By ABC (Business) | Created at 2024-12-11 20:09:06 | Updated at 2024-12-23 03:43:33
1 week ago
NEW YORK -- Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with sex trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors allege in the indictment that Oren and Tal Alexander, known for brokering deals on high-end properties in New York City and Miami, and sibling Alon Alexander worked together to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims.”
“This conduct was heinous,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.
Williams said the brothers used their wealth and influence to take advantage of victims during a period from at least 2010 to 2021.
The brothers, who all reside in Miami, used “deception, fraud, and coercion” to entice victims to travel with them or attend parties or events in which they covered flights, hotels and other expenses, according to the indictment. They even at times used the promise of a romantic relationship, it said.
The women were then drugged and raped by one or more of the brothers, as well as other men, the U.S. Attorney said.
After the assaults, the brothers often gave their victims concert tickets and luxury items, Williams added.
The brothers often met their victims on dating apps, through social events and at bars and nightclubs, but they also used party promoters to “source” women, according to Williams.
The women were often provided drugs, including cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and GHB, and the brothers even surreptitiously drugged some of the women’s drinks, leaving them physically impaired and unable to fight back or escape from the sexual assaults, prosecutors said in their indictment.
"In some instances, the defendants physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop,'' the indictment said.
Williams said the brothers were arrested in Florida on Wednesday and will appear in Miami federal court before being brought to New York to answer to the charges.
Tal Alexander, 38, and Oren Alexander, 37, and Oren’s twin brother, Alon Alexander, have each been charged with one count of engaging in a sex trafficking conspiracy.
Williams declined to say if others also will be charged as the investigation is ongoing.
“They were not acting alone,” Williams said.
Lawyers for the brothers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
___
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
