Wealth, drugs and rape: US luxury real estate stars convicted of sex trafficking

Three brothers, including two of America’s most successful luxury real estate brokers, were convicted of sex trafficking charges on Monday after a five-week trial over accusations that they used drugs and force to rape scores of women they had dazzled with their wealth and opulent lifestyle. The verdict came after 11 women testified they were sexually assaulted by one or more of the brothers: twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 38, and Tal Alexander, 39. All three of the men shook their heads as the jury foreperson said “guilty” 19 straight times. Tal Alexander dropped his head into his crossed arms. Sentencing was set for August 6, when the brothers could face life in prison. They remain jailed. Marc Agnifilo, a defence lawyer who spoke outside the courthouse, said he would appeal the verdict. “We believe in our clients’ innocence and we’re not going to stop fighting until we prevail, and we believe that we will one day prevail,” he said. The verdict represented a spectacular fall for Oren and Tal Alexander, who were known as “The A Team” of real estate for their high-ticket sales and celebrity clientele. After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, the brothers started their own firm. Alon Alexander went to law school and ran their family’s private security company, which caters to heads of state and the rich and famous. The women described attacks that occurred after they were invited to holiday locales including the Hamptons, a Caribbean cruise and a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado. More than 60 women say they were raped by one or more of the brothers, according to prosecutors. Defence lawyers suggested the accusers had faulty memories or were hoping to cash in on the brothers’ fortunes. The brothers, their lawyers conceded, were womanisers. But they insisted any sex was consensual. In addition to the top charges, Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking of a minor while Alon and Oren Alexander were convicted of aggravated sexual abuse by force or intoxicant and sexual abuse of a physically incapacitated person. Oren Alexander was also convicted of sexually exploiting a minor. When the verdict was announced, the brothers’ parents shook their heads. Alon Alexander’s wife held a hand against her face. 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 assaulted, and that the brothers’ misconduct with women had been an open secret in the real estate world. 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 had lost control of their bodies. 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 flat. 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. “I don’t want to have sex with you,” she testified telling him. “Haha, you already did,” she recalled him snapping back as he “laughed in my face”. 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. 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, testified she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a home in the Hamptons in 2011 after taking a drink that left her feeling paralysed. The woman said she sued last year even though she will “never need their money” because 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 any more.” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement that the crimes highlighted in the trial often go unreported and unpunished. “The truth is sex trafficking and other federal sex offences are present in many walks of life and we have not done enough to root it out,” he said.

Wealth, drugs and rape: US luxury real estate stars convicted of sex trafficking

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Once the kings of high-stakes property, Alexander twins Oren and Alon and brother Tal face life in prison after a trial exposed a pattern of drugged assaults

Once the kings of high-stakes property, Alexander twins Oren and Alon and brother Tal face life in prison after a trial exposed a pattern of drugged assaults