Beach battle in Malibu: Billionaire allegedly stole sand for $30 million house | California

In the posh town of Malibu, Barbie and Ken go inline skating, houses are sold for up to $210 million – and a billionaire is having the beach dug up.

In a lawsuit filed last week, local resident James Kohlberg claims his neighbor, billionaire baseball team owner Mark Attanasio, used construction equipment to excavate Malibu's Broad Beach and haul sand onto his private property.

“This case involves a private property owner using a public beach as his personal sandbox,” the lawsuit states.

Kohlberg, the son of the founder of the global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Attanasio, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, own homes that occupy a stretch of Malibu Beach that has long struggled with erosion. In 2011, a local homeowners association began organizing a restoration project along Broad Beach, and in 2015, some of the neighborhood's most famous residents – including Dustin Hoffman, Ray Romano and Pierce Brosnan – took part in a $31 million sand replenishment and shoreline restoration project.

In March, the lawsuit says, Attanasio received approval to repair a damaged section of seawall on his two adjacent properties on Broad Beach — one a developed home, the other a vacant lot. But in June, the construction crew allegedly began using excavators parked in the beach's tidal and intertidal zones to shovel sand from the public beach onto Attanasio's private property. The 132-page legal document includes more than a dozen photos of excavators and bulldozers shoveling sand across the shoreline.

In a statement to the Guardian, Attanasio's lawyer, Kenneth A. Ehrlich, said his company, 2XMD Partners, complies with the required permits. He said: “2XMD and its principals have owned property on this beach for decades and are stewards of beach restoration and natural resource protection.”

He added that they are “in the midst of a fully approved emergency repair of the property to protect it from the forces of the ocean.”

The Guardian contacted Kohlberg's lawyers for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Although Kohlberg's attorney contacted the California Coastal Commission in July to report the project, no action was taken to force Attanasio to stop construction, the lawsuit says. It goes on to say that the construction equipment leaked gasoline onto the beach and ocean and restricted access to the public area. In California, all beaches are public.

The lawsuit accuses Attanasio of public nuisance, private nuisance and violation of the California Coastal Act – a state law passed in 1976 that regulates the development, preservation and public access of California's coast. And Kohlberg has asked the court to order construction to stop immediately, replace the sand and impose fines.

California's coastline is undergoing rapid erosion as a result of the climate crisis. This year alone, a section of the state's historic Highway 1 collapsed after heavy rains in April. And in May, owners of multimillion-dollar homes in San Clemente and Dana Point watched as landslides threatened to push their beach homes into the sea.

According to a 2023 study, between 25 and 70 percent of California's beaches could be washed away by the end of the century.

A case management conference is currently scheduled for February at Los Angeles County Superior Court in Beverly Hills, a similarly posh – if less picturesque – location where the two billionaires can continue their fight.