West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice awards Nicholas County health care worker Grace Fowler a Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck in 2021 during West Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccine incentive lottery. The governor’s office said Monday a federal investigation was looking into whether car dealerships had overcharged the state for the purchase of vehicles as prizes, but that Justice’s office was not a subject of that inquiry. (Photo Courtesy of Governor’s Office)

CHARLESTON — Despite a national news story alluding that Gov. Jim Justice and the state’s COVID-19 relief spending are under federal scrutiny, the governor’s top aide said Monday that the state is not under federal investigation.

“Let me be absolutely clear: There never has been or is there currently an investigation regarding the governor’s office by any agency as it relates to the Babydog sweepstakes,” said Brian Abraham, chief of staff to Gov. Justice, in a phone interview Monday afternoon.

CBS News posted a story Monday morning claiming that the state’s use of $1.25 billion in Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds for its COVID-19 vaccine incentive lottery was under scrutiny after federal law enforcement officials subpoenaed the Governor’s Office for records regarding the purchase of vehicles by the state as prizes.

“CBS News has learned federal investigators subpoenaed Gov. Jim Justice’s office about the sweepstakes,” said reporters Scott McFarlane, Erica Brown, and Analisa Novak. “The focus, according to the governor’s staff, is car dealers that supplied trucks that were given to lottery winners and questions about how much they cost taxpayers.”

The CBS News story quotes Grace Fowler, a Nicholas County health care worker who won a custom outfitted Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck on July 14, 2021, after entering the first phase of the “Do It For Babydog: Save a Life, Change Your Life” Sweepstakes, named for Justice’s English bulldog.

According to the story, the unnamed dealership claimed the vehicle had custom features that increased the value of the truck. The increased value boosted the taxes owed on the truck to more than $20,000, causing Fowler to sell it.

Abraham said the subpoenas mentioned in the CBS News story were seeking information from the Governor’s Office on one of the sales from a car dealer to determine if there was any overcharge. A request for comment from the U.S. Department of Justice was not returned.

“We are aware that the case at the federal level and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has been closed with no charges against the car dealer, but nothing was ever alleged that was improper by the Governor’s Office,” Abraham said.

According to a report on CARES Act spending released by the State Auditor’s Office earlier this year, more than $23.4 million was spent on COVID-19 vaccine incentive prizes, including two rounds of the Do It For Babydog, between Jan. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022. More than $2.2 million was spent on cars, trucks, ATVs, motorcycles, and boats.

The cars and trucks were purchased from Astorg Auto, Moses Chevrolet, Weimer Chevrolet Buick GM, Yes Chevrolet, Thornbill GM Superstore, Stephen’s Auto Center, Sheets Automotive Group, Northside Chevrolet Buick, Moses Ford, Ramey Motors, and Kent Parsons Ford.

“We purchased those cars through the (West Virginia Automobile Dealers Association) who would pick the dealers,” Abraham said. “We had no direct dealings or negotiations with them. We paid the price as listed on the windshield of the car on the car lots, no more and no less.”

West Virginia’s CARES Act spending came under the microscope of state lawmakers earlier this year after $28 million was transferred to a special revenue fund controlled by the Governor last September prior to a federal deadline to appropriate those funds. Of that $28 million, Marshall University received $10 million for its new baseball field.

The Senate Finance Committee held a budget hearing in February on Justice’s recommended supplemental appropriations and the spending of remaining CARES Act funds.

The committee’s chairman — state Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam — also wrote a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General seeking a review of the state’s use of the $28 million. Tarr, who participated in interviews for Monday’s CBS News story earlier this year, declined to comment on the CBS News story when reached by phone Monday afternoon. But he did confirm that he has yet to hear from the Treasury Department Inspector General’s Office regarding his request.

Congress put $150 billion in the CARES Act in March 2020 for state and local governments, with West Virginia receiving $1.25 billion. The funding can only be used for necessary coronavirus expenditures incurred during the emergency, expenses that were not already accounted for in state and local budgets and incurred after March 1 through the end of last September. Any remaining unappropriated money had to be returned to the federal government by a Sept. 30 deadline.