This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Mountain State Spotlight. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.
Federal authorities sued West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s business empire on Wednesday, seeking $7.6 million in unpaid environmental fines and overdue fees. The move adds to Justice’s growing legal and debt problems and comes just a month into his campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Justice Department lawyers filed the suit to collect fines assessed by the Interior Department against 13 companies for strip mining violations that “pose health and safety risks or threaten environmental harm” to neighboring communities.
For years, Justice has been dogged by allegations that his family businesses haven’t paid their business and regulatory debts. In 2020, an investigation by ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight found that the total judgments and settlements owed by Justice family businesses had reached $140 million. The review found hundreds of lawsuits that dated back more than 30 years, with many filed by workers, vendors, business partners and government agencies, alleging they hadn’t been paid.
This week’s lawsuit is the third time in the last two months that either federal agencies have pursued legal action against the Justice companies or a court has ruled against them over fines for environmental and worker safety...
Hyderabad: BRS leader Aedla Sudhakar Reddy strongly criticised the statements of HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath regarding the status of Bathukammakunta. The official had claimed that the place...