GOP Sen. Jim Justice sued by federal government over $5 million in back taxes

Sen. Jim Justice Faces $5 Million Federal Tax Lawsuit

Charleston, W.Va. — U.S. Sen. Jim Jus­tice, R‑W.Va., is fac­ing a $5 mil­lion law­suit from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment over unpaid tax­es dat­ing back more than 15 years.

The com­plaint, filed Mon­day in the South­ern Dis­trict of West Vir­ginia, alleges that Jus­tice and his wife received repeat­ed notices from the U.S. Trea­sury Depart­ment regard­ing their 2009 tax debt but “have neglect­ed or refused to make full pay­ment.”

The fed­er­al suit demands full pay­ment plus any addi­tion­al relief the court deems appro­pri­ate. Jus­tice has not com­ment­ed pub­licly on the fil­ing, which was first report­ed by Bloomberg Law.

Just last month, the IRS filed liens exceed­ing $8 mil­lion against Jus­tice and his wife for unpaid tax­es from the same peri­od. A sep­a­rate rul­ing last year required the sale of six fam­i­ly-owned com­pa­nies to set­tle out­stand­ing debts.

The Jus­tice fam­i­ly, own­ers of the Green­bri­er Resort in White Sul­phur Springs, nar­row­ly avoid­ed fore­clo­sure in 2024 after set­tling oth­er finan­cial dis­putes.

In ear­li­er remarks to local media, Jus­tice described his busi­ness net­work as “com­pli­cat­ed and com­plex,” praised his children’s man­age­ment, and claimed the col­lec­tion actions were polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed.

Jus­tice, who took office in Jan­u­ary after defeat­ing his Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent by over 40 points, pre­vi­ous­ly served as West Virginia’s gov­er­nor from 2017 to 2025 and was once cel­e­brat­ed as the bil­lion­aire heir to the Blue­stone coal empire.