Three brothers who ran a yearslong conspiracy to traffic women and girls for sex were sentenced to decades in prison on Tuesday, capping a dramatic fall from the heights of Manhattan’s wealthiest circles.
Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who presided over the trial of Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander earlier this year, handed down the sentences in a packed courtroom. Each brother received a sentence of 30 years.
All three brothers continue to deny any wrongdoing and are expected to appeal their conviction.
Eleven victims spoke for almost 90 minutes at the sentencing. A 12th woman asked for the government to read her statement on her behalf.
“What happened to me was not a misunderstanding,” said a woman using the pseudonym Maya Miller, who spoke at the sentencing Tuesday. She testified at trial that Tal Alexander assaulted her in a shower while she was visiting him in the Hamptons in 2014. “There was no confusion. Tal Alexander raped me.”
She added, “I carry a quiet funeral within me for the person I might have become had this never happened to me.”
Many of the women described the men as predators without remorse. Two of them described the brothers’ eyes as “going black” while they attacked them.
“It was like I was being mauled by animals,” said a woman using the pseudonym Isa Brooks, who testified during trial that she was raped at 16 by Tal and Alon Alexander, as well as two other men, at a party in 2009. Ms. Brooks was allowed to testify using a pseudonym. “It radically altered the trajectory of my life.”
Lawyers for the brothers pleaded with the judge for leniency and asked her to limit their time in prison to 15 years each.
Just a few years ago, Oren and Tal Alexander had conquered the Manhattan real estate scene, regularly selling million-dollar homes and frequenting New York and Miami nightlife hot spots with Oren’s twin Alon.
But in June 2024, a real estate trade publication, The Real Deal, reported on two civil lawsuits accusing Oren and Alon of rape. Those lawsuits led to more women coming forward and accusing all three men of sexual assault. The men were arrested in predawn raids in December 2024 in Miami at their homes, each worth millions of dollars.
Prosecutors argued that the Alexander brothers began engaging in acts of sexual violence as high school students in Miami. The brothers then built careers in real estate and security, ascending to some of the most powerful and elite circles in New York and Miami.
They used their wealth and influence, according to prosecutors, to lure women, and in some cases drug and sexually assault and rape them. In federal court, prosecutors have increasingly turned to charging defendants with sex trafficking when there is a pattern of repeated sexual assault, which is often considered a more likely path to conviction.
The New York Times has interviewed multiple women who say they were assaulted by the men, including those who say they were in their teens when the assault occurred. One of those women said she was assaulted by Oren and Alon together when she was a senior in high school.
Another woman told The Times she was raped by Tal when she was 13 and he was 16. The men have denied all allegations, including those in the civil lawsuits they face and reported by news organizations.
In the run-up to the trial, the brothers also conducted an elaborate public relations campaign that included hiring Juda Engelmayer, a public relations consultant whose other clients have included Harvey Weinstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The Times also reported that they had worked with a Hollywood public relations firm that has been linked to several high-profile smear campaigns.
Shortly after they reached out to the firm, a website appeared, purporting to expose a conspiracy meant to take down the brothers. It featured photographs of women who had accused the men of rape, as well as photos of people described as crime bosses and leaders in an extortion ring. The brothers also arranged for payments to influencers and podcasters who made sympathetic social media posts about the case.
Mr. Engelmayer confirmed both payments to The Times.
At the trial, which lasted five weeks, 11 women ultimately testified. At one point, the jury watched a video of one of the Alexander brothers assaulting a 17-year-old girl.
Toward the end of the trial, prosecutors dropped two counts against the brothers, telling Judge Caproni that a victim had refused to testify after a private investigator hired by the defense pretended to be an insurance agent, visited her neighborhood and inquired about her children.
The brothers still face around two dozen civil lawsuits accusing them of sexual assault and rape.
Several of the women who spoke on Tuesday paid tribute to Kate Whiteman, the first woman to file a lawsuit against the brothers. She was found dead in Australia late last year. Many also noted that they chose to speak up to help give others the courage to do the same.
“I was in utter shock to learn how many others there were,” Ms. Brooks said. “It is a miracle we survived.”
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