Infonestira

For those who didn’t catch all the coverage since allegations first surfaced against them in spring 2024 — or for those who simply need a refresher — these are the key points to keep in mind as the Alexander brothers’ trial starts on Monday.

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Former luxury brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, and their ex-security executive brother Alon Alexander, will head to trial at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan on Monday to face sex-trafficking charges brought by the United States.

Months before the federal government got involved, the brothers — who grew up under the wing of their father, prominent Miami-based developer Shlomi Alexander — had been accused by dozens of women in New York, Florida and elsewhere of sexual assault dating back to at least 2010 by some counts.

How it began

In June 2024, two civil lawsuits filed against Oren and Alon Alexander in March of that year became public. They alleged the brothers sexually assaulted and raped two women in separate cases in 2010 and 2012.

The lawsuits by Rebecca Mandel and Kate Whiteman in New York County Supreme Court were filed just before a New York State law eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual assault cases, the Adult Survivors Act, was set to expire. That law allowed survivors of assault who were over the age of 18 at the time of the assault to sue their alleged perpetrators, no matter how long ago the crime had taken place.

In addition to their own assaults, the lawsuits also alleged that the behavior by the brothers in their cases were emblematic of a pattern of similar behavior with other women over the years. The lawsuits detailed stories where the women suspected they had been drugged by the brothers and/or forcibly restrained while made to engage in sex acts.

In the ensuing weeks, the eldest Alexander brother, Tal, also was named as an alleged perpetrator of sexual assault in lawsuits as more alleged victims came forward. All three brothers denied the allegations against them.

Amid public scrutiny as a result of the lawsuits, both Oren and Tal announced they would be stepping down from leadership roles at their firm, Official Partners, which they had cofounded with other partners at white-label brokerage Side.

Over the course of the summer of 2024, dozens of women came forward to media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the law firm of Torgan Cooper + Aaron to recount their own allegations of abuse at the hands of one or more of the three brothers. That all led to a probe into the brothers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The WSJ reported.

Business relationships fall apart

After Tal and Oren stepped down from their positions at Official, tensions at the luxury firm continued to rise.

Key agents at the firm, including LA-based Tyrone McKillen, Brent Watson and Marco Salari, as well as multiple agents across New York and Miami, departed as negative press swirled around the brothers.

Meanwhile, Official’s remaining three cofounders, Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel, attempted for weeks to chart a path forward that sought to distance the Official name from the Alexanders. However, exit negotiations between the three partners and the two brothers failed, and Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel left the firm in mid-August 2024.

Subsequently, Tal and Oren, despite gaining the scrutiny of the FBI, suggested in late August by way of one of their attorneys, James Cinque, that they would be returning to Official and “announcing details very soon” about their future plans.

Those plans never had a chance to materialize, though, as the brothers were sued that fall by Side for breach of contract. The firm alleged that the brothers failed to make a $1.6 million payment on a promissory note and uphold a security agreement that dated back to August 2022. The brothers claimed that they had never missed a payment. The parties eventually ended up settling the lawsuit in April 2025.

Allegations surrounding the Alexander brothers and their bad behavior had been something of an open secret for years, investigations by The WSJ and The NYT showed. Leadership at Douglas Elliman had also faced scrutiny in recent months, as questions rose about how much they may have known about the allegations while the brokers were still affiliated with their former brokerage.

The feds get involved

Things became much more serious for the Alexanders in December 2024 when the brothers were arrested in Miami on federal sex trafficking charges following a joint investigation conducted by the FBI and authorities in New York.

Prosecutors alleged that the brothers wielded their wealth and influence over the years to “lure” victims with travel or other luxury experiences to “create and facilitate opportunities to sexually assault women.”

One month later, it became public that prosecutors had also found a hard drive after a search of Tal’s luxury apartment at 432 Park Ave that contained explicit videos “depicting at least Oren, Alon, and several third parties recording or photographing themselves with women in states of intoxication and undress,” according to a court filing.

The filing also explained that in some videos, one of the brothers and another unnamed man “physically manipulated the women’s bodies” in order to have intercourse with them, despite the fact that it was clear that the women “did not actively participate” or “turned away.”

Since the initial indictment was filed against the brothers in December 2024, a handful of superseding indictments have taken its place to add additional charges against the brothers.

Last week, the feds charged Oren and Alon with a new count of sexual abuse by physical incapacitation, citing an instance in 2012 where the brothers allegedly engaged in a sex act with a woman “while she was physically incapable of declining participation” while on a “Bahamian-flagged cruise ship” that departed from the U.S.

Altogether, the three brothers face 12 counts of conspiring to drug, sexually assault and rape women in various cities throughout the country.

A key accuser’s death

A recent, shocking development in the case has been the sudden death of Whiteman, one of the brothers’ first accusers.

The Australian woman, who was just 45 years old, was reportedly found dead near Sydney at the end of 2025, The NYT reported last week. A coroner in New South Wales confirmed that Whiteman’s death was under investigation by the police — a process which is typically prompted “only when there are doubts about whether the death was the result of ‘natural causes,'” according to the report.

Subsequently, the coroner’s office provided an update that the investigation had concluded, and it was determined that Whiteman’s death was “non-suspicious.”

In July, suggestive texts and photographs exchanged between Whiteman and the Alexanders were published in The Daily Mail. The brothers also said in court that they had provided those same documents to The Real Deal, which “refused” to publish them. The Alexanders have also sued TRD for defamation.

TRD Publisher Amir Korangy told The NYT of the photos and texts, “The Alexanders provided those materials off the record. We couldn’t verify, and it didn’t prove they did not assault her. It didn’t merit us not doing a story on the accusations.”

What’s next

Jury selection for the case began on Tuesday in New York with Judge Valerie Caproni overseeing the selection. Caproni described the case against the brothers and asked each of them to stand and face dozens of prospective jurors who were in the courtroom.

The judge also explained that the trial is expected to last about one month, and includes charges of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Documents filed by the defense on Saturday complained that prosecutors had unfairly updated the indictment with charges the defense did not have time to investigate in advance of the trial. That includes a charge that in 2009, Oren coerced a 17-year-old girl into sexually explicit conduct that would be filmed. But defense lawyers were vexed by the fact that the girl’s birth certificate could not be authenticated since it was issued by a former Soviet republic that now lies in a war zone.

If the brothers are convicted of the charges against them, they could face 15 years to life in prison. They have been held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since their arrests at the end of 2024 — the same detention center that held Sean “Diddy” Combs and accused UnitedHealthcare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione.

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Email Lillian Dickerson

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