Alexander brothers deny sex trafficking; judge calls rehabilitation claims hollow

Defense cited friendly messages and said all three defendants changed their behavior

Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, at times holding back tears, told U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing that they regretted past behavior but denied committing sex trafficking, according to The Wall Street Journal. Oren said, “The way I spoke about women was not just crude, it was disgusting,” but added, “My brothers and I have never drugged and raped anyone.”

Caproni said the brothers’ arguments about rehabilitation rang hollow because they had not admitted what they had done was wrong. Before sentencing, she described them as like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. “To some people they are total gentlemen,” she told a packed courtroom, while to others they were “sadistic, misogynistic sexual predators.”

Tal said he sought to profess genuine regret without confessing something he had not done. “It feels like an atomic bomb has been dropped on my life,” he told the judge. Alon said he had exchanged his party lifestyle for family life years before federal agents knocked on his door.

Caproni sentenced each of the three men to 30 years in prison Tuesday for sex trafficking. A federal jury had convicted them earlier this year for what prosecutors described as a yearslong playbook of luring women with luxury experiences, then drugging and raping them. Prosecutors had sought life behind bars, arguing that the brothers had not grasped the severity of their crimes; defense lawyers sought 15 years, saying the minimum required by law was sufficient. The sentencing followed a daylong hearing in which about a dozen women spoke about the long-lasting effects of the crimes they described.

Lawyers for the brothers, who plan to appeal, argued for leniency. Howard Srebnick, a lawyer for Alon Alexander, told Caproni that friendly messages from accusers cut against the verdict and that there was a lack of proof that the brothers drugged women. Marc Agnifilo, Oren Alexander’s lawyer, said the men had changed their behavior years before they were charged: “All three defendants stopped,” he said. “And that matters.”

Deanna Paul, who represents Tal Alexander, said the brothers had kind, sensitive sides that had not been apparent from the trial. They had asked their own parents, a regular presence in court, to stay home that day so they would not have to hear the sentences. Paul said all three men have young children who will grow up with absent fathers. “When a judge sentences a parent,” she told Caproni, “a child serves part of that sentence too.”

Prosecutors argued that the magnitude of the Alexanders’ crimes was extraordinary and that the brothers went to great lengths to degrade and humiliate the women they targeted. Prosecutors also said the brothers egged each other on, encouraging the abuse. “When they were done, the defendants bragged about their actions to each other and their friends,” prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa told Caproni.

About a dozen women, many through tears, told Caproni they had been raped and humiliated by the Alexanders. “They treated me like a rag doll,” one woman said. Another woman in a light blue shirt said she had nightmares for years, and one with pink hair said she had plunged into depression.

A woman in a white button-up spoke of “having to sneak off to go meet with the FBI and prosecutors” to prepare for trial without family and friends knowing. Another woman said her 8-year-old daughter and the girl’s friends did a Google search for her name at a sleepover and found news accounts of her assault. “There is bad stuff about you on the internet,” the woman recounted her child saying before she broke into tears.

Some women directly confronted the brothers, who sat at the defense tables in tan jail garb with their ankles shackled. “You are weak. You are inhuman,” one woman with long blond hair said, pointing directly at the men. “You never had power, and look at you now.”

Former real-estate brokers Tal and Oren built their careers at Douglas Elliman before starting the luxury boutique brokerage Official in 2022. Alon worked at the family’s private security firm. Oren and Alon, both 39, are twins, and Tal is one year older. The Wall Street Journal described the brothers’ earlier lives as including parties, Hamptons jaunts and cruises.