No Joke, Two Businessmen Are Fighting Over ‘Stolen’ Sand in Malibu

California’s wealthy residents just love to fight over the state’s beaches, it seems.

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In the latest dispute, the private-equity head James Kohlberg is suing the Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio for allegedly stealing sand from a beach in Malibu, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Kohlberg outlined his claims in a lawsuit filed in Beverly Hills last week, saying that Attanasio is taking sand from Broad Beach to aid in a 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,” Kohlberg’s lawyers wrote in the complaint, according to Bloomberg.

Apparently, the issue began when Attanasio received a permit to repair the seawall on his land, Bloomberg noted. (The Brewers owner bought a $23 million home in 2007, then added another $6.6 million lot in 2017.) The lawsuit says that the permit prohibited the use of heavy machinery in the tidal zone and the removal of sand from the beach, yet Kohlberg’s lawyers contend that the construction workers have used “enormous excavators” to take sand from the shore.

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Along with the lawsuit, Kohlberg has reached out to regulators in California, Bloomberg wrote. The California Coastal Commission has also started an investigation, but it hasn’t made any moves to pause the work being done by Attanasio’s crew. For his part, Kohlberg is seeking a fine against Attanasio, as well as a court order for Attanasio to replace the sand he’s already taken.

Attanasio’s limited liability company, which owns the property, “is in the midst of a fully permitted emergency repair of the property to protect it from ocean forces,” Kenneth Ehrlich, Attanasio’s attorney, told Bloomberg in an email. “It has secured all permits necessary for the repairs from the City of Malibu and LA County as well as thoroughly vetted all contractors and sub-contractors involved in the project … It has acted in 100% compliance with all of its permits.”

Earlier this year, in a beachfront dispute a bit farther north, a California judge ruled against the billionaire Vinod Khosla, who has been trying to keep people off the beach near his home for more than a decade. It’s unclear whether a similar outcome will prevail in Kohlberg’s case, but neither he nor Attanasio seems ready to give up on their beachfront fight.

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