Welcome to the Greenbrier, the Governor-Owned Luxury Resort Filled With Conflicts of Interest
Gov. Jim Justice is West Virginias richest man and owns its most storied resort. When lobbyists and state agencies book there, he profits. Heres how the governor, dubbed Big Jim, became West Virginias little Trump.
On a sunny Monday afternoon two and a half years ago, Jim Justice, the wealthiest man in West Virginia, took the oath of office as the states 36th governor.
Standing at the base of the Capitol steps in Charleston, he assured his fellow West Virginians that his vast business empire of coal mines, vacation resorts and agricultural companies many of them regulated by the state agencies he would soon control posed no conflicts with his new job.
I want absolutely nothing. Nothing, Justice said. I dont want a thing for me or my family in any way. All I want is goodness for this incredible state and its incredible people.
Hours later, the new governor held his inaugural ball, not at a Charleston hotel or the local civic center, as his predecessors long had, but at The Greenbrier, a palatial resort 120 miles from the Capitol.
The hotels owner: Jim Justice.
Read more:
https://www.propublica.org/article/west-virginia-greenbrier-governor-jim-justice-little-trump