The Alexander brothers allegedly paid independent journalists to publish favorable accounts of their sex-trafficking case, allegations the writers deny, as the wealthy siblings fought federal charges before their convictions and sentencing.
Tal Alexander, 40, and his 39-year-old twin brothers, Oren and Alon, were convicted in March of conspiracy to commit sex crimes, including offenses involving minors. On Oct. 27, each was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors said the jet-setting brothers worked together and with other men to traffic women for sex, repeatedly drugging, sexually assaulting and raping numerous victims.
The brothers now face civil lawsuits from women who say they were among their victims.
Oren Alexander, Tal Alexander and Alon Alexander attend the Chanukah With The Stars Gala on Dec. 10, 2014, at New York City’s Harmonie Club. (Photo by J Grassi/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
But the scrutiny has also extended to two independent journalists who reported on the proceedings.
Daniel Mael is one of two writers identified in a New York Times report as allegedly accepting money to cast the brothers in a favorable light.
Mael rejected that characterization in a phone interview with News Media, saying he wrote about the case based on his own conclusions.
He also disputed the Times’ claim that he received $15,000 to publish “sympathetic posts” during the trial. The report said publisher Frank Parlato received $10,000 for similar coverage.
Mael declined to provide details about his financial arrangement with the brothers’ publicist, Juda Engelmayer.
Oren Alexander, center, and his twin brother Alon, center-right, speak with their attorney, Joel Denaro, during a bond hearing after being charged with multiple state and federal offenses, including sex trafficking and rape, at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)
Engelmayer “offered to help subsidize part of the cost of covering the case, and I accepted,” Mael said in a Nov. 5 statement on X.
“No one requested favorable coverage, no one dictated a single word, and no one exercised the slightest editorial influence over my reporting.”
Parlato likewise declined to say whether he had been paid for his articles.
In an email to News Media, he insisted that his reporting was independent.
“I have never spoken to the Alexander brothers,” Parlato wrote. “Nobody tells me what to write. Nobody sees my stories before publication.
“I wrote about the brothers from court records, before trial, when they were presumed innocent. I write what I believe is true.”
Oren Alexander and Tal Alexander speak during a panel at the Rockstars of Real Estate event on Sept. 3, 2013, in New York. (Amy Sussman/Invision for DETAILS Magazine/AP Images, File)
“By the time the Alexander brothers went to trial, they had already been convicted in the court of public opinion,” Engelmayer told News Media in an email. “The coverage was extensive, overwhelmingly negative, and largely driven by the allegations against them. There was very little interest in examining anything that might challenge the prevailing narrative.”
He said he contacted independent journalists who might cover the trial so that the defense perspective “was at least heard.” Engelmayer said he was looking for reporters willing to ask “the questions that weren’t being asked elsewhere.”
Mael posted regular trial updates on his Substack. At times, however, his reports highlighted evidence that undercut the defense.
A text from Alon Alexander referring to how he had “took down a 17 year old” was “perhaps the most damning piece of evidence,” Mael wrote in a recap of the trial’s eighth day.
Real estate brokers Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother Alon, convicted of repeatedly drugging, sexually assaulting and raping dozens of women, listen as their attorneys seek lesser sentences in a New York courtroom on Oct. 27, 2026, in this courtroom sketch. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
Mael objected to the New York Times’ suggestion that his coverage reflected bias against prosecution witnesses.
“I never ever criticized the motives of the women on the stand,” he said. “Ever.”
Mael maintained that his reporting was independent and accurate despite receiving financial support from Engelmayer.
Parlato’s website, The Frank Report, ran articles questioning the brothers’ guilt in July and August 2025.
One article, titled “What If Everything You’ve Been Told About the Alexander Brothers Case Is Wrong? And Other Matters,” was written by Engelmayer.
Brothers on trial
The Alexander brothers were raised in a wealthy Miami family.
Oren and Tal became prominent real estate agents, selling lavish homes to celebrities and wealthy clients in New York, Miami, Aspen and other destinations.
Real estate brokers Tal Alexander, right, and his younger brother Oren Alexander outside their Miami Beach home on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. (Getty Images)
Alon served as an executive at Kent Security, the family’s Miami-based private security business.
Their wealth gave them access to private aircraft, superyachts and elite parties. Prosecutors said the brothers used that social world to find victims.
The brothers, who lived mainly in New York and Miami, used their “wealth and prominence to create and facilitate opportunities to sexually assault women,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
For years, prosecutors said, they met women through dating apps, nightclubs, parties and promoters, then attracted them with travel, luxury accommodations and access to influential figures and Hollywood celebrities.
After isolating the women, the brothers allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted them, sometimes together and sometimes with other men.
Some of the assaults were recorded, prosecutors said.
Oren Alexander and his twin brother Alon attend a bond hearing after being charged with multiple state and federal offenses, including sex trafficking and rape, at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)
Eleven women testified at trial, while prosecutors said more than 70 women had come forward with similar allegations.
With the criminal case concluded, three women are pursuing separate civil lawsuits against the brothers.
During sentencing, the brothers denied drugging, raping or trafficking anyone but expressed regret for aspects of their past conduct.
Prosecutors asked the judge to impose life sentences. Defense lawyers sought the minimum term of 15 years.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa argues for a life sentence during the sentencing of real estate brokers Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother Alon, convicted of repeatedly drugging, sexually assaulting and raping dozens of women, in a New York courtroom on Oct. 27, 2026, in this courtroom sketch. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
Judge Valerie Caproni also ordered each brother to serve 10 years of supervised release. Alon and Oren were fined $300,000 apiece, while Tal was fined $350,000.
The Alexanders’ attorney did not respond to News Media’s request for comment.
SEE ALSO: Justin Ross Harris Freed After 11 Years for Son’s Tragic Hot Car Incident