Billionaire Of The Day Jim Justice The Richest Regular Guy In America

It’s not all appetizer platters and high school dribbling for Jim Justice, though. He made his billions in one of the oldest big businesses out there – coal, for which he continues to advocate for, even in today’s more environmentally-conscious times. He also has a passion for West Virginia’s Greenbrier Resorts, a legendary historic site that had fallen into disrepair and bankruptcy back in 2009. He purchased the entire complex, and also funded its renovation into the five-star resort and vacation destination that it is today. Despite his billion-dollar fortune, the coal business hasn’t always been a smooth ride for Jim Justice. He inherited his father’s coal company, and as recently as 2014, he’s faced a deluge of lawsuits and protests from concerned citizens regarding his business practices, the result being multiple settlements valued at at least a million dollars, as well as fines paid to the government. And those troubles only served to compound the already economically dicey coal industry, which is facing lower prices and decreasing demand all the time. He even had to sell off some of his coal-related assets back in 2009, but he recently made the announcement that he plans to spend $5 million in order to get them back.  But none of these problems were enough to dissuade him from making his first big political move, for which he’s promoting himself to the voters of West Virginia as someone who’s too rich to be influenced by special interest groups and lobbyists. And his history with the Greenbrier has made him a popular man in West Virginia, as the return to glory for that resort has resulted in an estimated 1600+ jobs coming back to the area, plus the added prestige now associated with the resort, which includes an annual PGA tournament hosted by the Greenbrier, funded to the tune of $6 million a year by Justice. So clearly, the future has a lot of big things in store for Jim Justice, from the partial return of his coal mining empire to even possibly a term as governor of the state of West Virginia. As his own gubernatorial campaign slogan says, “why not?”