3 Israeli-American brothers handed 30 years each in US prison for sex trafficking

NEW YORK (AP) — Three Israeli-American brothers convicted of exploiting their wealth and access to luxury real estate to drug and rape dozens of women were sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison.

US District Judge Valerie E. Caproni announced the punishment for Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander — known collectively as the Alexander Brothers — after 11 accusers spoke in court. Some of the women choked up as they described how the assaults stole their innocence and left them haunted by nightmares and fearing men.

“It took one night, only a few hours, one invitation to completely wreck the girl I once was,” one woman, using a pseudonym to protect her identity, said as she stood at a lectern just feet from the brothers in a Manhattan courtroom.

Twins Oren and Alon, 39, and Tal Alexander, 40, were convicted in March of sex trafficking.

None of the brothers testified during the trial, but each spoke Tuesday before they were sentenced.

Oren Alexander addressed the packed courtroom first, saying, “I am not here to discount what they have said,” referring to the women.

He said he and his brothers came of age at the height of hookup culture and, looking back and now as a father, he regrets many of the things he said about women at that time. However, he insisted that they never broke the law.

“My brothers and I have never drugged or raped anyone. We never trafficked anyone for sex and we never conspired to hurt anyone,” he said.

Tal Alexander also denied that he drugged or raped anyone. He asked the judge to assign him to the same prison as his brothers, saying their parents, both 70 years old, hope to visit them every weekend, which might be difficult if they’re at different lockups.

Alon Alexander said he, too, has evolved from his regrettable past, noting that not a single woman has accused him of wrongdoing in the eight years he’s been committed to his wife: “Over time, that became my life: work, home, children, parents, community.”

The accusers who spoke in court — and another whose statement was read by a prosecutor — were among at least 70 women who prosecutors say were assaulted by one or more of the brothers over the last two decades in posh locales including the Hamptons on Long Island and in Aspen, Colorado.

Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner, testified that she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a Hamptons home in 2011 after taking a drink that she said left her feeling paralyzed. Scrapping her prepared remarks, she told Caproni that a life sentence wouldn’t begin to do justice for the women whose lives were irreparably harmed.

“This has wasted my damn time. It’s wasted your time. It’s wasted everyone in this room’s time,” Acree told the judge. Turning to the brothers, she said: “For why? For you. Because you did some really messed up stuff.”

“The biggest thing is why? Why did you do this?” Acree asked. “I don’t understand the cruelty. I don’t understand the hatred towards women.”

Another woman who testified that Tal Alexander raped her in August 2014 said she carried “a quiet funeral in me for the person I might have become had this not happened to me.”

“Every second that Tal raped me in that shower felt like an eternity of terror,” said the woman, who used a pseudonym.

Another woman speaking about her rape in the Hamptons said: “What looked like a beautiful place became for me a mansion of horror, a mansion of dark secrets.”

Prosecutors had sought life prison sentences while the brothers’ lawyers had requested the 15-year mandatory minimum.

Oren and Tal Alexander were once nicknamed real estate’s “A Team” for their ultra high-end sales and celebrity clientele. After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, the brothers started their own firm. Alon Alexander ran their family’s private security company.

The brothers projected an exclusive lifestyle of yachts, private jets and waterfront mansions in Miami, but prosecutors said they began sexually assaulting women as early as 2001 or 2002, when they were in high school, and over time developed a pattern of drugging and raping women who they enticed to join them on luxury getaways.

In remarks before the sentence was announced, Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa told the judge that the brothers’ “callousness, carelessness, cruelty” in repeatedly drugging and raping women over many years warranted a life prison term, especially since all their victims would be serving life sentences of pain.

“Women overcame all the forces telling them this was their fault, they should stay quiet, that no one would believe them,” the prosecutor said. “Despite that pain, so many came forward and 11 women testified at trial.”

Alon Alexander’s lawyer, Howard Srebnick, called a life sentence a “death in prison sentence.”

In court papers, defense lawyers said the brothers apologize to the women they insulted or offended for conduct they admit was “insensitive toward the feelings of certain women at certain times.” They also maintained their innocence.

The trio were arrested in 2024 and have been held without bail ever since.

The judge, Caproni, has said she believes the brothers should not be incarcerated at the same prison because they were a bad influence on one another. The brothers’ lawyers plan to argue that they belong together, even behind bars.