Company working on MLB team owner’s home accused of stealing sand from Malibu beach

MALIBU, Cali. (KTLA) — The owner of the MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers is accused of contracting with a company that is allegedly stealing sand from a public beach in Malibu for use on his private property.

James Kohlberg, who lives next door to millionaire Mark Attanasio, says in the complaint that he has seen a construction team working on Attanasio’s home “operating enormous excavators in tidal zones, leaking oils and exposing local marine life to potentially hazardous byproducts,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

While the lawsuit claims Attanasio’s construction team, JILK Heavy Construction, is “using a public beach as their own personal sandbox,” his attorney, Kenneth Ehrlich, said the construction team “is in the midst of a fully-permitted emergency repair of the property to protect it from ocean forces.”

“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,” the attorney told the Times.

That sand is particularly valuable because it is on Broad Beach, which has suffered sand depletion due to high tides and storms.

In 2015, the owners of 121 properties, including celebrities like Ray Romano, Pierce Brosnan, and Dustin Hoffman, joined together for a $31-million restoration project that involved “trucking in mountains of sand from quarries in Simi Valley and Moorpark and trying to re-create sandy beach and dunes, the latter atop a massive, man-made rock barrier,” the Times reported.

Speaking with Insider, Ehrlich said they “will aggressively defend our client’s rights in this legal process.”

The lawsuit calls for all of the sand to be returned to Broad Beach, the damages to be repaired, and for fines to be issued.

Citing property records, Insider reports Attanasio’s company, 2XMD Partners LLC, purchased the Broad Beach home in 2007 for $23 million — that’s just three years after Attanasio reached an agreement to purchase the Brewers. In 2018, 2XMD bought the neighboring lot for $6.6 million.