Condo-hotel king no longer reigns

Although this roly-poly, baby-faced real estate developer is hardly a household name, he cut deals with plenty of people who were. Deftly working the celebrity circuit, while claiming to be developing more than $1 billion worth of properties around Miami and Chicago, a newspaper called him the "condo-hotel king."

Today, the king's realm is nearly bankrupt. In Miami Beach, two hotels in the high-gloss South Beach neighborhood that he planned to market under Nicky Hilton's name became the haunts of squatters and were auctioned in the spring. Another Miami Beach hotel, the Royal Palm, also slipped from his grasp, in 2007.

Former business associates assert in lawsuits that Falor, 40, pretended to own property that he did not own, used business funds for toys like luxury cars and a private jet, and otherwise mismanaged his finances.