- West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is reportedly on the hook for $700 million in loans from Greensill, the collapsed financial firm.
- Justice personally guaranteed loans Greensill made to his coal companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Credit Suisse is trying to claw back cash for people who invested in its Greensill-linked funds.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is personally liable for around $700 million in loans that the collapsed financial firm Greensill Capital made to his coal companies, according to a report.
Justice and his wife guaranteed the loans from Greensill to his coal businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the issue and documents.
Greensill, which collapsed into bankruptcy in March, had packaged the loans and sold them to Credit Suisse, The Journal reported. Now, Credit Suisse is in talks with Justice’s Bluestone Resources and other major borrowers from Greensill to recoup the money and repay investors, per The Journal.
The Swiss bank told investors in a recent notice that Bluestone owes nearly $700 million, the WSJ reported.
Bluestone said in a lawsuit brought in March that it had not expected to start repaying the loans until at least 2023.
The personal liability of Justice, who has been governor of West Virginia since 2017 and is a Republican, adds to his financial pressures. Forbes knocked the politician and businessman off its billionaires list earlier this year, due in large part to Greensill’s collapse.
Justice’s companies are also in legal disputes with other companies over payment contracts and coal deliveries, The Journal reported said. They have settled a number of disputes in recent years over alleged non-payment of bills, according to news outlet ProPublica.
Bluestone, Credit Suisse, and a representative for Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bluestone and Justice’s representatives declined to comment to The Journal.
As well as the guarantees from the governor and his wife, Justice’s son James C. Justice III guaranteed loans up to a certain limit, The Journal reported.
The collapse of Greensill has heaped pressure on Credit Suisse, which is frantically trying to recoup its losses. It said in April that it was focused on three main borrowers: Bluestone, British-Indian steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, and SoftBank-backed construction company Katerra.
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