Once High-Flying Alexander Brothers Face Possible Life Sentences After Guilty Verdict in Sex Trafficking Case

Defense attorneys for the luxury real estate brokers, Tal and Oren Alexander, and their brother Alon Alexander vowed to appeal the guilty verdict that a jury reached in the three men’s sex trafficking trial at a Manhattan federal court on Monday. Each brother faces between fifteen years and life in prison. “We believe in our clients’ innocence and we will not stop fighting until we prevail, and we believe that we will one day prevail,” Marc Agnifilo, an attorney representing Oren Alexander, said outside the courthouse on Monday afternoon.Federal prosecutors called over 30 witnesses during the five-week-long trial, including 11 women, who accused the brothers of drugging and raping them after they had met on dating apps or at fancy parties between 2008 and 2012 at Hamptons mansions, inside New York City luxury apartments, on a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado and during a Caribbean cruise. “The defendants had a playbook: using exciting and exclusive things to entice girls and women to private homes, boats, parties, so they could assault them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Jones told the jury of six men and six women during his closing argument last week.Tal Alexander and Sabina Zavodna attends the Deck At Island Gardens, Wilhelmina Models on February 19, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Romain Maurice/Getty Images for the Deck at Island GardensFor years Tal, 39 and Oren, 38, were among the top selling real estate brokers in Manhattan’s and Miami’s luxury home markets. In 2019, the brothers represented buyer Ken Griffin in his $238 million purchase of a Manhattan apartment, which at the time was the most expensive home purchase in America. Their client list included celebrities and billionaires such as Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Tommy Hilfiger, and Steve Madden.Alon, 38, Oren’s identical twin, worked for the family security business. The three brothers flaunted a flashy, glamorous lifestyle that fit with the kinds of homes that they sold. But the brothers’ gilded world began to collapse in the spring of 2024 when women began filing lawsuits against the brothers alleging sex offenses going back decades. After a real estate trade publication, The Real Deal, published a report on the lawsuits, exposes in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal followed, leading to federal and Florida prosecutors charging the brothers with sex crimes.Defense attorneys argued that the Alexander brothers had been womanizers in the years before they settled down and got married, but were not rapists. “They’re not drugging them, they’re not raping them, but they’re certainly pursuing them,” said Mr. Agnifilo in his summation. Mr. Agnifilo was part of the team that won an acquittal for the disgraced music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs of his sex trafficking charges at the same courthouse last year (he lost another major sex trafficking trial – of cult leader Keith Raniere – in 2019). [L-R] Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander celebrate Sir Ivan’s Medieval Madness Birthday Bash For Model Mina Otsuka At His Hamptons Castle for new Bravo Television show on July 16, 2011. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images for Peaceman ProductionsDeanna Paul, defending Tal Alexander, told the jury that an invitation to visit for a weekend is “not enticement, is not luring” and noted there was “no evidence” of giving things of value in exchange for sex.Alon’s defense attorney, Howard Srebnick, conceded his client’s behavior and text messages were at times “grotesque,” “pathetic,” or “inappropriate”. However, he insisted that “talk doesn’t constitute a crime” and that “nobody was being assaulted”.But Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa pushed back in her rebuttal argument, telling the jury, “This is not a close case.” She added that the brothers hadn’t expected 11 women to come forward “in an avalanche of evidence.” Ms. Espinosa cited a blog that was found on a computer hard drive in Tal’s apartment and discussed the brother’s “playbook and goals,” including a list of justifications for rape under a post titled “It’s not rape if … ”Oren Alexander, left, and Tal Alexander attend a TAG Heuer dinner in honor of NBA star Jimmy Butler at a private residence on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. Scott Roth/Invision/APMs. Espinosa described the blog as listing reasons to justify it wasn’t such as, if women were too frightened or humiliated to report it to the authorities; if the woman had previously had feelings for one of the brothers; if they couldn’t recall every detail of the night; or if the victims’ use of drugs resulted in memory loss and an inability to resist.During the trial prosecutors had told jurors that the brothers used their wealth and status to lure the women in, that they drugged the women and physically restrained them, holding them down as they raped and sexually assaulted them, ignoring screams and explicit pleas to stop. Jurors were shown a video of Oren allegedly raping a drugged 17-year-old at his Manhattan apartment in 2009 (when he was 21 or 22), which led to the charge of exploitation of a minor. Last week, a reality television star and top real estate agent Tracy Tutor filed a separate lawsuit against Oren, accusing him of drugging and sexually assaulting her in New York City in 2024, when he was married. After two and half days of deliberations, which began on Thursday, the jury found the three defendants guilty of all charges, including sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor. The only note it sent to the judge was a note on Friday, requesting to be dismissed by 5pm. Oren Alexander and Alon Alexander at Hamptons Castle on July 3, 2011. Steven Henry/Getty Images for Sir IvanFederal prosecutors had originally brought twelve charges against the brothers collectively. But after one victim refused to testify, citing witness intimidation, prosecutors dropped two charges. “Since then, Victim-4 has not returned her counsel’s repeated efforts to contact her, and the Government is unlikely to be able to proceed on Counts Six and Seven,” prosecutors wrote in a letter to district Judge Valerie Caproni. In their letter, prosecutors detailed that a private investigator hired by the defense team posed as an insurance agent and spoke to neighbors of the accuser, asking about her children. After that incident the woman declined to take the witness stand. Defense attorneys questioned the validity of the claim, arguing that the woman pulled back her testimony because she knew that the three brothers had alibis for the weekend in question. The defense said that on the days she claimed to have been assaulted in the Hamptons, the brothers had been in New York City. Orly Alexander, the mother of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, arrives for their trial at Manhattan Federal Court on January 27, 2026. Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesIn a statement, the brother’s spokesperson, Juda Englemayer told the Sun on Monday evening, “Today’s verdict is deeply disappointing. We believe there are substantial problems with the evidence and the way this case was presented. The legal process does not end here. We will continue fighting every day until justice is done and the three brothers regain their freedom.” Prosecutors also released a statement on Monday evening. “This verdict cannot undo the effects of the heinous abuse the Alexanders’ many victims endured, but it does send a message: New Yorkers want to bring an end to sex trafficking in all our communities.” The judge set the sentencing date for August 6.

Once High-Flying Alexander Brothers Face Possible Life Sentences After Guilty Verdict in Sex Trafficking Case

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