New York (AFP) – Three brothers were found guilty of sex trafficking on Monday, following a trial that showed they used their high-profile connections in the luxury real estate world to assault women for years. Oren and Tal Alexander were the founders of real estate firm Official, which had offices in Miami and New York. Alon Alexander, Oren’s twin, worked at the family’s private security firm.
The brothers used “deception, fraud and coercion” — including the promise of luxury travel accommodation — to engage in sex trafficking as well as drugging, sexually assaulting, and raping dozens of women. Twins Alon and Oren, both 38, and their brother Tal, 39, all face sentences of up to life imprisonment when they are sentenced on August 6, The New York Times reported. They used “their wealth and prominent positions in real estate to create and facilitate opportunities” to do so, prosecutors said when they were charged. The assaults date from at least 2010 to at least 2021, prosecutors said.
In 2022, Tal and Oren were the subject of a New York Times profile detailing their successful ventures as real-estate high rollers, including the sale of a 24,000-square-foot (2,230-square-meter) Manhattan penthouse for $234 million. Tal Alexander flaunted a “no days off” lifestyle of constantly showing glamorous residences to wealthy clients.
Prosecutors painted a grim picture of all three brothers luring women to events and parties, then drugging them with cocaine, magic mushrooms, and GHB, and assaulting them. The Alexanders and those in their circle used “social media, dating applications, in-person encounters…and party promoters who would recruit women for these events,” prosecutors said.
© 2024 AFP
