Lawyers: The Greenbrier’s owners are four months delinquent on millions in health insurance payments

The owners of The Greenbrier Hotel have fallen four months and millions of dollars behind on their payments for employee health insurance, according to notification by the Amalgamated National Health Fund.

The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation is made up of close relatives and associates of Gov. Jim Justice.

Lawyers for the Health Fund wrote in a letter to Adam Long, treasurer of The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation and also the governor’s son-in-law, that the payments must be made by early next week.

If that doesn’t happen, the attorneys for the Health Fund wrote, healthcare benefits will be suspended for all of The Greenbrier’s covered employees.

The Health Fund says the owners are delinquent on $2.4 million in health premium contributions, with another $1.2 million in premiums soon due. Lawyers for the Health Fund say those delinquent contributions include money that was deducted from worker pay but not remitted to the insurer for coverage.

The lawyers for the Health Fund gave a deadline of August 27, early next week, to make the payments. If that deadline isn’t hit, the attorneys wrote, than not only could insurance be suspended for hotel workers but the Health Fund could file suit for the contributions as well as interest and attorneys fees.

The delinquent payments were first reported in The Real WV, which provides news coverage in the Greenbrier County area.

The Greenbrier Hotel has not yet commented on the notification.

The Greenbrier Council of Labor Unions, which represents workers at the resort, stated that “we are heartbroken and disappointed to learn that The Greenbrier Hotel despite its contractual and legal obligation to do so, has become severely delinquent to our Health Insurance carrier.

“Additionally, we are concerned to learn that the Greenbrier has not even remitted to the Fund the Employees’ share of the Health Benefit contribution which the Greenbrier has been deducting from the employee’s paychecks.”

Peter Bostic, chairman of the Greenbrier Council of Labor Unions, continued by saying, “The Greenbrier’s delinquency has put our members’ health care benefits in severe jeopardy and is morally and legally wrong.

“Our members have met their obligation by working hard every day and paying their portion to The Greenbrier. The Greenbrier has neglected its obligation to its employees.”

Jim Justice gained goodwill and steps toward statewide name recognition when he bought The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in spring of 2009. Justice, a two-term governor, is now a Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and is considered the frontrunner because of  his broad name identification and West Virginia’s recent voting trends.

However, several financial pressures have crashed down on the resort owners in recent weeks.

The Greenbrier Hotel has been announced for auction on the courthouse steps at 2 p.m. August 27 — next Tuesday — because of default on the terms of a longstanding loan through the financial giant JPMorgan Chase. A few weeks ago, JPMorgan Chase sold loan documents including the deed of trust to a credit collection company, McCormick 101.

McCormick 101 is concurrently suing The Greenbrier Hotel Corporation in New York over the loan, claiming breach of commercial contract. The credit collection company is asking for $24 million in principal and $16 million in interest.

Lawyers representing the owners of The Greenbrier Hotel on Monday filed for a preliminary injunction to halt the forced auction of the historic resort.

Meanwhile, the state Tax Department still has several sales tax liens on The Greenbrier. Two of those amounting to $897,615 were released in recent weeks. The Greenbrier still has five liens remaining, adding up to $2,752,907.

A tax lien is a legal claim against the assets of a person or business who fails to pay taxes owed.

Merchants collect sales taxes from customers but that’s never their money. It’s the customer’s money flowing to the government with the merchant in a middle role to pass those collections — or remit them — on to the tax official.

Vendors such as The Greenbrier Hotel are supposed to impose sales taxes at the time of purchase. West Virginia sales taxes are required to be file and remitted monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on an assigned filing frequency.

Governor Justice has contended that the financial problems, in particular the forced auction of The Greenbrier, are the result of political scheming by forces who don’t want him to help tip the U.S. Senate majority to Republicans.

“At the end of the day, it has to be driven by something,” Justice said last week during an administration news briefing. “I truly do believe that it is a political play. Everybody in the world that I talk to says the same thing. It is a political play. I’m running for the U.S. Senate and with al honesty it carries a terrific burden.

“I truly believe with all in me if I’m not running for U.S. Senate, you’d have never heard about this.”

Delegate Mike Pushkin, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said today — prior to the news about the delinquent health insurance payments — that the Justice financial problems are starting to add up in the public eye.

“I think the people of West Virginia are just getting frustrated with it,” said Pushkin, D-Kanawha, on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”

“The Greenbrier is a West Virginia icon. That’s something we should be proud of as West Virginians. This guy bought it; he hasn’t kept it up. He’s charging people for this resort fee that he is not putting back into the resort. If you’d been there lately you would agree with me. He’s let it go downhill, and he hasn’t been paying off his loans.”