Sen. Jim Justice (R-West Virginia) and his wife agreed to pay over $5 million in unpaid income taxes that the Internal Revenue Service said dated back to 2009.
According to court filings Monday, the agreement was struck hours after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Justice and his wife, Cathy, seeking $5,164,739.75 in unpaid federal income tax assessments owed as of August. The civil complaint said the debt originated from the 2009 tax year and included penalties and interest accrued since.
Attorneys for all parties signed a joint motion stating that the couple agreed to pay the full amount in addition to statutory interest. The motion, which needs to be approved by a judge, did not say when the money would be paid. Justice’s Senate office and an attorney representing the couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.
Justice, 74, long been a fixture in West Virginia’s political and business scenes, coming from a prominent coal-mining family. In 2016, he was elected as the state’s governor as a Democrat, before switching to the Republican Party the following year. In 2024, after Justice had completed the maximum two consecutive terms permitted as governor, he replaced Joe Manchin III (D) as U.S. senator for West Virginia.
According to Forbes, Justice sold a collection of his most profitable West Virginia coal mines to Mechel, a Russian firm, for hundreds of millions of dollars in 2009. The lucrative sale propelled him onto the magazine’s list of billionaires until 2021, but his fortunes soon shifted as his liabilities mounted in the form of personally guaranteed bank loans, debt, court judgments and environmental liabilities. In January, Forbes estimated that Justice’s liabilities exceeded his assets.
Politico reported last month that the IRS filed notices of a tax lien against Justice and his wife, saying they owed more than $8 million. In a news briefing last month, Justice suggested that the IRS’s claims against him were politically motivated and said that much of the owed money was due to interest and penalties accruing on a “few dollars” that the IRS said he owed.
“It’s more of a political move but at the same time it’s just a situation that big companies deal with all the time,” Justice said. In August and September, local outlets also reported that the West Virginia Tax Division filed tax claims totaling over $1.3 million against hotel and sporting companies belonging to Justice.
The post Sen. Jim Justice, wife to pay $5 million in back taxes to settle IRS suit appeared first on Washington Post.
