U.S. Senator forced to shell out millions after committing a shocking crime
No one should be above the law. And that principle is finally playing out.
Because a U.S. Senator was forced to shell out millions after committing a shocking crime.
Babydog’s Owner Settles Multimillion IRS Tab
West Virginia’s freshman Senator Jim Justice – the coal-country billionaire whose lovable English bulldog Babydog has become a Capitol Hill sensation – has agreed to pay Uncle Sam more than $5 million to clear a 15-year-old tax lien tied to his family’s business empire.
The $5.16 Million Tax Bill Comes Due
On Monday, the Justice Department filed a civil complaint in federal court in Beckley, West Virginia, alleging that Senator Justice and his wife Cathy owed exactly $5,164,739.75 in “federal income taxes, penalties, and interest” as of August 4.
The filing accused the couple of having “neglected or refused to make full payment” despite repeated notices from the Treasury Department.
Hours later, both sides filed a joint motion announcing that the Justices had agreed to pay the full amount, effectively resolving the case on the same day it was filed.
From Billionaire Deal to Russian Reversal and IRS Headache
The roots of the tax debt trace back to 2009, when Justice – then a private citizen and one of America’s richest men – sold his Bluestone Coal Corporation to Russian steel-and-mining giant Mechel for $436 million in cash plus an undisclosed equity stake.
Justice later described the Russian ownership era as turning his former company into a “god-awful mess.”
In 2015, he bought Bluestone back from Mechel for a mere $5 million – a fire-sale price that triggered years of litigation over lingering debts, unpaid royalties, safety fines, and reclamation fees.
Those battles have already cost Justice dearly: last year a Delaware federal judge ordered the forced sale of six family companies to satisfy a $10 million judgment owed to Mechel’s U.S. subsidiary Caroleng Investments, and in 2023 another Justice-linked entity had its corporate helicopter seized and auctioned off.
Monday’s settlement with the IRS marks the latest chapter in the long financial aftermath of the Mechel transaction – one that even Babydog’s viral fame can’t entirely wag away.
