Luxury Real Estate Brothers to Face Trial for Sex Trafficking in New York

Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother are scheduled to go on trial in New York City on sex trafficking charges on Tuesday. Just days before the trial, their lawyers renewed their request to a New York judge to dismiss the charges, which allege that the men sexually abused dozens of women over the course of a dozen years.

Jury selection is expected to last about two days, with opening statements scheduled for next Monday. The trial is projected to last until early March.

In papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Saturday, defense lawyers complained that prosecutors have unfairly treated their clients. They cited the frequent rewriting of the indictment, including a recent update just last week, and the addition of new charges that the defense has not had time to investigate.

The latest iteration of the indictment was filed on Thursday, marking the third time in two months that prosecutors have updated the charges. Oren, Tal, and Alon Alexander are accused of showering women with free travel and luxury accommodations before drugging and raping them in vacation destinations like New York's Hamptons.

Oren and Tal Alexander were luxury real estate moguls for over a decade before co-founding a real estate firm, Official, which specialized in high-end properties in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. Oren and Alon Alexander are 38-year-old twins, while Tal Alexander is 39. Alon, who went to law school, was an executive at his family's security firm.

Defense lawyers acknowledge that the men had sexual encounters with women but argue that the women were willing participants. The brothers have been held without bail since their arrest in Miami in December 2024, where they lived. All three have repeatedly pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecutors allege that the brothers typically met their victims on dating apps, at social events, bars, and nightclubs, and sometimes through party promoters. They provided drugs, including cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms, or drugged their drinks before sexually assaulting them.

Defense lawyers have urged Judge Valerie E. Caproni to drop some charges from consideration at this month's trial if she does not dismiss them entirely. They specifically object to a conspiracy count that was significantly reduced in size and a sexual-exploitation-of-a-minor charge against Oren Alexander, which could carry a mandatory minimum 15-year prison term if he is convicted.

Prosecutors allege that Oren Alexander, in April 2009, persuaded or coerced an incapacitated female who was 17 years and 10 months old to engage in sexually explicit conduct that could be filmed. The defense lawyers argue that her birth certificate cannot be authenticated because it was issued by a former Soviet Republic that is now in a war zone.

The defense also attacked the premise of the government's sex trafficking charges, stating that prosecutors have taken an unprecedented position that anything of value given to women to get them to a location where a sex act occurs can make it commercial sex punishable under a sex trafficking statute. They argue that this is not merely a novel theory but an entirely new offense not created by Congress and not contemplated under the Sex Trafficking statute.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported last week that a 45-year-old Australian woman who had accused Oren and Alon Alexander of sexual assault was found dead near Sydney late last year. The newspaper cited a spokesperson for the New South Wales coroner's office, who said the death was deemed to be non-suspicious.

The trial is set to be a high-profile and closely watched case, given the high-status background of the accused and the severity of the allegations.