Share and Follow
NEW YORK (AP) — Following a five-week trial, three siblings, two of whom are prominent figures in the luxury real estate market, were found guilty of sex trafficking on Monday. The brothers were accused of using drugs and coercion to sexually assault numerous women, luring them with their extravagant wealth and lavish lifestyle.
The conviction came after 11 women took the stand to recount their experiences of sexual assault involving one or more of the brothers: 38-year-old twins Oren and Alon Alexander, and their 39-year-old sibling, Tal Alexander.
The testimonies detailed incidents where the women were invited to exclusive vacation spots such as the Hamptons, a Caribbean cruise, and a skiing holiday in Aspen, Colorado. Prosecutors revealed that over 60 women reported being raped by at least one of the brothers.
The defense argued that the accusations were based on unreliable memories, suggesting that the women might have been motivated by the brothers’ considerable wealth. While acknowledging their clients’ reputations as womanizers, the defense insisted that all sexual encounters were consensual.
The jury commenced its deliberations last Thursday.
Oren and Tal Alexander were brokers at real estate powerhouse Douglas Elliman before starting their own firm, Official. Alon Alexander worked at the family’s private security firm.
Besides the criminal case, the trio faced about two dozen lawsuits, including one filed Thursday by Tracy Tutor, a star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo. She alleges Oren Alexander drugged and assaulted her in a restaurant bathroom while she was in New York City for a real estate event.
When those lawsuits first began being filed, multiple women came forward claiming they had also been sexually harassed or assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct with women had been an open secret in the real estate world for years.
During the trial, many of the women who testified said they believed they’d been drugged after they were handed alcohol by one of the brothers. Some described feeling like they’d lost control of their bodies after less than one drink.
The brothers met the women at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, taking some on trips to ritzy locales, and paying for flights and luxury lodging. One woman testified that she met the brothers in 2012 at a party at actor Zac Efron’s Manhattan apartment. She said she had almost no interaction with the actor, who was not accused of any misdeeds, and went to a nightclub later in the night before waking up naked with a nude Alon Alexander standing over her.
Prosecutors pushed back on the idea that the accusers were hoping to cash in on lawsuits. Only two have lawsuits pending, prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa told jurors, and both are wealthy themselves.
One woman who testified said she was raped by Alon Alexander in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017, when she was 17 years old. She said she was the daughter of a billionaire.
“I don’t want their money. I just don’t want them to have it,” she told jurors.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner in Brooklyn, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and a second man at a home in the Hamptons in the summer of 2011 after becoming so disoriented from drinking less than half a glass of wine that she felt paralyzed.
The woman, now 40, said she sued Tal Alexander last year even though she will “never need their money” because she became upset that the Alexanders “kept calling us gold diggers, shake down artists, con artists.”
“If there’s a kid with a stick who keeps hitting people, you take their stick away,” she told the jury. “Money is their stick, so you take it away so they can’t hurt people anymore.”
Besides witness testimony, prosecutors tried to prove their case through text and email messages in which the brothers seemed to boast about their sexual exploits and their knowledge of the effects various drugs can have on a woman’s inhibitions, along with a blog that included a post titled: “It’s not rape if …”
Prosecutors said the brothers emailed about sneaking drugs — or “party favors” — onto a cruise ship, recorded at least one assault on video and shared photos of victims.