New York judge sentences Alexander brothers to 30-year terms after victim statements

Twelve victims described trauma; many urged life sentences

A New York court sentenced Tal Alexander, 40, and twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 39, to 30 years in prison each on Tuesday in a sex-trafficking case involving the drugging and rape of dozens of women over the course of decades. The brothers were found guilty in March of using their wealth and social status to lure women to parties and luxury homes, where they sexually assaulted them. As the sentences were read, the three brothers did not react or visibly show emotion, staring straight ahead.

On Tuesday morning, the court heard from 12 victims, including one who did not testify during the trial. The victims described the psychological trauma they endured after the Alexander brothers raped them and said they wanted the shame they had felt to instead fall on the defendants. Many asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison for each brother.

Maya Miller told the court that Tal Alexander raped her in 2014 and that she lost all sense of safety. “I carry a quiet funeral within me for the person I might’ve become if this never happened to me,” she said.

Another victim, who used the pseudonym Isa Brooks, said Tal and Alon Alexander raped her when she was 16 years old and that she lost the ability to trust herself. “I had no idea the danger I was in til it was too late,” she said.

Another woman said that when she planned to come forward about being raped, Tal Alexander threatened that he knew where her sister worked. During the women’s statements, the three brothers showed little emotion; they stared ahead or conferred with their lawyers. The lawyers said they had advised their clients not to look at the victims while they spoke so that doing so would not be misconstrued as staring.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said the brothers deserved the maximum punishment for their crimes, saying the facts of the case “paint a truly devastating picture”. She said the brothers had spent years honing their methods of luring women with the promise of luxury and were “completely unmoved by the path of suffering they left behind them”.

The brothers’ lawyers argued that the sex was consensual and that the brothers were womanizers, not sexual abusers. They asked the court for the lowest possible sentence: 15 years for each brother.

During the five-week trial, 11 women — including several who said they were minors at the time of the assaults — testified that the brothers gave them gifts and flew them to locations including Aspen and the Bahamas, where the brothers fed them drugs before raping them.

Prosecutors said the brothers’ pattern of abusive behavior began in high school, although the trial covered crimes starting in 2008. They accused the brothers of slipping drugs into women’s drinks and said they “physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop”.

Tal and Oren Alexander made their wealth selling luxury properties in New York and Miami. They worked for the American real estate company Douglas Elliman, selling properties for celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and founded their own New York-based firm, Official, in 2022. Alon Alexander worked at the family’s private security firm, Kent Security.