The Alexander brothers were three of Manhattan’s most notorious party princes. Oren and Tal Alexander made headlines in 2019 as brokers after selling a $240 million penthouse, breaking New York City records that year for the most eye-popping sale ever.
Alon Alexander, their brother and a security executive who shares their boyish good looks, was their sidekick. The trio brunched at the private club Zero Bond, chartered yachts at Art Basel and held court from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Tulum, Mexico.
On Tuesday, the three are to go on trial in federal court in Manhattan, where prosecutors are expected to argue that they used their money, power and lifestyle to run a wide-ranging sex-trafficking conspiracy in Miami and Manhattan, as well as locations outside the country. The men have denied all charges, which include the sexual assault of eight women, including two underage girls.
Ever since the allegations against the Alexander brothers surfaced, first in a pair of lawsuits and then 2024 criminal charges, the men’s downfall has been swift and highly publicized.
Their path from arrest to trial has been chronicled by nearly every major U.S. news organization and many globally, as well. They have been the subject of splashy magazine stories — People Magazine, on a cover bearing their photographs, christened them the “Monsters of Miami” — and at least two major documentary teams will be filming outside the courthouse. The case has gained such notoriety that it has even inspired an episode of “Law and Order: SVU.”
On Friday, a jury of six women and six men was selected for the trial after being questioned for three days by the judge who broached difficult topics like potential jurors’ own experiences with sexual assault and whether they felt they could hear the case impartially.
In court filings, prosecutors have argued that the brothers met some of the women in bars and nightclubs, at social events and through dating apps. After drugging and incapacitating their victims, the government said, the brothers took them to isolated locations and restrained them while raping and sexually assaulting them, sometimes alone, together or with other men. At times, the brothers “ignored screams and explicit requests to stop,” prosecutors said.
If convicted, the brothers — Oren and Alon Alexander, 38-year-old twins; and Tal Alexander, 39 — could face life in prison.
They are “facing the trial of their lives,” said Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for the brothers’ legal teams, in a recent interview. “They need a vigorous defense in the courtroom, but also in public opinion.”
Mr. Engelmayer said that he believed the three men had been “mischarged.”
“I’m not going to say they’re the kindest, sweetest gentlest people,” he said. “But I think the charge is not the right charge. They’re not guilty of trafficking.”
In an emailed statement, Mr. Engelmayer added that the brothers “categorically deny the federal charges and the allegations advanced in civil lawsuits” and that they “welcome the opportunity for the truth to be tested through proper legal channels.”
Since they were arrested in 2024, the case against the brothers, and the number of charges, has grown. Prosecutors, in a court filing asking that the brothers be jailed pending trial, said evidence showed their conduct went far beyond what was charged in the indictment. The brothers, together and alone, repeatedly and violently raped and sexually assaulted dozens of victims over more than 20 years, the government said.
In the court filing, prosecutors said the brothers began engaging in acts of sexual violence, including gang rapes, while still in high school in Miami. Some women who were interviewed by investigators reported being raped by at least one of the Alexander brothers; some said they were raped by groups of boys, including the brothers, the government said.
The New York Times has also interviewed multiple women who have said they were assaulted by the men in high school.
Victims that the government interviewed from that period reported hearing that individuals involved, including Tal Alexander, talked about the assaults at school, “boasting about ‘running train’ on their victims and saying that they wanted to ‘do it again,’” prosecutors said in the filing.
The trial, which is being overseen by Judge Valerie E. Caproni, is expected to last for at least a month.
Whispers of assault had followed the men for years in the tight-knit luxury real estate world, before allegations against the brothers were first made headlines in June 2024. Two women filed lawsuits against the twins, Oren and Alon Alexander, each claiming she had been sexually assaulted by them together in the early 2010s. The Real Deal, a real estate trade publication, first reported on the lawsuits.
That summer, The Times interviewed 10 more women who said they were sexually assaulted by the brothers — or believe they may have been. Seven also said they felt they had been drugged, describing a fog that erased or clouded their memory. Former high school classmates of the brothers and dozens of real estate employees and agents also said that they had knowledge of drugging and violent sexual assaults by the brothers going back years.
Since those first two lawsuits, nearly two dozen more have been filed. An unknown number of additional women have accepted confidential settlements from the brothers.
In addition, scores of other women have leveled their own public assault allegations against the brothers in social media posts and in interviews with other news outlets.
Kate Christobek contributed reporting and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Debra Kamin is an investigative reporter for The Times who covers wealth and power in New York.
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