What to Know
- Top real estate agents Tal and Oren Alexander and their brother, Alon, were charged with sex trafficking, an unsealed federal indictment in New York showed.
- Several women have previously filed lawsuits in Manhattan court accusing the brothers of sexual assault. The brothers have denied wrongdoing.
- Also on Wednesday, Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle unveiled separate charges against Oren and Alon Alexander, accusing the brothers of committing sexual battery in the state.
Two of the three Alexander brothers (including one of the ultra-luxury real estate brokers), accused in a sexual assault investigation involving dozens of victims who were violently raped as far back as over a decade ago in South Florida and New York, were denied bond in a Miami-Dade court on Thursday.
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Oren Alexander and his twin brother, Alon Alexander, both 37, were arrested following a joint investigation into sexual assault allegations occurring on Miami Beach, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
Oren is charged in three separate incidents involving three women who say they were sexually assaulted. His brother was allegedly involved in one of those incidents.
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In bond court on Thursday, the state filed a motion for pretrial detention to keep Oren and Alon in jail until trial, and the judge granted it. The brothers were also ordered to stay away from alleged victims.
Oren had urged the judge to grant him bond because his wife is pregnant and could go into labor soon. The two were married last year, records show.
“Your honor my wife is 9 months pregnant due any day now with our first child. Her family is in Brazil. She is counting on me to be with her during labor,” said Oren.
A hearing was scheduled for Friday to see if the brothers can get a bond hearing in front the judge that will handle their Miami-Dade case from now on. Defense attorneys said they are working with state attorneys to try and work out a reasonable bond, potentially with house arrest.
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State attorneys, meanwhile, have stated that they are concerned because the defendants have access to private planes and boats, which makes them a flight risk.
The brothers' parents were in court for the hearing on Thursday. They denied to comment and left the courtroom smiling. Their attorney also did not comment.
But the twins were not just indicted in Miami-Dade. They are also all facing federal charges out of New York, accused of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking of victims by force, fraud or coercion.
In a letter seeking federal detention pretrial, the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York told judges on Wednesday: "Alon and Oren Alexander were arrested on state charges issued by the Miami Dade County State Attorney’s Office and are presently in state custody. They will be transferred into federal custody after their initial appearance on the state charges."
In multiple civil lawsuits filed in New York this year, multiple women accused one or more of the brothers of alleged sexual assaults and batteries dating back over a decade.
Court records released Wednesday shows prosecutors believe the sex assaults and rapes may actually date back to over two decades ago, when the brothers were in high school in Miami.
An indictment from New York charges all three brothers with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking of victims by force, fraud or coercion.
The indictment accuses the brothers of drugging, sexually assaulting and raping dozens of victims dating back to around 2010 by using "their prominent positions in the real estate industry" to meet the women they targeted.
"At times, the Alexander brothers arranged for these sexual assaults well in advance, using the promise of luxury experiences, travel, and accommodations to lure and entice women to locations where they were then forcibly raped or sexually assaulted, sometimes by multiple men, including one or more of the Alexander brothers," the indictment said. "Often, the Alexander brothers drugged their victims before assaulting them, preventing them from fighting back or escaping."
The indictment said the brothers and others they worked with obtained drugs including cocaine, mushrooms and GHB, and on multiple occasions secretly drugged women's drinks.
Isabelle Kirshner, an attorney for Alon and Oren, confirmed to CNBC that the three men were arrested in South Florida. The twins have previously denied wrongdoing in the accusations.
