**Summary**:

California’s beaches are public, but on the sands of Malibu, one billionaire has been accused of stealing a slice of paradise — or at least a few scoops of it — for himself.

A lawsuit filed last week alleges that Mark Attanasio, billionaire businessman and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, has been using excavators to dig up sand from Broad Beach and carry it back to his house as part of an ongoing construction project.

“This case is about a private property owner using a public beach as their own personal sandbox and the disturbing conversion of a public natural resource (i.e., sand from Broad Beach) for a nearby homeowner’s personal, private use,” the lawsuit says.

The suit was filed by Attanasio’s next-door neighbor James Kohlberg. Attanasio’s construction team JILK Heavy Construction is accused of operating enormous excavators in tidal zones, leaking oils and exposing local marine life to potentially hazardous byproducts. The suit alleges that the construction restricted public access to the entirety of the beach.

Attanasio bought the Broad Beach home for $23 million in 2007. A decade later, he picked up the neighboring property, an empty lot, for $6.6 million.

In March, the Brewers owner obtained permits to repair a damaged section of seawall, according to the lawsuit. In June and July, excavators allegedly began dragging sand from the beach onto his private property and also left gasoline residue in the water and sand.

The lawsuit, which accuses Attanasio of public nuisance, private nuisance and violation of the California Coastal Act, calls for a stop to the construction, for the sand to be replaced and for fines to be issued.

Over the years, the beach has been battered by violent storms and high tides, leading to significant sand depletion. In 2015, high-profile residents including Dustin Hoffman, Ray Romano and Pierce Brosnan committed to a $31-million restoration project to bolster the beach’s sand.

You’re a billionaire. Buy your own damn sand.

Wait. Was it in the crack of this person’s @ss?

I’m so confused… It’s not like sand is even that expensive. What are we missing here?

Keep your ugly, fuckin’ goldbricking mug out of my beach community.

Confiscate his home. Send a message.

This shouldn’t be a lawsuit. If someone is accused of stealing from the public, that’s a crime that should be prosecuted. The victims of this crime are upwards of 330 million in number. Crimes against public resources are crimes against every citizen.

I doubt that the billionaire was the one who came up with the idea. It was the company trying to maximize profits because it was an outrageous payment.

I sure hope he is using the beach sand as a concrete aggregate that will be used to make the structural beams in his new home.

Should be required to replace all of the sand and pay a fine 100x the cost of the restoration on top of it to a beach maintenance/cleanup fund.

The guys don’t care, they steal, pay a small fine and they go on learning nothing.

Just to make sure everyone sees how crazy this is. A billionaire means they have more than 1000 million. They could probably afford to have sand granules hand picked from the Himalayas and delivered by monks and it would even dent their net worth, but instead they tried to take it for free.

Billionaires exist above the law when the only penalties are monetary. There will be no accountability.

Not a fan of billionaires at all, but I am skeptical this was done at his instruction. This feels like a shitty contractor saving a few bucks. Pay the fines, replace the sand, and move on.

Socialize the costs, privatize the profits is how billionaires are made.