Billionaire Spent Millions In Charity, But Avoided Mine Fines

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Billionaire Spent Millions In Charity, But Avoided Mine Fines

November 15, 2014 5:04 PM ET

Among the mining executives that NPR investigated, one coal mine owner in West Virginia stands out. His mines owe nearly $2 million in overdue fines, while he, himself, is a prominent billionaire. ... Jim Justice is West Virginia's richest man, with a net worth of $1.6 billion, according to Forbes. He owns 70 active mines employing 1,200 miners in five states. In addition to running his businesses, he has invested or given away more than $200 million in the last five years.

Justice used more than $175 million to buy and upgrade the struggling and historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. That includes $25 million for three football fields and a training center for the New Orleans Saints. ...Another $25 million went to the Boy Scouts of America for the Jim Justice National Boy Scout Camp in his home state. Marshall University received $5 million; $10 million was pledged to the Cleveland Clinic. ... "This is a business person who paints himself as a responsible citizen who donates to charities, but there's a whole other side of that business," says Celeste Monforton, a former federal mine safety official now at George Washington University.

As of April, Justice's delinquent coal mines had failed to pay nearly $2 million in mine safety violations, some going back seven years. Five hundred penalties were overdue, four times as many as any other delinquent mine owner. And while the mines ignored those fines, they continued to accumulate citations for safety violations that put miners at risk. ... An NPR/Mine Safety and Health News analysis of federal records shows that the delinquent Justice mines committed nearly 4,000 violations while they were delinquent; 1,300 citations were classified by federal inspectors as reasonably likely to cause injury or illness if uncorrected. More than 500 were the kinds of violations that were common in mine disasters, accidents and deaths.
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A more detailed report on delinquent mine safety penalties, including a list of the top 100 delinquent companies, is available from our reporting partner, Mine Safety and Health News.

[justhanginon]

1. How can 500 fines be overdue and no action taken?

Is this the responsibility of the state or is it a a federal responsibility to collect these fines and take other appropriate action. There are miners lives at stake here.
I presume this is one of the ways the rich get richer. They simply do not care about anything other than their 1.6 billion dollar worth and hanging on to it for dear life.