Luxury real estate brokers charged in federal indictment with sex trafficking in NYC

NEW YORK -- Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with sex trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Wednesday.

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 deals on high-end properties in New York City and Miami, and sibling Alon Alexander worked together to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims.”

“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.

Williams said the brothers used their wealth and influence to take advantage of victims during a period from at least 2010 to 2021.

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

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

After the assaults, the brothers often gave their victims concert tickets and luxury items, Williams added.

The brothers often met their victims on dating apps, through social events and at bars and nightclubs, but they also used party promoters to “source” women, according to Williams.

The women were often provided drugs, including cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and GHB, and the brothers even surreptitiously drugged some of the women’s drinks, leaving them physically impaired and unable to fight back or escape from the sexual assaults, prosecutors said in their indictment.

"In some instances, 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 said.

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

The woman, who is not named, said she was led into a bedroom where brothers argued over who would rape her first as she pleaded with them not to assault her, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

The second incident, in October 2017, involved a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Oren Alexander at 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 the attack, according to prosecutors.

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

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

The brothers have each been charged with one count of engaging in a sex trafficking conspiracy. Williams declined to say if others also will be charged as the investigation is ongoing.

“They were not acting alone,” he said.

Lawyers for the brothers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

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, Florida, contributed to this story.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.