Senator Jim Justice, R-W.V., agreed Monday to pay more than $5 million in unpaid federal income taxes dating back to 2009, settling a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department just hours after it was filed.
The Department of Justice Tax Division filed suit Monday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, alleging Justice and his wife Cathy had “neglected or refused to make full payment of those assessments to the United States” despite being contacted by the Treasury Department and given notice of their debt.
The lawsuit sought $5,164,739.75 in unpaid federal income tax assessments owed as of August, plus any relief the court “deems just and proper.”
A filing later Monday showed the Justice Department and the Justices had settled, with the couple agreeing to pay $5,164,739.75 “plus statutory interest and other additions to tax accruing thereafter.” A judge still needs to approve the settlement agreement.
The tax settlement is the latest in a series of mounting financial and legal problems facing Justice, who was sworn into the Senate in January after serving as West Virginia’s governor from 2017 to 2025.
The IRS filed liens against Justice and his wife last month totaling more than $8 million on unpaid taxes dating to 2009. One of the notices referenced a federal income tax assessment of more than $3 million for the tax year 2009.
Justice addressed the IRS claims at an October news conference, suggesting the collection efforts were politically motivated.
“It’s just a situation we’ve got to go through,” Justice said at the time. “It’s more of a political move but at the same time it’s just a situation that big companies deal with all the time. You saw all the stuff that President Trump dealt with. At the end of the day, I’d say just let it be and see how it all plays out.”
Justice said his companies “are complicated and complex” and that his children “are doing a magnificent job” running them.
The tax issues come just after a federal judge in Tennessee found Justice liable for more than $29 million in civil damages and prejudgment interest to Lexon Insurance Company over a breached surety-bond contract tied to his coal mining business.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. ruled October 30 in the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee that Justice owed just over $29 million to the Tennessee-based surety bond provider. The debt consists of unpaid premiums and collateral obligations plus prejudgment interest dating back to July 2023.
The Tennessee case stemmed from agreements Justice made in 2018 and 2019 when he was governor, guaranteeing that his coal companies would timely pay Lexon $5 million and $20 million respectively. Justice personally guaranteed in the agreements that the obligations would be met.
Lexon sued Justice in July 2023 after his coal companies stopped making required premium and collateral payments in 2021, according to court documents. The surety company had issued bonds totaling roughly $112 million to Justice’s coal mining operations as of August 2025.
A judge last year ordered six of Justice’s family companies to be sold to satisfy outstanding debt.
Justice, 74, inherited a coal mining business from his father and built a massive empire before entering politics. He was once considered the wealthiest person in West Virginia, though Forbes estimated in January that his liabilities now exceed his assets.
Justice won election as West Virginia governor as a Democrat in 2016 before switching to the Republican Party the following year. He defeated his Democratic opponent in the 2024 Senate race by more than 40 percentage points, succeeding Joe Manchin, who retired after serving as a Democrat and later an independent.
President Donald Trump won West Virginia by a similar margin in 2024. Justice is considered a staunch political ally of Trump.