Judge James P. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, granted a stay on Thursday sought by the coal company, Bluestone Resources, and 1st Source Bank of South Bend, Indiana, one of Bluestone’s creditors.
A federal judge in Virginia has blocked the seizure of a helicopter from a coal company owned by Gov. Jim Justice.
Judge James P. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia granted a stay on Thursday sought by the coal company, Bluestone Resources, and 1st Source Bank of South Bend, Indiana, one of Bluestone’s creditors.
Last week, the court ordered the U.S. Marshals to seize the helicopter, which has an estimated value of $1.2 million, according to a Wednesday filing by 1st Source.
Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, said Bluestone Resources owes it $13 million and accused it of moving the helicopter last week from Roanoke, Virginia, to Burlington, North Carolina, to avoid paying.
A helicopter belonging to a coal company owned by Gov. Jim Justice has been moved from Virginia to North Carolina, a company that’s seeking the helicopter to settle a debt said in a court filing Tuesday.
Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, said Bluestone Resources owes it $13 million and accused the company of moving the helicopter last week from Roanoke, Virginia, to Burlington, North Carolina, to avoid paying.
Caroleng said it tracked the helicopter’s movement using the website flightaware.com.
In its filing Tuesday, Caroleng attorneys disputed Bluestone’s description of Caroleng as a shell company. Rather, they said, it said was “a special purpose investment vehicle that was created to invest in mining interests in West Virginia.”
The filing said Bluestone has a long list of unpaid creditors and is familiar with shell companies.
“Public financial filings indicate that they have created dozens, if not hundreds, of such entities, likely to thwart collection efforts by creditors such as Caroleng,” the attorneys said of Bluestone.
The filing goes on to say that a helicopter is “not essential” for a mining company, and that private air travel is “generally considered a luxury.”
“Without a helicopter, surely Bluestone executives can travel using alternatives,” the filing said.
Caroleng’s attorneys challenged Bluestone’s assertion that other creditors would be paid first. Bluestone could not intervene on its creditors’ behalf in the event they had an interest in the helicopter, the attorneys said.
Caroleng said a title search for the helicopter produced a single security interest in the name of 1st Source Bank of South Bend, Indiana. Caroleng’s filing said the bank would have to make an appearance in the proceeding to protect its interest in the helicopter, but had not yet done so.
Caroleng also said the court should order Bluestone to deliver the helicopter to the U.S. Marshals and deny the stay, “subject to being held in contempt of this court.”
On Thursday, the court instructed the marshals to take possession of the helicopter, which is housed at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport.
A coal company owned by Gov. Jim Justice is trying to stop an offshore company controlled by a Russian oligarch from seizing a helicopter it owns.
Bluestone Resources filed a stay in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Friday. It seeks to prevent the U.S. Marshals from seizing a 2009 Bell helicopter.
On Thursday, the court instructed the marshals to take possession of the helicopter, which is housed at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport.
Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, sought the helicopter to recover part of the more than $10 million Bluestone owes it.
In Friday’s filing, however, Bluestone’s attorneys say the helicopter is subject to two security interests that are superior to Caroleng’s lien and secure indebtedness in excess of the helicopter’s value. Those creditors, 1st Source Bank, based in South Bend, Indiana, and Greensill Capital, based in the United Kingdom, would be paid first, not Caroleng, the filing says.
The filing also identifies Caroleng as a holding company controlled by a Russian mining and metals oligarch named Igor Zyuzin.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to the governor’s office for comment.
Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, went to the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia to seek repayment of more than $10 million, plus interest, from Bluestone Resources.
A company owned by Gov. Jim Justice owes an offshore investment firm millions and it’s seeking to collect payment.
Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, went to the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia to seek repayment of more than $10 million, plus interest, from Bluestone Resources.
Bluestone, based in Roanoke, Virginia, is one of the numerous companies listed on the disclosure form Justice files annually to the West Virginia Ethics Commission, and earlier this week appeared on his U.S. Senate candidate disclosure.
According to a filing this week, the offshore investment firm asked the court to authorize U.S. Marshals to seize Bluestone property to settle the debt, including a helicopter believed to be stored at the Roanoke Regional Airport.
The $10 million liability is not listed on Justice’s Senate disclosure form.
The governor owes other debts to states and the federal government.
In June 2021, the U.S. District Court in Delaware ordered Bluestone to pay the $10 million to Caroleng Investments. It also says that Bluestone owes 9 percent per year interest starting from May 13, 2020.
According to the filing this week in Virginia, Bluestone has not paid any of that amount.
Western Surety alleges breach of contract and seeks more than $3 million in damages and attorney’s fees.
Gov. Jim Justice and two of his family’s coal companies face yet another lawsuit in Virginia.
Western Surety Co. sued Justice, Southern Coal Corp. and Bluestone Resources this week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
Western Surety alleges breach of contract and seeks more than $3 million in damages and attorney’s fees.
Justice and his family own dozens of coal-related companies, including Southern and Bluestone. Both are based in Roanoke, Virginia.
Justice, who’s running for the U.S. Senate in 2024, faces a multitude of legal challenges.
Another bond provider, Federal Insurance Co., sued Justice and four of his companies in June in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking $8.1 million in damages.
Another Justice-owned company, Blackstone Energy, could owe the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality numerous fines of $32,500 per day going back three years.
In a filing last month in Richmond Circuit Court, the Virginia attorney general’s office asked Blackstone to show why it isn’t in violation of a consent order that requires it to clean up contamination at several mine sites.
On any given Friday night, a parade of customized cars and trucks cruise from north to south and back again on Williamson Road in Roanoke, Virginia.
Modified with neon lights, spinning rims and streamlined spoilers, these vehicles do not necessarily scream “folk tradition”—but they are just the modern version of a long-running Appalachian tradition.
People in the mountains have tinkered with cars for as long as there have been cars. In the ‘20s and ‘30s, that often meant converting stock cars with bigger engines, stiffer suspensions and hidden compartments to hide bootlegged whiskey. That tradition formed the foundation for NASCAR and modern-day stock-car racing.
In a special report as part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project, Mason Adams profiled one family about how car repairs have turned into a unique family tradition.
In Roanoke, the Bennett family is sustaining the automotive tradition another way, by restoring vintage cars into pristine conditions, and sometimes by building them from the frame out.
“I’m into the traditional style cars,” said Jeff Bennett. “That’s what I like. I like stuff that looked like it was built in 1960. My term there is, less is more.”
Jeff’s father, Jack Bennett, ran Perfection Auto Body in Roanoke for 25 years and died last year. Jeff now operates a custom auto shop out of his home, where his son Jeremy assists him with high-end body work.
“His [Jeff’s] father had been in the automotive business and was interested in hot rods,” says Roddy Moore, vintage car aficionado and retired director of the Blue Ridge Institute, a folklife center in Ferrum, Virginia. “Jeff grew up with that and that interest went from father to son, like it’s gone from Jeff to his son. So you’ve got three generations right there.”
The Bennetts are all about cars that are built correctly, from the ground up. They find old cars through Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and word of mouth. They take those bodies and rebuild them to look brand new.
Credit Mason Adams / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Jeremy (left) and Jeff Bennett stand by a 1937 Ford pickup they rebuilt.
One of the cars in their shop sits stripped down to its frame, with only the engine and front seats sitting on it. The Bennetts will take this and build a new body for it. Sometimes they lower the body closer to the ground, but otherwise they tend to keep them as close to the original as possible.
Jeff spoke about a 1931 Ford Coupe he bought in North Carolina and rebuilt.
“I basically made the whole bottom of the car,” Jeff said. “It was rotted, all, built the frame. Built the whole car from nothing. There was really nothing there.”
Jeff learned those skills from his father, Jack, whose style was exemplified in the name of his shop: Perfection Auto Body.
“He was a perfectionist,” Jeff said. “I guess he tried to teach me to be a perfectionist also. You know his big thing is edges. Make sure the edge of everything is straight. Everything is perfect. Everything is fixed. “Edges will make you or break you, boy,” that’s what my dad would tell you.”
Jack passed away in September of 2018. More than a year later, Jeff is still processing his loss. What remains are his memories, and the lessons that his father passed to him. He recalled the first time he handled a professional paint job.
“We had a car sitting in the paint booth, and it had to be painted,” Jeff said. “He’s like, ‘You’re going to have to paint that car.’ I said, ‘I’ve never sprayed that stuff before.’ He said, ‘Well, just go in there and paint. That’s all I can tell you.’ I went in there and started prepping the car. I came back out of the paint booth.”
Jeff was struggling with the job. Jack called him over to a picnic table and sat him down. They had a beer and took a moment. Jeff tears up thinking about it, especially since Jack’s death.
“We sat there and had a beer,” Jeff said. “He said, ‘You feel better now?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Go paint the car.’ I went out and painted the car and it looked really, really good.”
Now, Jeff is passing that knowledge on to his son Jeremy.
“I guess he’s taught me everything really,” Jeremy said. “I mean, cause I didn’t know a clue about how to do anything before I started here when I was like 14.”
On a balmy autumn evening, Jeremy worked with Jeff in the shop. Jeremy meticulously buffed the inside of a car hood, preparing it for another layer of paint. Very few people notice the inside of a car’s hood. But for Jeremy and his dad Jeff, the inside of the hood is just as important as the parts of the car you do see.
Jeremy also has developed his own interest in restoring vintage Volkswagen Bugs. He has completely restored two so far, including one vanilla and mint Beetle he drives around sometimes. The body of a third sat in the shop, waiting for rebuild and a new life.
The Bennetts are keeping their family tradition alive, while carrying on the tradition of tinkering with cars – an Appalachian craft that has been flourishing since before Prohibition. Jeremy Bennett’s Volkswagen Bugs would not make the best bootlegging cars, though. There is not enough trunk space.
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council. The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
