Blackjewel's unpaid bills wrecked local businesses, owners say

GILLETTE— A year to the day before Blackjewel LLC shocked Wyoming by abandoning the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines, the Golay family gave up on Blackjewel.

The Golays had cleaned mine buildings for decades, and for multiple owners. But by July 1, 2018, Blackjewel had driven them out of business, they told WyoFile. Months of the company stiffing their family-run cleaning business had left them unable to pay their home mortgage or other bills. They’d foregone those personal obligations to pay their four employees, the Golays said, until they ultimately had to lay them off.

In a July 25, 2018 letter to now-ousted Blackjewel CEO Jeffrey Hoops, Tana Golay listed the invoices the company had left unpaid in a desperate attempt to collect. The outstanding invoices added up to $37,500, a grain of sand in the soaring pile of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt Blackjewel accumulated before the company came crashing down last week. But for the Golays, it was everything.

“Mr. Hoops, what took us 27 years to build as a ‘MOM & POP’ business, you have torn down in less than 7 months,” Tana Golay wrote. “Congratulations!”

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/blackjewels-unpaid-bills-wrecked-local-businesses-owners-say/