Judge Orders Sale Of Justice Coal Company’s Helicopter

A federal judge has cleared the way for the sale of a helicopter owned by one of Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies.

Last year, Caroleng Investments, an offshore shell company, went to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to recover about $10 million owed by Bluestone Resources.

Bluestone has a 2009 Bell helicopter, valued at about $1.2 million, and Caroleng sought a court order for the U.S. Marshals to seize it where it was housed in Roanoke, Virginia.

Bluestone and another Justice creditor, First Source Bank, sought a stay of that order.

This week, U.S. District Judge Robert S. Ballou denied the stay, giving the parties seven days to arrange for a sale of the helicopter.

In the meantime, Ballou’s order said, the helicopter is not to be moved. Publicly available flight tracking information showed the helicopter was moved in October from Roanoke to Burlington, North Carolina.

The case is one of many where Justice’s creditors have taken his businesses to court to recover millions of dollars. Justice is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate this year.