Tal, Oren Alexander Charged With Sex Trafficking
Topline
Two real estate agent brothers who cater to extremely wealthy clients, and their private security executive brother, have been arrested and federally charged with sex trafficking crimes after prosecutors say they used “their wealth and positions to create and facilitate opportunities to sexually assault women.”
Tal Alexander and Oren Alexander on Sept. 20, 2016 in New York City.
Key Facts
Tal, Alon and Oren Alexander were arrested in Miami Wednesday and charged in federal court in New York with three counts of sex trafficking, according to a recently unsealed indictment.
Tal and Oren Alexander, once top real estate agents, and their brother Alon, are accused of using travel, luxury accommodations and other lures to draw dozens of women to isolated locations and then gang rape them in a sex trafficking operation lasting from 2010 to 2021.
Some women were allegedly enticed to be alone with one or more of the brothers under the guise of starting a relationship, others were participants in trips and events organized months in advance and others were chosen at random, and sometimes assaulted within hours of meeting, the indictment alleges.
The men are accused of using cocaine, mushrooms and GHB, a “date-rape” drug, to impair women in their company.
A motion filed in court Wednesday includes text messages allegedly sent between the brothers in which they discuss collecting money to fly “bitches” to parties, what drugs they should provide and protecting their reputations if “some hoe” complained about their behavior.
The charges come after the brothers were accused of rape in March and June of this year.
Emails to the Alexander brothers and their lawyers went unanswered Wednesday.
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Tangent
Tal and Oren Alexander were star brokers at Douglas Elliman before branching out on their own several years ago, and their resume includes helping to sell a $15.5 million condo in Miami Beach to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2018. They represented billionaire Leon Black in the 2016 listing of his $18.5 million Miami Condo. Other famous clients have included fashion mogul Steve Madden, designer Tommy Hilfiger and “Hamilton” producer Sander Jacobs, according to the Los Angeles Times. They were widely linked to the sale of a $238 million New York City penthouse—still the most expensive home ever sold in the U.S.—to billionaire Ken Griffin in 2019. However, Business Insider reports the brothers exaggerated their role in the deal: They reportedly sent Griffin marketing information on the building but ultimately didn’t represent the billionaire, who accused them of making “self-aggrandizing” statements taking credit for the sale.
Key Background
Alon Alexander, Oren’s twin, works as an executive at the family’s private security firm, Kent Security, where his mother is CFO. Tal and Oren Alexander moved to New York City together to launch their real estate careers in 2008. Oren landed a job with Douglas Elliman Realty and closed his first deal, a headline-making $8.2-million sale of a penthouse at the Park Imperial in Manhattan, when he was 21 years old. The real estate brothers attracted ulrta-high-worth clients by “living like they do,” Oren told Business Insider in 2012, and their social media accounts, set to private since their arrests, showed them on luxury vacations and at high-profile events. Earlier this year, Alon and Oren were accused by multiple women of sexual assault or rape. Two women filed suit against the brothers in March and then five women spoke to the Wall Street Journal about their own rapes or assaults. Tal Alexander wasn’t named in either of the initial lawsuits, and distanced himself from his brothers upon their filing, until a woman accused him of participating in a coordinated sexual assault with Alon in a June lawsuit. Lawyers for all three brothers denied the allegations at the time.
Crucial Quote
“Oren and Tal have a knack for being at the right event during Art Basel, at the right camp at Burning Man and at the right party at the Oscars,” Jay Parker, chief executive of Douglas Elliman’s Florida brokerage, told the Los Angeles Times in 2019. “They have the gift of gab, they work very hard, they’re very disciplined and they’ve been able to leverage their previous successes. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and these guys never stop squeaking.”
Surpsing Fact
Oren Alexander was included on Forbes 30 Under 30 real estate list in 2012.
Further Reading
Luxury Real Estate World Rocked by Rape Allegations Against Star Brokers (Wall Street Journal)
How real estate brothers closed some of the priciest deals around (Los Angeles Times)
This 25-Year-Old Hotshot Real Estate Broker Finds Wealthy Clients By ‘Living Like They Do’ (Business Insider)
