Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander were sentenced to 30 years in prison in New York for human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The brothers were found guilty in March after a five-week trial on multiple counts.
During the trial, details of years of sexual assaults committed in Miami, New York and other elite locations, including the Hamptons, Aspen in Colorado and on a Caribbean cruise, were presented. On Monday, 12 victims spoke at the sentencing hearing in Manhattan, with several testifying under pseudonyms. One woman described a rape committed by Tal Alexander in August 2014. Another said she was raped at a Hamptons estate after being drugged and taken to a bedroom. The three brothers, dressed in light brown prison uniforms, sat expressionless as they listened to the women.
During the trial, their lawyers admitted that the brothers were 'players'. They stated they were sorry for being 'insensitive to the feelings of certain women at certain times', but argued that all sexual encounters were consensual. The brothers moved from Florida to New York in 2008. Oren and Tal Alexander were stars at real estate agency Douglas Elliman before founding their own brokerage, Official. Official earned hundreds of millions of dollars selling apartments to wealthy and famous clients. Alon Alexander ran the family's private security firm.
Prosecutors said that their easy access to money and women allowed them to exploit victims and lure them to parties or luxury trips, during which the Alexanders drugged and raped them, either together or in the company of others. In a sentencing memorandum, they stated that the 'defendants felt they could take whatever they wanted from any woman or girl who agreed to get on a plane, go to a party or sit at their table in a nightclub'. They added that they 'put drugs in drinks and forced themselves on victims'. Dozens of other women came forward after the charges against the Alexanders were published in an article by real estate portal The Real Deal in June 2024. Prosecutors stated in an earlier court filing that at least 70 women were raped or sexually assaulted, describing them as 'serial rapists'.
US District Judge Valerie Caproni stated that she believed the brothers should not be held in the same prison because they have a negative influence on one another. The brothers' lawyers argued on Monday that they should serve their sentences together. Judge Caproni told them before sentencing: 'Your behaviour was monstrous' and 'Your crimes destroyed their lives'. On Monday morning, the court in New York heard from 12 victims, including one who did not testify during the trial. Many victims asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of life imprisonment on each brother.
Maya Miller told the court that after Tal Alexander raped her in 2014, she lost all sense of security. 'I carry a quiet funeral inside me for the person I could have become if this had never happened', she said. Another victim, under the pseudonym Isa Brooks, stated that after Tal and Alon Alexander raped her when she was 16, she lost the ability to trust herself. 'I had no idea what danger I was in until it was too late', she said. A third woman recounted that Tal Alexander threatened her by saying he knew where her sister worked when she intended to come forward.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said the brothers deserved the maximum sentence for their crimes. 'The facts paint a truly devastating picture', she said. 'For years, they perfected their methods of luring women with promises of luxury.' She added that the brothers were 'completely unbothered by the suffering they left behind'. During the women's statements, the three Alexanders showed little emotion.
The brothers' lawyers argued for 15-year sentences, claiming they had become devoted fathers whose families would miss them. All three addressed the court, still maintaining their innocence. Tal Alexander said: 'We had a hard work, hard play mentality', adding that he had realised his behaviour had 'hurt people's feelings'. Judge Caproni rebuked them for refusing to admit their crimes. 'How can someone be rehabilitated who has never admitted to the evil they committed?', she asked. Judge Caproni sentenced each of them to 30 years in prison for certain crimes, and an additional 20 years for others, but stated that the sentences would be served concurrently. During the five-week trial, 11 women testified that the brothers had given them gifts and flown them to places like Aspen and the Bahamas, where they were drugged before being raped. Several of those 11 women said they were minors at the time of the assaults. Prosecutors noted that the brothers' pattern of violent behaviour began in high school, although the trial covered criminal offences starting from 2008. They also said the three had put drugs in women's drinks and 'physically restrained and held them during rapes and sexual assaults, ignoring screams and explicit demands to stop'. The brothers' lawyers argued that the sex was consensual and that they were players, but not violent. Two of the brothers, Tal and Oren, made their fortunes selling luxury real estate in New York and Miami. They worked for US real estate giant Douglas Elliman, and their clients included Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. In 2022, Tal and Oren founded their own New York firm called Official. Alon worked for the family's private security firm, Kent Security. As they listened to their sentences, the brothers stared straight ahead.
