Two high-profile luxury real estate brokers and their other brother were convicted Monday in a sex trafficking trial in which they were accused of using drugs and their influence to sexually abuse women.
Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander were found guilty in federal court in New York City on all 10 counts of engaging in a yearslong conspiracy of rape, sex trafficking, sex abuse and sexual exploitation.
A jury of six men and six women delivered the verdict Monday after a monthlong trial that featured testimony from more than 30 witnesses. They began deliberating Thursday.
The brothers, whom federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged in December 2024, face up to life in prison. They are set to be sentenced in August.
Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, thanked the 11 accusers who testified at trial Monday.
"These are chilling, reprehensible, and unacceptable acts," he said in a statement, adding, "They bravely overcame the pain of reliving the abuses inflicted upon them and, as a result, prevented others from becoming victims."
At trial, prosecutor Madison Smyser said in her opening statement that the three brothers worked together for years “raping women and girls ... with promises of parties and trips, and when they got there the defendants raped them.”
The brothers have denied the allegations.
Eleven accusers testified. Six of them are part of the indictment against the brothers.
One victim, who testified under the pseudonym Katie Moore, said Alon Alexander drugged and raped her after a night out at a New York City club. Moore told the court that after she was handed a drink, her “body started to sway.”
“In that moment, it felt sudden. I know I wasn’t drunk or losing control; there was no gradual fade-out. I had never experienced that sort of loss of control of my body before,” she said.
Moore said that Alon and Tal Alexander made her and her friend leave the club and that she vaguely remembered getting into a cab. She testified that the thing she remembered was “coming to” and being naked on a bed with Alon Alexander, who did not have any clothes on, standing over her.
“I tried to get out of the bed a few times, but Alon kept pushing me back down,” she said. “Finally, he sat down on the bed, and I was able to get up, and I said, ‘I don’t want to have sex with you,’ and he said, ‘You already did.’”
One of the charges against Oren Alexander is in connection with an allegation of sexual exploitation of a minor. Prosecutors accused him of recording and sharing a video of an incapacitated 17-year-old girl in April 2009.
The woman, now 34, testified she had no memory of meeting Oren Alexander.
Two women testified that they felt paralyzed before Oren and Alon Alexander assaulted them.
The defense tried to undermine some of the accusers’ accounts, saying the sex was consensual and suggesting that the women were motivated by disappointment and were in it for financial gain.
“Financial interest is one of the most powerful motivators. All the stories were rehearsed,” Tal Alexander’s attorney, Deanna Paul, said in her closing argument. “They’re looking for money.”
She said the women met up with the brothers “willingly” and “were free to come and go.”
“The government has not proved it was a commercial sex act because there wasn’t one, and they have failed to meet their burden,” she said.
In closing, Marc Agnifilo, Oren Alexander’s attorney, acknowledged that his client “built a lifestyle around pursuing women.”
“They hurt a lot of people’s feelings while they were ascending professionally,” he said. “They said some things that were offensive and hurtful, and we got here because of that stuff, not because they are rapists or drugged women.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa said the defense was trying to confuse the jury.
“There is no good reason why all these women would commit perjury and drag their friends and family into this. Why on Earth would they be here a decade later talking about their sex lives? They sat here in front of a group of strangers and detailed these horrific crimes,” she said.
The three brothers showed no visible emotion as the verdicts were read. Their parents, as well as Alon Alexander's wife, were also present and did not visibly react or say anything.
One of the jurors of said after the verdict, “It wasn’t easy.”
The charges varied by brother.
The three were charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex trafficking and inducing a person to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
Tal Alexander was also charged with two additional counts of sex trafficking, an additional count of inducing a person to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and a count of sex trafficking of a minor.
Alon Alexander was also charged along with Tal on the count of sex trafficking of a minor.
Oren and Alon Alexander were also charged with one count each of aggravated sexual abuse by force or intoxicant and sexual abuse of a physically incapacitated person.
Oren Alexander was also charged singly on a count of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Agnifilo, the defense attorney who represents Oren Alexander, said they will appeal.
"We believe in our clients’ innocence, and we will not stop fighting until we prevail, and we believe that we will one day prevail,” he said.
The brothers' family called the verdict "deeply disappointing."
"We believe there are substantial problems with the evidence and the way this case was presented. The legal process does not end here," the family said in a statement. "We will continue fighting every day until justice is done and the three brothers regain their freedom."
The Alexander brothers face dozens of civil lawsuits. They have denied all allegations of misconduct. Oren and Alon Alexander also face criminal charges in Florida. On Thursday, a real estate broker in Beverly Hills, California, sued Oren Alexander, alleging he drugged and sexually assaulted her at a dinner in 2014.
His civil attorney, Jason Goldman, said in a statement Thursday that the lawsuit was “salacious and demonstrably false” and that it was filed on the eve of jury deliberations as an “attempt to create headlines and taint the proceedings at a critical moment.”
