Billionaire's Furious Neighbors Reveal How They Busted His Private Lake Plot

[LiberalArkie]

Published Oct. 2 2025 12:55PM EDT

British villagers have told how they caught American billionaire Stephen Schwarzman secretly trucking in water to fill a private lake on his $110 million country estate during a drought, forcing authorities to shut the operation down.

Schwarzman, the 78-year-old Blackstone co-founder who is worth more than $40 billion, bought the 2,500-acre Conholt Park estate in Wiltshire in 2022. While local residents in Tangley, Hampshire, faced outdoor water-use bans this summer, they began noticing convoys of tankers heading to his property at night, The Wall Street Journal reported.

One resident, refrigeration consultant Lawrence Leask, told the Journal how he helped bust the clandestine operation. Leask said he staked out the road at 3 a.m. to follow a truck. He explained how he “charmed” the driver into revealing his destination.

What started as suspicion then turned into a grassroots investigation into the man who sat beside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the royal banquet for President Donald Trump during his U.K. state visit last month.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaires-furious-neighbors-reveal-how-they-busted-his-private-lake-plot/?utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_source=threads_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow

[johnnyfins]

1. Oceans of water for me, not a drop for thee

[Champp]

2. Piggy Repubican douchebaggery

is international.

[Irish_Dem]

3. This is how the rich will handle limited resources caused by climate change.

Cheat, steal, buy up everything in sight.
Screw everyone else.

[mtngirl47]

8. And/or colonize Mars. n/t

[progressoid]

4. What an asshole

[diane in sf]

5. Blackstone needs to be ended. It's a force for evil.

[Clouds Passing]

6. Billionaires are nothing but grossly exaggerated hoarders

[rubbersole]

7. And are becoming universally hated by the unwashed proletariat.

The 99% to the 1% - "Let them eat shit."

[AllaN01Bear]

9. they would do this in numerous droughts in ca .

some got caught.flaunting the rules , no?

[dalton99a]

10. He can take all that water with him when he goes to hell

Some neighbors told the Journal that they believe Schwarzman’s team was sneakily siphoning water from boreholes. The billionaire’s spokesperson denied that allegation to the newspaper, saying that Conholt had deployed a “highly sophisticated water-collection system” for rain.

“We laughed,” said Wray. “There’s been no rain.”

[flvegan]

11. Zero consequences. Imagine that.

Since he's had to stop, I'm assuming many laws and/or restrictions were broken, another billionaire who will not suffer for his actions.

As usual.

[Mblaze]

12. That is the same bullshit that

Saudi Arabians were doing in Arizona except they had unfettered access to groundwater for watering alfalfa fields.