With his coal mining business low on cash and days from bankruptcy, Blackjewel LLC founder and former Chief Executive Jeff Hoops Sr. flew his private plane to Wyoming to deliver hundreds of cashiers checks to workers there after a bank halted payroll, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Months later, as Blackjewel was being liquidated, Hoops’s lawyer sent the court a $16,500 invoice for the flight. The bill is part of at least $29 million that Hoops and companies connected to his family are seeking from Blackjewel as the former coal producer winds down its affairs in West Virginia bankruptcy court, according to claims filed by his lawyer during the case. Blackjewel has sold most of its mines and other assets but remains in significant debt, owing tens of millions of dollars in federal coal royalties, taxes and other obligations. The amounts Hoops and his other companies have sought from Blackjewel includes millions of dollars in pre-bankruptcy loans from him and Clearwater Investment Holdings LLC, which is owned by a Hoops family trust, as well as about $15 million in coal royalties owed to other companies he’s linked to.
