New York Judge Deems Alexander Brothers Flight Risk, Denies Bail

Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander were denied bail in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, after a judge ruled that the three brothers posed both a danger to the community and might flee the country as they awaited trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

“The weight of the evidence is strong,” said Judge Valerie E. Caproni of Federal District Court after a three-hour hearing in which the brothers’ lawyers sought to undermine the government’s argument for detention, suggesting that the dozens of women who have accused them of assault were concocting stories for profit.

The three brothers, through their lawyers, have strenuously denied the charges. Oren and Tal Alexander were, for decades, two of the country’s most prominent real estate agents, brokering some of the flashiest properties in Miami and New York. Alon Alexander, who is Oren’s twin, was a regular fixture on the social circuit in both cities alongside his brothers.

The judge acknowledged that there was a possibility of some false accusations, but cited the government’s assertion that more than 40 women had made similar allegations. “And there is a consistency in the detail about how they are lured into areas under the defendants’ control, then drugged and assaulted,” she said.

Oren and Alon Alexander, twins who are 37, were arrested in Miami Beach in December along with their older brother, Tal Alexander, 38, after months of mounting public allegations. All three are accused of using their wealth and status to lure, drug and sexually assault dozens of women, according to an indictment made public on the day of their arrest.

At the hearing on Wednesday, a prosecutor revealed that several of the alleged victims were minors at the time of the assaults and rapes; the brothers were all adults.

The three brothers remain in federal custody in Florida after waiving the right to be present at Wednesday’s hearing in Manhattan, where Tal Alexander and Alon Alexander were each appealing the denial of bail by a Miami federal judge earlier this month.

Judge Caproni said the three men were expected to be brought to Manhattan next week, and that they would make their first court appearances before her on Jan. 29.

Known for brokering multimillion-dollar deals in New York and Miami, Oren and Tal Alexander reached the top ranks at Douglas Elliman, one of the nation’s largest brokerages. In 2019, they helped broker the sale of a nearly $240 million penthouse in Manhattan — at the time the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history. They later founded their own real estate brokerage, Official. Alon Alexander is an executive at the family’s private security firm.

Judge Caproni rejected requests by the men’s lawyers for their release on a bond of more than $115 million and a form of home detention with private security guards to prevent them from fleeing.

“The defendants argue that danger and risk of flight can be mitigated because they have the wealth to create, in essence, a private prison outside of the Bureau of Prisons,” Judge Caproni said.

That sort of arrangement, she said, would amount to a two-tiered system in which wealthy prisoners are released before trial while others remain in detention. “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck,” the judge said, adding that what the lawyers were proposing was a privately funded jail.

She cited a previous court decision, which prohibited such arrangements. Reading from the opinion, she said it was a “fundamental principle of fairness that the law protects the interests of rich and poor criminals in equal scale, and its hand extends as far to each.”

The indictment charges all three brothers with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and a separate count of the sex trafficking of one woman by force, fraud and coercion. She was identified in the indictment only as Victim-2. Tal Alexander was also charged with the sex trafficking of a second victim, identified as Victim-1.

The indictment says that, at times, the defendants “physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop.” It also says the brothers gave women drugs, including cocaine, psilocybin and GHB, a so-called date-rape drug that causes loss of consciousness and memory.

On Wednesday, Andrew Jones, a federal prosecutor, said the government had interviewed more than 40 women who have accused the brothers of rape or sexual assault, with allegations dating back 20 years. He said the government had also obtained video evidence, found on a computer hard drive in Tal Alexander’s New York apartment, showing multiple women engaged in sex acts with the brothers while visibly intoxicated or incapacitated.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a recent letter to Judge Caproni that in some instances, at least one of the brothers and another man physically manipulated those women’s bodies in order to have sex with them.

In court, Mr. Jones called the alleged sex-trafficking scheme a “playbook” conspiracy, describing how the brothers targeted women through dating apps and club promoters, lured them with promises of luxury travel, and then drugged them before assaulting them.

At least two-thirds of the women who had been interviewed, the prosecutor said, described levels of intoxication that were “grossly disproportionate” to the amount of alcohol they had consumed, and many said they had been pinned down and forcibly penetrated.

“Some of these women say, ‘I couldn’t even scream,’” Mr. Jones added.

According to the indictment, Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander conspired in the sex trafficking scheme for at least 14 years. Coordinating with other men, they arranged events and domestic and international trips as bait to recruit, entice and transport women, whom they later raped, the indictment says.

Deanna Paul, a lawyer for Tal Alexander, acknowledged that the accusations were serious. “That doesn’t make them true,” she said. She later referred to the allegations as “an orchestrated effort encouraging women to profit from past sexual experiences with the brothers.”

The Alexander family’s wealth was at the center of much of the hearing’s discussions. Howard Srebnick, a lawyer for Alon Alexander, introduced the brothers’ parents, Shlomo and Orly Alexander, who were present in the courtroom. The parents have pledged all of their assets in order to help secure their sons’ pretrial release.

“They are prepared to risk everything,” said Mr. Srebnick, gesturing to the couple.

The parents immigrated to the United States from Israel before their sons were born and became self-made millionaires. They own a waterfront mansion in Miami’s exclusive Bal Harbour neighborhood that is worth an estimated $14 million.

At several points during the hearing, Judge Caproni asked the defendants’ lawyers to limit their arguments to the narrow issue of whether the brothers, if released on bail, posed a risk of danger or flight.

She reminded them that they were in a detention hearing, not yet a trial.