Luxury real estate brokers charged in New York federal sex-trafficking indictment

NEW YORK (AP) — Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with luring, drugging and violently raping dozens of women over more than a decade, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan.

State charges were also filed Wednesday in Florida against two of the brothers and a third man, stemming from three alleged sexual assaults over the past decade.

Federal prosecutors allege in the New York indictment that Oren and Tal Alexander, known for brokering luxury real estate deals in New York and Miami, and brother Alon Alexander used their wealth and influence to take advantage of victims from at least 2010 to in 2021. .

“This conduct was heinous,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.

The brothers, who all live in Miami, used “deceit, fraud and coercion” to entice victims to travel with them or attend parties or events where they covered flights, hotels and other expenses, according to the indictment. They also sometimes used the promise of a romantic relationship, it is said.

The women were then drugged and raped by one or more of the brothers, as well as other men, the US attorney said.

After the attacks, the brothers gave the victims concert tickets and luxury items, Williams added.

The brothers typically met their victims on dating apps, through social events and in bars and nightclubs, but also used party planners to “source” women, according to Williams.

He added that the women were often supplied with drugs, including cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and GHB. The brothers even secretly spiked some of the women’s drinks, leaving them physically impaired and unable to fight back or escape the sexual assaults, prosecutors said in their indictment.

“In some cases, 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 states.

In the Florida cases, state prosecutors described a December 2016 incident as the “gang rape” of a woman who said she was invited to a barbecue at Alon Alexander’s Miami Beach apartment, only to find no one there there except Alon, his brother Oren, and another man.

The woman, who has not been named, said she was led into a bedroom where the brothers argued over who would rape her first, while she begged them not to assault her, according to the Miami state’s attorney -Dade, Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

The second incident, in October 2017, involved a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Oren Alexander in his apartment following a real estate event. The woman said she was given a glass of wine that made her feel weak and unable to control her body before she was attacked, according to prosecutors.

They said the third incident occurred in October 2021 and involved a woman who said she was assaulted by Oren Alexander after she went out to dinner with him and then returned to his residence with several of her friends.

Williams, the US attorney in New York, said the three brothers were arrested in Florida on Wednesday and will appear in federal court in Miami before being brought to New York to answer the charges.

He declined to say whether others would be charged and urged any other possible victims to come forward as the investigation is ongoing.

“They weren’t acting alone,” Williams said.

An attorney representing one of the brothers denied the charges, which include one count of involvement in a sex-trafficking conspiracy for each brother.

“Oren Alexander is innocent,” attorney Susan Necheles wrote in an email. “The evidence will show that neither he nor his brothers have ever committed any crime.”

Attorneys for the other brothers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Tal Alexander, 38, and Oren Alexander, 37, first worked as a team under real estate giant Douglas Elliman, listing properties for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Liam Gallagher and Lindsay Lohan. In 2022, they started a new company called Official.

Meanwhile, Alon Alexander, who is Oren’s twin brother, attended law school and JOINED the family business, private security firm Kent Security.

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Associated Press reporter Michael Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this story.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.