three states, seeking money for unpaid fees. Most of those lawsuits were settled.
In 2011, Delta Air Lines sued The Greenbrier, seeking $4 million while alleging that the resort had not met minimum revenue guarantees promised in return for providing flights to Greenbrier Valley Airport. That lawsuit was settled and the terms were not disclosed.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.