LEWISBURG – The $8 million lien filed against the daughter of Gov. Jim Justice could be related to the family’s sale of coal businesses to a Russian company.
A notice of a federal tax lien was filed March 26 in Greenbrier County Clerk Robin Loudermilk’s office by the Internal Revenue Service against Jill Justice Long. While the filing provides little information other than numbers, it does show all of the liens listed are for personal income taxes for Justice Long, who now is president of The Greenbrier resort.
A bulk of the $8,033,935.45 total is from her personal income taxes for 2009. That amount is more than $6.5 million. Justice Long was in med school in 2009, but she also was listed as an owner in Delaware Court of Chancery filings related to a 2014 lawsuit filed by Mechel Bluestone and Mechel Mining against the James C. Justice Companies, the governor and family.
Gov. Jim Justice
| State of West Virginia
Her father purchased The Greenbrier in 2009 as well, and the Russian company Mechel bought the Justice family coal business Bluestone Coal for $436 million in cash and 83.3 million Mechel preferred shares. Mechel sold Bluestone assets back to Justice in 2015 for $5 million.
Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also show Justice Long received and sold Mechel stock in 2009.
A tax expert who didn’t want to be identified said a combination of cash at the close of that Mechel sale in 2009 and selling Mechel stock “could leave a tax bill in that ballpark.” The same expert did say it was “odd that she didn’t pay but the others (the governor, his son Jay Justice and James C. Justice Companies Inc.) did.”
Another tax expert who also wanted to remain anonymous said if Justice Long owes that much to the IRS, she likely had three times more money than that and spent it or simply didn’t file a return. But he said he doubted that last scenario was the case.
The second tax expert also said Justice Long likely has a state tax bill of about $2 million based on the federal lien. He also noted that having a local Virginia-based revenue officer handling the matter is “probably bad news for her (Justice Long).”
Another amount on the tax lien of almost $1 million is from her personal income taxes for 2012. The other years listed are 2011, 2013 and 2017.
The residence address listed is 302 South Jefferson Street in Roanoke, Virginia. That address is the business address for several companies owned by the Justice family, including Bluestone Industries, Southern Coal and Justice Management Services.
The lien says the IRS already has made a demand for payment with no success. With the lien, the IRS can demand property and rights to property owed by Justice Long.
The lien also mentions the lien is being handled by the IRS Small Business/Self Employed Division, and it is signed by a revenue officer from an IRS office with a Virginia area code. A spokesman for the IRS said the agency could not provide any other information regarding the lien.
In addition, calls and messages to The Greenbrier seeking information were not returned. The same goes for the Greenbrier County law office of Justice Long’s husband Adam Long. The governor’s office said it had no comment at this time.
A physician, Justice Long also practices at The Greenbrier Clinic. She is a graduate of Marshall University and The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia.
In 2019, Justice Long was mentioned in an Associated Press report regarding a federal subpoena involving The Greenbrier and Old White Charities, a nonprofit related to the resort. The subpoena seemed to focus on charitable work related to golf tournaments held at the resort.
Gov. Justice denied any wrongdoing in response to the federal subpoena. The Greenbrier did host a PGA event from 2010 to 2019 except for 2016 when flooding canceled the event. Although the parties had a contract through 2026, the event was removed from the PGA schedule in 2020 via “a mutual agreement.”