GOP governor personally on the hook for $700 million in loans after business failure: WSJ

According to an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) is looking at a major cash crunch and owes nearly $700 million due to personally guaranteeing loans linked to a business failure of a lender.

The report notes that the billionaire lawmaker took out the loans for his coal business with the now-defunct Greensill Capital, which in turn sold them off to "investment funds managed by Credit Suisse Group ."

With Greenpoint's failure, the Journal states Justice now faces investors who want to be made whole.

"The Swiss bank froze the investment funds in March and is in talks with Mr. Justice's Bluestone Resources Inc. and other borrowers to recoup money to make investors whole, according to the people familiar with the discussions. Credit Suisse is under pressure to recover money quickly and has named Bluestone as one of three large borrowers from the Greensill funds that it has identified in its recovery efforts," the reports states, adding that "Bluestone hadn't expected to begin repaying the Greensill loans until 2023 at the earliest" following accusations of fraud.

The Journal also notes that Justice's financial woes aren't limited to the Greensill failure, adding the Republican lawmaker, "... is also dealing with unrelated lawsuits alleging parts of his sprawling network of coal companies breached payment contracts or failed to deliver coal."

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