David Mancuso’s Nephew Accuses Former The Loft Board Members of Theft, Misconduct

The Loft Founder David Mancuso’s nephew, Richard Horstman II, has spoken out about an internal power struggle following the party organizer’s passing.

The late David Mancuso is a beloved for how his NYC The Loft parties shaped disco culture and, by extension, dance music as a whole. In the years after his passing, however, the stewards of the seminal event brand have reportedly engaged in behavior that his nephew and estate administrator, Richard Horstman II, says amounts to theft and other financial misconduct.

Horstman II’s accusations are detailed in a bombshell Resident Advisor report. Published days before the MoMa exhibit Martin Beck: Last Night, which presented 1984 film recordings of Mancuso DJing, it cites internally reviewed bank documents and emails to substantiate its claims.

Chief among them is the allegation that, after Mancuso’s 2016 passing, former The Loft Party LLC board members Luis Vargas, Edowa Shimizu, Sandy Moon, Ernesto Green and Douglas Sherman formed a new company, The Loft Party NYC LLC and then depleted the former entity’s bank accounts. This followed an email in which Vargas, Shimizu, Moon, Green, and Douglas reportedly wrote that they “will no longer involve [Horstman II] and [Colleen “Cosmo” Murphy] in organising future Loft parties.”

“In my opinion, this was deceptive, aggressive, created division within the community and isn’t in keeping with uncle David’s wishes,” Horstman II wrote in a statement to RA. He went on to say that they attempted to resolve the dispute privately before bringing it to MoMa’s attention.

In addition to their pioneering role in early dance music and immersive event decor, David Mancuso’s The Loft parties offered a collectivist atmosphere in which all participants were treated equally. This would remain a key ingredient in the culture as disco gave way to house music, which then opened the door for styles like techno, jungle, and eventually dubstep to proliferate.