Billionaire: Billionaire Neighbor Stole Malibu Sand

Sand is in short supply at Malibu's Broad Beach, where almost all the dunes are now gone thanks to sea level rise, high tides, storms, and erosion. And now Mark Attanasio, the billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, stands accused—by another billionaire—of stealing it for his own personal use. As the Washington Post explains, celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Steven Spielberg, Goldie Hawn, and Pierce Brosnan have lived on Broad Beach, and Attanasio has a $30 million property he bought in 2007. He obtained permits in March to repair a damaged sea wall, but financier James Kohlberg, his next-door neighbor, has filed a lawsuit accusing Attanasio of "using a public beach as [his] own personal sandbox," the Independent reports.

Broad Beach itself is a public beach in front of the multimillion-dollar homes, and Kohlberg claims Attanasio's construction team has been using excavators to dig on the beach in protected tidal zones, damaging the beach and leaking fuel into the water, then taking the sand to Attanasio's property. Attanasio's lawyer, however, insists his client is fully in compliance with all permits for the emergency repair project. The California Coastal Commission is reportedly investigating the construction project, but has not halted it. The Los Angeles Times (paywall) was first to report the story. (More Malibu stories.)