Billionaire at war with city of San Francisco in bitter battle over his playground private island

The billionaire owner of a 50-acre California private island was dramatically arrested outside of court as his land was seized and put up for auction in his latest bitter battle with the city of San Francisco. 

John Sweeney, 54, was arrested Wednesday outside of the Solano County Courthouse, minutes after his property sold for a whopping $3.8 million.

Sweeney, a self-described 'American entrepreneur', attended the court proceedings in protest of the county-mandated sale, marking the end of a grueling 10-year battle between him and numerous government agencies in the Golden Gate City. 

California lawmakers seized the land that Sweeney purchased for $150,000 in 2011  over claims that the wealthy owner allegedly committed 'one of the worst environmental activities in the entire San Francisco Bay.' 

Point Buckler, a turtle-shaped marshland on the southern edge of Grizzly Bay, is home to several endangered species. 

After buying the land, Sweeney turned it into a posh kitesurfing club for billionaires in Silicon Valley - allegedly making many illegal moves during its transformation, according to the agencies. 

He's been accused of constructing two helipads, a deep-water dock, a levee, all of which were said to violate several water board codes that were put in place to protect the endangered species in Suisun Bay.  

Agencies have described his drastic changes as 'an enforcement case with the most negative impact to wetlands we've seen in a long, long time.'

During the auction, Sgt. Tyler Pierce of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, started the bidding at $3,783,270,24. 

The notice of sale on the island detailed that it would start at $0 and then rise in $100 increments, SFGate reported. 

The auction was abruptly interrupted by Sweeney, who approached the crowd of people. 

'Are you a bidder?,' Pierce asked him. Sweeney then replied: 'I'm the owner.' 

Tensions quickly grew as Sweeney added: 'Government at its finest. Can't figure out how to sell a property.'  

John Muir Land Trust officially acquired the land, Pierce told the outlet, adding that the money from the purchase will most likely go toward paying off creditors and penalties.

Just moments after it was officially sold to a new owner, Sweeney, who stood in a bright orange Point Buckler Club jacket, was approached by sheriff's deputies and arrested. 

The arresting officer told Sweeney that the department had a 'bench warrant for your arrest for a civil matter,' as he led him away. 

During this, Sweeney told reporters that he believed he was being arrested for 'fighting this' and failing to appear in court. He told the outlet that he suspected there were several warrants out for his arrest. 

One person there at the time who appeared to be in support of Sweeney, asked him: 'Are you getting arrested? Must be doing something right.' 

Along with Sweeney, his wife, Jennifer Frost, 41, was also arrested, Daily Republic reported.

A new contempt hearing is set for February 5. Superior Court Judge Christine Carringer said that if another bench warrant is served against Sweeney and his wife, they will be sent to jail, the outlet said. 

It all started when a then 30-year-old Sweeney sold his advertising company, Sailing Billboards. Around the same time he began bringing in cash by teaching tech billionaires to sail.

Then, in 2011, a small island in the estate sale of his father-in-law's finance became available.

'The kids needed some money,' he told SFGate. 'So I paid 150 grand and bought it from them, and I didn't have a use for it.' 

Quickly, he began developing plans for his purchase. He decided he was going to rebuild the duck ponds for hunters in the winter months, and set up an exclusive kiteboarding club in the summers. He also planned to construct helipads and fix the levee surrounding the island.

The plans went into motion shortly after. With the levee fixed and the first helipad built, Sweeney took some of his old Silicon Valley sailing friends out to Point Buckler for some kiteboarding.

In recent years, kiteboarding - a sport that combines both surfing and paragliding - has become a popular pastime for the elites of society. Former President Barack Obama and Virgin founder Richard Branson are just two notable enthusiasts.

Sweeney's friends from the Valley caught the bug and encouraged their buddy to start developing a private club on his island.

In April of 2016, an ad for the club read: 'Kite with us. Access by heli or boat. Enjoy the new lounge, art and launch at the only private kite island in California.'

The club was definitely made for billionaires with a membership costing a whopping $750,000 per person.

Despite owning the entirety of the island, Sweeney began to experience some strange interactions with some seemingly uninvited guests.

'I noticed people in boats taking pictures,' he said. 'And agency people, on a road across from the island, videoing me.'

For the next few months Sweeney was met with random inspections, site visits, letters and warnings from the water board. Eventually, the board handed Sweeney and his company, Point Buckler Club LLC, one of the biggest fines in its history.

In 2016 Sweeney was given a $4.6 million penalty. Its purpose was to assert that he carried out dozens of activities on his island without getting permission from the board, therefore breaking the Clear Water Act.

Some of those violations included the mowed grass, the fully-constructed helicopter pads, the developed lounge area and the finished dock. Sweeney was also in violation of filling state waters when he built the levee, which ultimately blocked 20-acres of tidal wetlands.

The water board doubled down on their claims with a statement that said Sweeney completed the work and construction 'to develop the island for use as a private sport and social club.'

Eileen White, the executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, told SFGate that the board 'met with him for settlement discussions to get him to restore the island' but that 'basically, he didn't want to do anything.'

'Egregious. I mean, so egregious,' White told the outlet of his unpermitted construction. 

'When things happen by an act of nature, things happen. But this was purposeful, and we worked with him to try to get him to restore it, but he was noncompliant.' 

A 2004 study of the Suisun Bay wetlands defined his island as a 'completed tidal wetlands project'. But Sweeney said that was just a bogus claim made by the agencies.

Sweeney believed that his purchase was simply a duck club in disrepair and an abandoned levee that needed to be fixed. He also said that he was never told it was protected land when he bought it back in 2011.

The agencies disagreed. They said that he was defiling acres of ecologically crucial tidal marsh land - and landing helicopters on top of it. 

'I think they were upset because they heard that there were some billionaires in the marsh,' Sweeney told the outlet of the ordeal. 'They keep attacking me.' 

Sweeney referred to the never-ending filings and legal battles as a 'land grab' by the agencies because they were motivated by governmental targets to protect endangered species in the tidal water.

Again, the agencies disagreed as White said: 'The water board doesn't grab land. We don't want to grab land. 

'Our mission is to preserve, enhance and restore the Bay Area's water resources.'

Nevertheless, the US District Court for the Eastern District of California determined that Sweeney had committed 'very serious violations' of the Clean Water Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency agreed. They told SFGate that he had 'unlawfully dried up nearly 40-acres of tidal wetlands in the San Francisco Bay.'

'No one has ever been fined for fixing a levee,' Sweeney said in defense of the decision. 'That's the whole point of owning an island!'

After countless legal proceedings, one judge eventually took Sweeney's side. In 2017, a Solano County Superior Court judge threw out the fines - which he deemed as 'excessive' and described them as 'an appearance of vindictiveness.' The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on every count before the court.

But by 2021 the decision was overturned, leaving Sweeney back on the hook for roughly $2.8 million. 

Sweeney filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and hoped that the agencies could take the island and cancel his debt.

Instead, his filing was dismissed, leading to an arrest that year for contempt. 

'They arrested me for contempt because I stopped appearing in court,' Sweeney said of the incident. 'I told them to f*** off.'

'I said, "Look, you bankrupted me. I gave you the island, you gave it back,"' he added. 'There's no solution.'

After just 36 hours behind bars, Sweeney was let go 'without explanation'. To this day, he still believes that there are at least seven active warrants out for his arrest.

Then, in 2023, a group of Silicon Valley founders and investors announced their purchase of tens of thousands of acres of Solano County, an area not too far from Point Buckler. They planned to build a utopian city on the hill.

The announcement sparked a new idea for Sweeney as he saw the proximity as an opportunity and put his island on the market for $75 million.

'The only privately owned island by the San Francisco Bay listed for sale, near the future Flannery Utopian City planned for Solano County! the listing read. 

Although the island sold at the auction, it is still listed as 'available' on Sotheby's International Realty website for $40 million. 

Interested bidders were required to register with the county earlier this month in order for them to have a chance at snagging up the island. 

The new owner is now responsible for restoring the land and is also required to allow staff of several agencies 'reasonable access' to 'oversee compliance with their orders.'

Sweeney thinks the auction was another way to target him. He believes the water board has already found a bidder, specifically one that they want to take over and restore the land.

Some see this decades-long battle as Sweeney being an ambitious entrepreneur who attempted to turn forgotten marshland into an elite leisure club and made some money on the side.

Others see it as an effective use of government and their efforts to protect a fragile ecosystem in the face of destruction. 

Overall, Sweeney believes that the millions of dollars worth of fines are wildly disproportionate, especially compared to other environmental damage on the Suisun Bay.

He specifically referred to a 2004 spill of more than 100,000 gallons of diesel by an energy company. Later, the company admitted to being responsible for 44 spills in as little as three years.

'They killed thousands of fish, otters, beavers,' Sweeney said of the destruction in Suisun Bay. 'I get the same fine for fixing a levee.'

The water board said that years of legal filings and government interference would have never happened if Sweeney had worked with them from the start. If he had, they said he could still be running his billionaire kiteboarding club to this day.

'It's a very straightforward story,' White said. 'The only thing that's complicated is the noise he's making.'