In Malibu, billionaire businessman Mark Attanasio is being sued by his next-door neighbor for allegedly removing sand from Broad Beach for a construction project.

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.

    • @voracitude
      91•1 month ago

      And it should be several hundred times the cost of replacing that sand, so that it’s a more economically sound move to not break the law and destroy the environment while they’re at it.

        • @[email protected]
          6•1 month ago

          10%?

          Minimum wage is $15080. A speeding ticket can be $209-$409. That’s 2%. He should be fined a percentage of of his wealth equal to (cost of his douchebaggery)/(minimum wage yearly)*100. Multiply by 10 for a fine

      • FuglyDuckEnglish
        11•1 month ago

        Start with the cost of reparing/fixing/whatevering the beach; then add a fine based on income. 10% of monthly income sounds about right for this.

        same with financial crimes. they seize any profits and then fin the shit out of them, based on their earnings for a given period.

        speeding tickets, same. monthly income percentage.

    • Ebby
      32•1 month ago

      Better yet, require public access to wherever that sand was placed!

      • The Pantser
        17•1 month ago

        Haha would be amazing if just a group of beach bums set up camp on the public sand.

    • @9point6
      7•1 month ago

      I think it’s only fair they fine him the maximum potential value of the materials.

      Sand made of silicon, which is used to make CPUs

      You can spend 25 grand on an intel Xeon weighing about 50g

      A scoop of sand is probably 50kg = 25 million

      How many scoops were taken?