This photo provided by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department shows Alon Alexander, left, and Oren Alexander, both of whom have been charged with sex trafficking.
AP/Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.
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AP/Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.
NEW YORK — Three brothers, including two of the nation’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, were convicted of sex trafficking Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they drugged and raped scores of women they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle.
The verdict came after 11 women testified in Manhattan federal court they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39. All three shook their heads as the jury foreperson said “guilty” 19 straight times, a powerful reckoning that could put them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
Tal Alexander dropped his head into his crossed arms. Their stunned parents sat in the gallery behind them. Alon Alexander’s wife shielded her face with her hand and appeared to fight back tears.
Judge Valerie E. Caproni set sentencing for Aug. 6. The brothers, jailed since their 2024 arrests, will appeal the verdict, their lawyers said.
“We believe in our clients’ innocence and we’re not going to stop fighting until we prevail, and we believe that we will one day prevail,” defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said outside the courthouse.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton lauded the verdict as vindication for victims of crimes that often go unreported and unpunished.
“The truth is sex trafficking and other federal sex offenses are present in many walks of life and we have not done enough to root it out,” Clayton said in a statement.
Dozens of women say they were drugged and assaulted
The verdict represented a spectacular fall for Oren and Tal Alexander, once known as real estate’s “A Team” for their high-ticket sales and celebrity clientele. After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, the brothers started their own firm. Alon Alexander ran their family’s private security company.
Victims testified that they met the brothers at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, and were attacked after accepting their invitations to all-expense paid getaways to the Hamptons; Aspen, Colorado; and a Caribbean cruise. More than 60 women say they were raped by one or more of the brothers, according to prosecutors.
Defense lawyers suggested the accusers had faulty memories or were hoping to cash in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers were womanizers, their lawyers conceded. But they insisted any sex was consensual.
In addition to the top charges, Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking of a minor while Alon and Oren Alexander were convicted of aggravated sexual abuse by force or intoxicant and sexual abuse of a physically incapacitated person. Oren Alexander was also convicted of sexually exploiting a minor after prosecutors showed the jury a video he recorded of himself appearing to assault a drugged 17-year-old.
Lawsuits expose an open secret in the real estate world
Besides the criminal case, the brothers have faced about two dozen lawsuits over the last two years, including one filed last week in which Tracy Tutor, a star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” alleges Oren Alexander drugged and assaulted her while she was in New York City for a real estate event.
When the first of the lawsuits were filed, multiple women came forward claiming they had also been assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct had been an open secret in the real estate world. The government took notice and opened a criminal case.
During the trial, many women who testified said they believed the brothers had spiked their drinks. Some described feeling like they’d lost control of their bodies.
One woman testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a party at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. She said she had almost no interaction with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later in the night before waking up naked with a nude Alon Alexander standing over her.
“I don’t want to have sex with you,” she testified telling him. “Haha, you already did,” she recalled him snapping back as he “laughed in my face.”
Testimony challenges claim that money drove allegations
Prosecutors pushed back against the idea that the accusers were hoping to cash in on lawsuits. Only two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa told jurors, and both are wealthy.
One woman who testified said she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017, when she was 17. She said she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t want their money. I just don’t want them to have it,” she told jurors.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a home in the Hamptons in 2011 after taking a drink that left her feeling paralyzed.
The woman said she sued last year even though she will “never need their money” because the Alexanders “kept calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a kid with a stick who keeps hitting people, you take their stick away,” she told the jury. “Money is their stick, so you take it away so they can’t hurt people anymore.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Acree and Tutor have done.
