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Bankrupt developer reports assets worth $53 million in filing

Molasky owns California land, interest in horse

Steven Molasky, a son of real estate developer Irwin Molasky, lived the good life before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month -- if his assets are any indication.

After filing the bankruptcy petition, he reported $53 million in assets and $107 million in liabilities on May 29.


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  • While Molasky pursued a variety of business interests, he primarily is a real estate developer and yet another example of how the credit crunch is hammering real estate businesspeople.

    Creditors got a chance to question him at a bankruptcy hearing Thursday, but the financial report answers many questions about Molasky's personal and business affairs.

    He held prime property along the Southern California coast, a one-third interest in a racehorse, interests in two independent movies, a $2.8 million investment in a partially complete sculpture, a collection of guitars, a magazine and television show production company and an unrestored 1968 Ford Shelby.

    His most valuable holdings are land and improvements on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., that are worth an estimated $30 million but are collateral for $26 million in loans.

    Molasky also owns an incomplete sculpture for which he has paid internationally known artist Michael Heizer $2.8 million so far. The value of the incomplete work is unknown, and Molasky reported it would be "costly to disassemble, move and reassemble." The agreement prohibits the sale of the artwork and requires that it be donated to an institution approved by the artist, but bankruptcy judges have the authority to void some contracts.

    The subject of a 2005 cover story in The New York Times Magazine, Heizer typically makes giant sculptures, including "Double Negative," two 50-foot-deep cuts into the barren landscape near Overton, and "Circular Planar Displacement," which has overlapping circles cut into a dry lake bed at Jean.

    The sculpture Heizer is making for Molasky isn't described in the filing. Molasky also owns paintings valued at $150,000 but only $14,000 in jewelry and $5,000 in clothing.

    Molasky has a one-third interest in a racehorse named Wizzen Mizzen, a 4-year-old chestnut filly apparently bought for $10,000.

    The developer also was executive producer of "Sex and Breakfast," a 2007 movie about young couples who try group sex that starred Macaulay Culkin. He invested in "Shine On," a romantic thriller which the Internet Movie Database, IMDb.com, reports is in production.

    Molasky owns an interest in the Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace on the Strip and has a 99 percent, $297,000 interest in a company that owns a private airport hangar at McCarran International Airport.

    He is majority owner of Copyright Media Corp., which produces a free magazine called "Around Your Home" and "Around Your Home TV." The program runs on KTUD-TV, Channel 24, and cable Channel 14.

    OneCap Mortgage President Vince Hesser and Molasky are officers and directors of the media company, a Securities and Exchange Commission report shows. Creditors include investors who made loans that were secured by real estate and which OneCap originated.

    Molasky's personal property includes two "Spendthrift" trusts that aren't property of the bankrupt estate, according to the bankruptcy filing. The values of the trust holdings are not shown.

    Other properties include a $65,000 2007 Ford Shelby and a 1968 Ford Shelby, which needs repair but is worth $125,000. Molasky reports about $69,000 in bank accounts.

    Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.

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    Buck wrote on February 04, 2009 01:44 PM: Records show Steven flipped investors from a project called Ellington in California to a house in Malibu after he secured the original money with rights he had no claim to make...then giving investors no choice while underhandedly planning BK. Misrepresentation and doing all this while planning to file BK???...Sounds like fraud to me. Hopefully the Feds in Ca. and NV will investigate and the DA prosecutes in line with all the other Ponzi scammers. Ironically his Daddy's company is building a prison. The SOB even has the nerve to drop his kids off in a Bentley at school, while people he lost/took money from watch on. Parents take note... raise your children with a better sense of moral value then his father did. The only solace for the victims involved is that societies civil and criminal justice system will eventually be served to him for thinking he is above the law and taking money from people who trusted him and his family to do the right thing.


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    lawyer332 wrote on January 09, 2009 04:44 PM: jim, if you know anything about searching for information, you will find that OneCap actually sued Molasky to try to foreclose on his Malibu compound in California...sounds like they are going after another deadbeat borrower, not protecting him. Check the facts next time, instead of just listening to bogus hearsay...hey, aren't you that guy that sent those anonymous threat letters to people??


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    jim wrote on September 05, 2008 11:55 PM: lawyer 332..you don't know what your talking about...onecap is one of his biggest creditors and it was all set up with his partner Hesser of onecap.to steal from investors on this bk..your father son psycho babble is ridiculous.. onecap refused to foreclose on that Malibu compound so it got tied up in BK


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    lawyer332 wrote on August 16, 2008 12:45 PM: Jim, you don't know what you are talking about...Onecap has nothing to do with this guy's playboy lifestyle, overspending, and just plain arrogance for ALL his creditors, including Onecap. He is down in his $20 million dollar malibu compound having parties every weekend while all the creditors are waiting to get paid. This guy is just a plain jerk and spoiled brat that doesn't want his creditors to get his toys...can anyone say "grow up and be a man"! Maybe dear ol dad should have spanked him more as a child since even at this age he is irresponsible.


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    jim wrote on June 22, 2008 10:58 AM: Irwin molasky's claim to fame was he knew who wrote checks at the teamsters pension fund..to finance his real estate projects..He paid back every dime..He knew what happened if he didnt..His son with that other slime ball Vince Hesser stole millions from investors thru there OneCap scams..Both of them are pigs that should go to slaughter...I think Harris the Micheal is Michael Rich ..former OneCap account exec who sold the investors on these two..


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    Harris wrote on June 17, 2008 07:29 PM: Micheal, Get off your knees and don't hit your head on the desk bottom. It was fine and dandy when he was over-pricing and taking all that money and shoving it in every one's face. Yet, he plays every day and this day caught up with him. Take everything he has.


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    Thomas Haynes wrote on June 17, 2008 06:38 PM: What an arrogant Irish SOB he is. Not surprised however. When we let them in in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was obvious they only wanted to make money anyway possible. Like Joe Kennedy. Vote Republican, so Scooter Libby can get his job back.


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    Vinne wrote on June 17, 2008 12:07 PM: Michael, this bum is the playboy son of the father who maybe was a successful developer in his day! But the boy, he is a lowlife, well know in this town as a "player" and poser. Point to one successful real development, sonny did on his own. Most of the reported "things" boychick dis are "in the works" or unfinished. You did note he has a "spendthrift trust"???!!! That says it all! daddy knew sonny could not handle dough re me, so ya, this guy deserves a dirt nap!


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    Michael wrote on June 17, 2008 10:46 AM: Everywhere we sleep, conduct our jobs and seek our entertainment was built by real rstate developers. Developers provide our homes, apartments, malls, hospitals, cinemas and casinos. These projects are necessary parts of our lives and the life of our econonmy.

    When the economy is good and more buildings are required to house the growth, developers take great personal financial risk to bring together the disparate pieces necessary to complete a project.

    All these things required to complete the buildings in which you live, work, and play do not come cheap in terms or price or effort. Not to mention stress. With all the pressures of a real estate development, developers are among the most-stressed individuals in the workforce.

    It is true that all this stress and all this risk is taken on more or less voluntarily. Why volunteer for such a stressful job? The rewards are huge when you do well.

    When you do not do well, the rewards are pretty puny.

    Many developers are not doing well right now as there's been something of a trainwreck in the financial markets. Drive around town and you'll see evidence of the wreckage. Sure it's easy to point a finger at a individual developer and then burn him/her at the stake in this blog. But that misses the point.

    These men and women who develop the built structures of our environment are providing a service that we require and that otherwise cannot be efficiently provided for. Would you have the government build your homes and offices inefficiently with your tax dollars? I've seen communist-block housing, it's not such a tantalizing option. I've also known Congress to spend $300 on a hammer. How many hammers does it take to build a home?


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    Vinne wrote on June 17, 2008 10:40 AM: This guy needs to end up face down in a hole in the desert! Bubba Bing, Budda Boom, that's it that's all!


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