West Virginia Governor Jim Justice files $1B lawsuit accusing Carter Bank of ‘predatory’ loan schemes after his companies racked up debt of $740M

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against a regional bank, accusing the lender of ensnaring his family businesses with a “predatory” lending system.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday names Virginia-based Carter Bank and Trust as a defendant, as well as the bank’s CEO, Litz Van Dyke, and members of the company’s board of directors.

Justice is the plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with his wife, son and more than a dozen companies in the family’s business empire, which includes massive coal mines and ranches and a luxury resort.

The lawsuit accuses Carter Bank of ensnaring the Justice companies in a “predatory scheme to maintain the flow of interest payments” on a roughly $740 million 2017 loan portfolio.

Coming after Justice, his wife Cathy Justice and son James C. “Jay” Justice signed pleas of judgment in April for more than $300 million, which the family wants thrown out in a separate proceeding in court in Virginia.

A spokesperson for Carter Bank referred DailyMail.com to the company’s public statement, which dismissed the Justice Department’s allegations as “false and misleading.”

The 36-page complaint filed by the Justice Department is heavily redacted, citing a non-disclosure agreement with the bank that is disputed by the governor’s lawyers.

The lawsuit states that the Justice family established a relationship with Carter Bank from 2001 to 2017, and that this business relationship was largely based on the ties between the Justice family and the bank’s founder, Worth Carter.

But the lawsuit alleges that after the death of its founder, the bank prevented the Justice family from moving their banking operations elsewhere, “effectively taking control of the Justice companies and making it impossible for the plaintiffs to ever fully repay their loans.” to pay off’.

The judges allege that Van Dyke and Carter President Phyllis Karavatakis took over management responsibilities after the founder’s death and ‘showed enormous hostility towards the Justice companies and the Judges personally.’

“This growing hostility came despite the excellent relationship that had lasted more than sixteen years between the Justices and Carter Bank, during which, to the bank’s great benefit, the Justice companies had never missed a payment,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit accuses Carter Bank of several instances of “bad faith and misconduct” used to keep the Justice companies on the hook.

In one case, the bank agreed to a payment forbearance but backed out at the last minute, leading to a technical default that the bank used to impose sweeping changes to the terms of a loan, the complaint said.

Carter Bank accused the Justice companies of defaulting on their loan obligations

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice holds up the back of his dog Babydog as a message to haters during his State of the State address in the House chambers

In its statement, Carter Bank accused the Justice companies of defaulting on their loan obligations.

“The company and Carter Bank deny the allegations in the redacted lawsuit and intend to vigorously defend all claims in the lawsuit,” the statement said.

The bank also said many of the allegations in the new lawsuit reiterated claims from a lawsuit the justices filed in May 2021 that was dismissed out of court by a judge.

Justice’s companies are facing a number of challenges, including a DOJ lawsuit filed in May alleging that its 13 mining companies “breached their legal obligations” by failing to pay fines and penalties.

According to the 128-page filing, Justice Department mining companies “failed to pay the uncontested fines imposed for their uncontested violations” after being cited by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement with more than 130 violations totaling $5 million in civil penalties. Department of the Interior.

Governor Justice, a Republican, and his son worked together to govern a vast empire.

The elderly judge is reportedly the richest person in West Virginia.

The Justice Department would have done that in 2009 made a fortune when he sold Bluestone Resources, a collection of mines, to a Russian firm, only to later have to buy it back amid claims of mismanagement while under Russian control.

The father and son said in an earlier lawsuit that their goal was to “return Bluestone to profitability,” Forbes reported.

The billionaire governor, owner of the legendary Greenbrier resort, is also having a ‘tough time paying the bills,’ Forbes reported in 2019, with him and his companies facing $10 million in court fines while paying millions more in tax liens and damages, along with money owed for mine reclamation.

The Justice Department-owned or controlled companies are incorporated in Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware.