Charges of sex trafficking against two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been expanded to now include six victims, including an underage girl, according to a superseding indictment filed by Manhattan federal prosecutors on Thursday.
Oren and Tal Alexander — who reigned over the luxury real estate markets in both Miami and New York, as well Oren’s twin Alon Alexander — were initially indicted in Manhattan in December and accused of sex trafficking two victims by force, fraud or coercion. All three brothers were accused of trafficking the first victim; Tal Alexander was accused alone of trafficking the second.
The new indictment widens the scope of charges against all three brothers. It says one or more of the brothers variously used force, fraud or coercion in trafficking the five women and the girl, and said the scheme dated back to 2009.
The women and girl, who are not named in the indictments, represent only a fraction of the dozens of women federal prosecutors say the brothers used their wealth and status to lure, drug and sexually assault and rape going back two decades to their high school years.
The three men pleaded not guilty to the initial charges and are expected to soon be taken back into Manhattan federal court to be arraigned on the new charges.
The case, which began with the men’s arrests in Florida in December, has shaken the high-end real estate industry and led to the downfall of Oren Alexander, 37, and Tal Alexander, 38, who had reached the uppermost ranks of one of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages.
Oren and Tal Alexander helped broker the sale of a nearly $240 million penthouse in Manhattan — at the time, the most expensive residential sale in United States history. They then co-founded their own real estate brokerage, called Official. Alon Alexander, 37, did not work in real estate, but he socialized with his brothers.
The three men are being held in a federal detention center in Brooklyn awaiting their trial, which the judge, Valerie E. Caproni, has scheduled for January.
Oren and Alon Alexander also face state sex-trafficking charges in Florida, and have both pleaded not guilty. Tal Alexander does not face state charges.
Defense lawyers for the brothers offered swift rebukes on the new charges.
Deanna Paul, a lawyer for Tal Alexander, said in an emailed statement that the new indictment “changes nothing,” calling it a “reheated version of the same case” that “still does not include conduct that qualifies as sex trafficking under federal law.” She accused the government of “trying to stretch a statute beyond recognition to fit a narrative.”
Richard Klugh, a lawyer for Oren Alexander, referred to the new charges as “a swing-and-a-miss” and a “fiasco of prosecutorial overreach.” Howard Srebnick, a lawyer for Alon Alexander, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for Jay Clayton, the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said the office would decline to comment beyond its filings in court. Mr. Biase added, “This is an ongoing investigation; anyone who may have information related to this case can please contact 1-800 CALL FBI or alexander-case@fbi.gov.”
According to a federal indictment released the day of their arrests, the three brothers had conspired in the sex trafficking scheme for at least 14 years — a window that has now been expanded back to 2009, according to the new indictment. They pleaded not guilty to all charges in February.
But the new indictment adds several new federal charges, including a charge that in May 2009, Alon and Tal Alexander trafficked a child who was under 18 and forced her to engage in prostitution.
According to the government, the brothers at times “arranged for these sexual assaults well in advance,” luring victims with the promise of luxury domestic and international travel and high-end hotels. The women they selected, the indictment continues, were sometimes assaulted or raped “by multiple men, including one or more” of the brothers. Many of the victims were allegedly drugged in advance. After the assaults, the indictment says, the women were sometimes offered gifts like concert tickets and “other luxury experiences.”
The indictment also states that the brothers often worked with party promoters “to arrange for women and girls to attend events or travel with them,” and that some of those women and girls were transported across both state and international lines as part of the scheme.
Frequently, the brothers and others “surreptitiously drugged women’s drinks,” the indictment says.
“Some of the victims experienced symptoms of impaired physical and mental capacity, including limitations of movement and speech and incomplete memories of events,” it says.
In addition to the federal charges, Oren and Alon Alexander face state charges connected to three separate assaults. Both pleaded not guilty to those state charges in December. Ohad Fisherman, a family friend and fellow real estate broker, was named as an accomplice in one of those assaults; he surrendered to authorities in December and will stand trial in Miami next month.
