Three brothers who once lived at the height of wealth and society in New York and Miami could face life in prison for sex trafficking more than a dozen women and girls when they are sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan.
Earlier this year a jury convicted Tal, Alon and Oren Alexander on all counts, including sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. At trial, prosecutors presented evidence of the brothers’ yearslong pattern of using their wealth and social status to lure women to lavish parties or vacation destinations, drug them, then violently rape and sexually assault their victims – many of whom were unconscious or severely incapacitated.
Before their arrests, Tal, 40, and Oren, 39, were best known for scaling New York’s luxury real estate industry. Alon, Oren’s twin, was an executive at their family’s security firm and frequented the same social circles with his brothers.
Over 70 women came forward to investigators, reporting harrowing accounts of the brothers’ attacks, prosecutors said in their sentencing memo. Ultimately, 11 women testified during the five-week trial about being sexually assaulted by one or more of the Alexander brothers. Several are expected to address the court at the sentencing Tuesday.
Prosecutors want the three men to spend the rest of their lives in federal prison. Attorneys for the Alexanders are seeking the lowest possible sentence of 15 years and deny the men ever drugged or raped any women.
‘They were predators,’ prosecutors say
The assaults occurred in luxury locations in the Hamptons, Aspen, Manhattan, the Bahamas and on a Caribbean cruise. The convictions are tied to crimes spanning from 2008 to 2021, but prosecutors say the pattern of serial rape and sexual assault traces back to 2001 or 2002, when the brothers were still in high school.
Trial evidence showed the brothers recorded some of the assaults they committed – often together or with other men in videos and photographs – sharing them with each other and friends. The jury saw some of that evidence, which was recovered from the men’s devices years after the recorded assaults.
One victim, who was 17 when she was drugged by Oren Alexander, testified she only learned she was raped when contacted by government investigators who identified her in a 2009 recording.
All three men were convicted of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, and inducement to travel for unlawful sexual activity. Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking a minor. The twins were convicted of additional sex abuse counts, and the jury also found Oren Alexander guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Prosecutors say the severity of the crimes warrants the maximum possible sentence. Their sentencing memo cites sentencing enhancements the government says should weigh in favour of longer prison terms, like victims who were especially vulnerable as minors or from being drugged or unconscious, and the use of force and physical restraint during the sexual assaults.
When Alon and Oren were nearly 30 years old, they drugged and sexually assaulted high schoolers in Aspen in January 2017, trial evidence revealed. In August 2016, when Tal was 30 years old, he assaulted an 18-year-old, prosecutors allege, though the woman did not testify at trial.
A woman testified she wrote “rapists” in eyeliner on the wall of their Hamptons rental in 2009 after witnessing two of the brothers drag an intoxicated woman to the hot tub and take turns raping her.
Prosecutors, who say the men haven’t expressed any remorse, have asked federal district judge Valerie Caproni to sentence all the men to life in prison.
“They were not party boys, playboys, womanizers, or misguided young men. They were predators. They spent years hunting and preying upon women because they wanted to, because they could, and because they kept getting away with it,” the government’s sentencing memo says.
Brothers are now ‘dedicated husbands and fathers,’ defence says
Lawyers for the brothers maintain they didn’t drug or rape any of the women they were sexually involved with but conceded in a court filing the conduct was at times insensitive.
“They apologize to the women they insulted or offended,” their lawyers wrote. “The evidence at trial showed virtually every woman who testified had drank some alcohol. The centerpiece of the government’s case is that the defendants surreptitiously drugged women. The Alexander brothers deny this completely and emphatically,” their lawyers wrote.
The defence has asked the judge to sentence the brothers to 15 years in prison, the lightest sentence possible for a conviction on one count of sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion.
A longer sentence, they argued, would be out of touch with sentences given to people convicted of state murder charges, who serve an average of 15 years.
The brothers’ legal team takes issue with the sex trafficking statute used to prosecute the brothers, arguing their conduct doesn’t match conduct the statute was intended to punish — people who force women into prostitution or commercial sex acts. They also argued some of the evidence allowed in was “remarkably weak.”
“It was charged as a sex trafficking case and it was tried as a federal rape case,” Marc Agnifilo, who represents Oren Alexander, said at a hearing last week. “We’ll have a lot of things to say about that on sentencing day.”
The lawyers also argued the brothers, who in recent years married and had children, should not spend their lives behind bars because they are “dedicated husbands and fathers” and needed by their families. Over three dozen letters from friends, family and neighbors describing their generosity and kindness were submitted.
The lawyers have argued the alleged conspiracy ended when the brothers married, so they are no longer at risk to the community.
Alon Alexander’s lawyer Howard Srebnick said the alleged conspiracy ended when he “abandoned the ‘single-life’” and announced his engagement.
“There are no other accusers out there,” Srebnick told the judge at last week’s hearing.
The judge said she has no way to know what the men have been up to in the last five years.
Brothers ‘are terrible influences on each other,’ judge says
Judge Caproni asked the attorneys to be prepared to discuss whether the brothers should serve their time in the same prison, saying she didn’t think it was a good idea.
“These three men are terrible influences on each other,” Caproni said during last week’s hearing. “The question is whether, given that very firm view on my part that they are bad influences on each other, whether they would be better served and whether society would be better served if they were to be separate.”
Lawyers for the brothers said they help ensure each others’ safety and mental health and serving time at the same facility would make it easier for their elderly parents in Florida to visit them. Since their arrest, the lawyers said, the parents visit their sons weekly at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, where they have been held.
More than 10 victims are also expected to speak Tuesday before the judge. Some of the women expected to address the court did not testify at trial and could discuss new allegations against the brothers not charged in the indictment, prosecutors have said.
The hearing is expected to take several hours and could spill into a second day. All three men are planning to address the court, and their attorneys will give a presentation on each brother’s behalf, according to court filings.
The twins also face two pending rape cases in Florida state court. All three still face several civil lawsuits brought by their accusers.
Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell, CNN
