Two star luxury real estate brokers and their brother are accused of using their wealth and status to lure, drug and then sexually assault and rape dozens of women, according to a federal indictment made public on Wednesday.
Oren Alexander, his older brother Tal Alexander and Alon Alexander, Oren’s twin, were arrested at homes in and near Miami Beach on Wednesday. The twins also face separate state felony charges of sexual battery connected to three separate assaults, according to arrest warrants released on Wednesday by prosecutors in Miami.
Until this summer, Oren, 37, and Tal Alexander, 38, were among the biggest names in real estate in New York and Miami, and their sales and moves were chronicled in the tabloids. They reached the top ranks at Douglas Elliman, one of the largest real estate brokerages in the country, and helped broker the sale of a nearly $240 million penthouse — at the time, the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history. They then co-founded their own real estate brokerage, Official. Alon Alexander, 37, did not work in real estate, but he socialized with them.
According to the federal indictment, the three brothers had conspired in the sex trafficking scheme for at least 14 years. Coordinating with other men, they arranged events and domestic and international trips as bait to recruit, entice and transport women, whom they later raped, the indictment says.
The federal charges were announced Wednesday in Manhattan by Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James E. Dennehy, the head of the F.B.I.’s New York office.
“This conduct, as alleged, was heinous,” Mr. Williams said at a news conference. “With our law enforcement partners, this office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking, no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be.”
Mr. Williams said the investigation was continuing, and urged anyone with claims of sexual violence by any of the Alexander brothers to come forward.
The top state prosecutor in Miami, Katherine Fernández Rundle, announced the state charges there. “Time and again,” Ms. Rundle said, “we’ve seen people who use their fame, their money, their power to create opportunities to commit sexual crimes.”
Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Oren Alexander, had no comment on the charges. Isabelle Kirshner, a lawyer for Alon Alexander, and Deanna Paul, a lawyer for Tal Alexander, also had no comment.
According to the indictment, the Alexander brothers used social connections or the guise of starting a relationship to entice women to meet. On multiple occasions, the indictment says, the brothers — alone or together — then sexually assaulted the women, sometimes within hours of their meeting.
“At times, the defendants physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop,” the indictment says.
The indictment charges that the brothers also gave women drugs, including cocaine, mushrooms and GHB, a so-called date-rape drug that causes loss of consciousness and memory.
Frequently, the brothers and others “surreptitiously drugged women’s drinks,” the indictment says.
“Some of the victims experienced symptoms of impaired physical and mental capacity, including limitations of movement and speech and incomplete memories of events,” it says.
In addition to the assaults during planned trips and events, the indictment added, the brothers frequently drugged and raped or sexually assaulted women they encountered by chance, including women they met at bars and nightclubs and on dating apps.
All three brothers were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and a separate count of sex trafficking of one woman by force, fraud or coercion; she was identified only as Victim-2. In addition, Tal Alexander was charged with the sex trafficking of a second victim, identified as Victim-1.
In a letter to a federal judge asking that the Alexander brothers be detained without bail, prosecutors said that although the conduct in the indictment covered more than a decade, the investigation showed they had repeatedly and violently raped and sexually assaulted dozens of victims for more than 20 years.
The evidence showed that the brothers began engaging in acts of sexual violence, including gang rapes, while still in high school in Miami, the prosecutors said in the letter to the judge, Valerie E. Caproni. Multiple women interviewed by the government reported being raped by at least one of the brothers in the early 2000s, including some who were raped by groups of boys, including the brothers, the letter says.
“Each of the victims that the government has interviewed from this period reported hearing that individuals involved — including Tal Alexander — talked about the assaults at school, boasting about ‘running train’ on their victims and saying that they wanted to ‘do it again,’” the prosecutors wrote.
“As publicly reported, Oren bragged about doing so in his high school yearbook — writing that ‘riding my first “choo choo” train’ was his most memorable moment from high school,” the prosecutors wrote.
As adults, the prosecutors added, the brothers’ serial sexual violence only escalated, along with attempts to cover it up, the government wrote.
The prosecutors said that in 2016 the brothers created a group WhatsApp chat titled “Lions in Tulum,” referring to the Mexican resort town, in which they and other men discussed “imports” of women and splitting the cost of lodging and flights for the women and providing drugs.
“Are all girls getting shipped out on Sunday?” Oren Alexander said in one message, adding that he was “just trying to make sure I get max returns.” He said the price they were paying was “more than most of us ever spent on girls.”
“Just want to make sure we get a good ROI,” he wrote, using the abbreviation for “return on investment.”
In what prosecutors said were efforts to cover up criminal conduct, Tal and Oren Alexander filed a police report accusing a woman of harassment; the woman had described being forcibly digitally penetrated by Tal Alexander while Oren Alexander was in the room. Tal Alexander also threatened her with a defamation lawsuit if she did not stop telling people that he and Oren Alexander had sexually assaulted her, the prosecutors said.
The government said that after multiple lawsuits accusing the brothers of sexual misconduct and assault were reported, the Alexanders began compiling files on women who had been publicly identified in an apparent attempt to discredit them.
The Florida arrest warrants against Oren and Alon Alexander include details of three sexual assaults, in 2016, 2017 and 2021. All three incidents involve Oren Alexander; only the 2016 incident involves Alon Alexander. In that incident, the twins face a charge of sexual battery by multiple perpetrators.
In 2016, according to the warrants, Alon Alexander invited a woman in New York to a barbecue in a Miami Beach condo, but when she arrived, she was the only guest.
Alon Alexander gave the woman a tour of the condo and led her to the bedroom, the woman later told the Miami Beach Police Department. The woman said that Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander sexually assaulted her and that a cousin, Ohad Fisherman, helped hold her down. Mr. Fisherman, 39, who also faces a sexual battery charge, remains at large.
In 2017, another woman said that Oren Alexander messaged her on Instagram and that she later met him, Alon Alexander and other family members.
She later told the police that Oren Alexander had assaulted her in the same Miami Beach condo.
In the weeks later, she said, she saw Oren Alexander again and asked for an apology. He tried to kiss her and then masturbated over her, she told the police.
The woman told friends about what happened and Oren Alexander got wind of it, according to the warrant, and in 2018, he sent her a text message saying: “Nothing happened. If you keep talking about it, I’m going to ruin you.”
The 2021 incident involved a woman who told the police that she had met Oren Alexander at dinner with a friend and later went to a Miami Beach house with him. Oren Alexander led her into a bedroom, where he kissed her and then ripped her dress, according to the warrant. She tried to leave, but was unable to, and he assaulted her, the warrant says.
Tal and Oren Alexander’s reign as real estate princes came to an abrupt end in June when The Real Deal, a real estate trade publication, first reported that women had filed lawsuits that claimed they were sexually assaulted by the brothers.
Two women sued Oren and Alon Alexander for assault; a third woman sued the twins along with Tal Alexander. In the wake of those suits, dozens of other women came forward with allegations of assault against the brothers, including in The Times. Two days after The Times’s report, a fourth woman filed a suit against Oren Alexander.
Olivia Bensimon and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly. More about Benjamin Weiser
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico. More about Patricia Mazzei
Debra Kamin reports on real estate, covering what it means to buy, sell and own a home in America today. More about Debra Kamin
No comments:
Post a Comment