That’s a lot of kibble.
Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), whose pet English bulldog Babydog has been a DC darling since he took office in January, has agreed to pay more than $5 million to settle a tax debt dating to 2009.
The Justice Department filed a complaint in Beckley, WV, federal court Monday claiming that Justice and his wife Cathy owed $5,164,739.75 in “federal income taxes, penalties, and interest” as of Aug. 4.
The complaint claimed that the Justices had “have neglected or refused to make full payment,” despite being given notice by the Treasury Department.
Later Monday, the DOJ and the Justices filed a joint motion agreeing to pay the outstanding amount.
Justice, who served as West Virginia governor from 2017 until his election to the Senate last year, inherited a coal mining and agriculture business from his father and at one point was a billionaire.
In 2009, Justice sold Bluestone Coal Corporation for $436 million in cash plus an undisclosed amount in shares to a Russian company called Mechel, which he claimed turned the business into a “god-awful mess.”
The future governor and senator bought Bluestone back from Mechel in 2015 for just $5 million, but has since been hit with a series of lawsuits to settle outstanding debts — including unpaid mining fees and fines for safety violations, as well as withheld royalty payments to a Mechel subsidiary, Caroleng Investments.
In June of last year, a Delaware federal judge ordered Justice to sell six of his family companies to help settle a $10 million debt to Caroleng, which had also forced the seizure and sale the previous year of a helicopter owned by another firm tied to the senator.
