Federal prosecutors accuse two of New York’s prime actual property brokers, and their brother, of sexually assaulting over a dozen women and younger women over a interval that spanned greater than a decade.
During the trial’s opening statements, that are scheduled for Monday, prosecutors are anticipated to describe to a jury how they consider the three brothers — Oren and Tal Alexander, the actual property brokers to the ultra-wealthy, and Alon, an government at the household’s safety firm — used their wealth and place to lure women to lavish events or trip locations, drug them with cocaine and membership medication, and violently rape and sexually assault them.
Law enforcement allege the brothers recognized women they discovered engaging on relationship apps by get together promoters and probability encounters, and typically would pool monetary assets to pay for the women’s journey bills, in accordance to court docket filings. The alleged assaults occurred from 2008 till 2021 in luxurious places in the Hamptons, Aspen, Las Vegas, Manhattan, and throughout a Caribbean cruise, in accordance to court docket filings.
Judge Valerie Caproni, who’s presiding over the trial in the Southern District of New York, dominated that a number of of the accusers can testify using pseudonyms, together with women who had been minors at the time of the alleged assaults. More than 20 women might be known as to testify in the case.
Prosecutors have argued in court docket that they’ve textual content messages between the brothers and others arranging journey as well as to images and movies.
As of Friday, a jury of six women and six men was chosen for the trial, which is anticipated to final at the least a month.
The three brothers have pleaded not responsible to prices of intercourse trafficking and conspiracy to commit intercourse trafficking, amongst different crimes. If convicted on all counts, they face at the least 15 years and a most of life in jail. Oren and Alon additionally face state charges in Florida. All three brothers are defending themselves towards a number of civil lawsuits.
Lawyers for the brothers, twins Alon and Oren who’re 38 years previous, and Tal, who’s one 12 months older, have argued the women willingly participated in intercourse, weren’t compelled to journey, and weren’t paid to have intercourse with their shoppers — younger charismatic men dwelling a partying way of life. Their attorneys have additionally stated in a court docket submitting final 12 months that the allegations are previous and had been both not reported to police or “deemed not chargeable at the time they occurred.” They have additionally argued the legal case relies on frivolous civil lawsuits.
“The evidence will show that these were consensual adult relationships, that no one was trafficked, coerced, drugged, or deprived of anything of value, and that the government’s case depends on hindsight, regret, and narrative, not facts. We are confident that when this case is tried in court, rather than in headlines, the truth will be clear,” stated Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for the brothers.
In August, Oren Alexander employed seasoned legal protection attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, who weeks earlier represented music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and efficiently defended towards intercourse trafficking prices. During Combs’ trial, the attorneys used witnesses’ textual content messages to undermine the prosecution concept that the alleged victims had been coerced into intercourse acts. They additionally argued that many of the witnesses made up allegations and filed civil lawsuits to get an enormous payday. The jury acquitted Combs of the most critical prices of intercourse trafficking and convicted him of lesser prices of transportation to interact in prostitution. He has appealed.
The Alexander brothers’ case is one of a number of high-profile intercourse trafficking instances introduced following the top of the #MeToo motion, which modified the dialog round sexual assault. These instances may be troublesome to show since the alleged assaults may be years previous, and they typically activate the credibility of witnesses.
Lawyers who signify sexual violence survivors say prosecutions are vital to ship a message and as a result of the injury to the victims may be profound.
“The Alexander brothers aren’t alone. We saw the breadth and scale of Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein and many others. Unless a clear message is sent that these sorts of behaviors are not going to be tolerated and that they’re going to be prosecuted, other people are going to continue to do this in all sorts of industries,” stated Douglas Wigdor, an lawyer who represents sexual assault survivors, and who’s representing some shoppers in lawsuits towards the Alexander brothers.
The Alexander brothers grew up in Miami. After faculty, the brothers moved to New York, the place Tal and Oren began in the actual property enterprise. Alon went to New York Law School and started working for a non-public safety firm run by their mom and uncle. By 2023, the Hollywood Reporter put Oren and Tal at the prime of their record of New York’s prime actual property brokers.
Prosecutors allege it was in highschool that the brothers started to sexually assault women, together with by collaborating in gang rapes, in accordance to court docket filings. The sexual assaults allegedly “escalated,” prosecutors stated, after they grew to become adults.
“Many victims told the brothers ‘no’ or even screamed while the rapes were happening, but on each occasion, the defendants ignored any verbal resistance. The government has spoken to dozens of women who reported being similarly raped by one or more of the Alexander Brothers between 2005 and 2021,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting.
The Alexander brothers had been arrested in December 2024 and have been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a infamous federal jail in Brooklyn, New York. Their dad and mom, Shlomo and Orly, have traveled from Florida to attend most of their court docket hearings and are anticipated to attend the trial each day.
“Our family has lived under the weight of public accusations that began in civil lawsuits and grew long before any criminal case existed,” the dad and mom stated in an announcement. “We know who our boys are, and we believe in their innocence.”