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Rebecca Mandel said she first met Oren Alexander and his twin brother Alon Alexander at a nightclub in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District when she was 18 in 2009. From then on, she’d regularly run into the brothers at various high-end restaurants, clubs and social gatherings; Oren was already making a name for himself in the luxury real estate market though he was only in his early 20s and would later attribute his success to living the lifestyle of the wealthy clients he hoped to attract.
One night in 2010, at the same nightclub they’d first met, Mandel and the twins struck up a conversation, and Alon insisted on buying her a drink, according to a lawsuit she filed earlier this year in New York. Though it was her first drink of the night, she said she quickly began to feel physically and mentally impaired. Then the twins urged her to come along to a party they said their friend was hosting at an apartment in Chelsea, the lawsuit said.
When she walked into the building, Mandel knew something was wrong.
“The hallway was silent,” her complaint read. “There was no music, no voices, nothing that would indicate that a party was being held at this location.”
Angry about being misled, Mandel attempted to leave what she now realized was actually the brothers’ apartment, the lawsuit said. Just stay and hang out a little bit, they told her, according to the lawsuit. She agreed and walked in — and then the brothers allegedly held her down and took turns raping her.
Mandel is one of more than 40 women to come out with similar accusations against the twins, now 37, and their older brother,Tal Alexander, according to testimony by an FBI agent reviewed by HuffPost. Three other women have also filed civil lawsuits, then earlier this month, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Officecharged the twins with criminal sexual battery,while federal authorities in New York’s Southern District announced an indictment against Oren, Alon and Tal Alexander on sex trafficking charges.
In a 12-page memo arguing they shouldn’t be released on bail, federal authorities alleged that for nearly two decades, the three Alexander brothers worked together and relied on their substantial wealth and connections to traffic and rape dozens of women, often drugging them and sometimes involving other men. Meanwhile, Oren and Tal rose to the highest levels of the luxury home market, representing CEOs and celebrities like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in multimillion-dollar deals, while Alon became an executive in their family’s private security company, Kent Security.
All three brothers are currently in afederal detention facility in Miami asof Monday while the twins await a pretrial conference and Tal awaits extradition to New York.Multiple attorneys representing Alon Alexander did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment, but a lawyer for Oren, Susan Necheles, told HuffPost that the three brothers are not guilty of the charges against them.
“Oren Alexander is innocent,” Necheles said. “The evidence will show that neither he nor his brothers ever committed a crime.”
Deanna Paul, the attorney representing Tal Alexander, also said he is innocent in a statement to HuffPost.
“We will continue fighting to prove that Tal did not commit a crime,” Paul said.
According to prosecutors, the sexually violent behavior began when the brothers were high school students in Miami in the early 2000s, and continued as they moved to New York.
“Start to think about reputation you want out there,” Oren allegedly messaged Tal in 2021. “We are on top of the game and only thing can bring us down is some Hoe complaining.”
As the brothers grew up in North Miami Beach in the early 2000s, their behavior was an open secret, Curbed reported earlier this year.
In a yearbook from Michael Krop Senior High School, obtained by NBC affiliate WTVJ, a quote attributed to Oren described his most memorable moment as “riding my first choo-choo train.” In their memo, prosecutors referenced the yearbook as him bragging about gang rape.
“To me, it shows this is a pattern of conduct that has gone on for over a decade, really,” Carissa Peebles, an attorney representing one of the alleged victims, told WTVJ.
In one instance, a woman told the Wall Street Journal that she was 14 when she was raped by a group of boys including Oren and Alon in what they allegedly called “running a train.” North Miami Beach police reportedly investigated the incident, but no charges were filed.
Upon graduating from college, the brothers each moved to New York City, while maintaining a home in Miami. Federal prosecutors said it was at this point their“serial sexual violence only escalated.” According to lawsuits and charging documents reviewed by HuffPost, they continued to meet women — now via exclusive social events, nightclubs and dating apps — and allegedly lured them into situations where they were sexually assaulted. Multiple women alleged scenarios like Mandel said she’d faced after running into Oren and Alon at the Meatpacking District nightclub in 2010: invitations to non-existent parties that instead led to being trapped.
In New York, Tal and Oren quickly rose to fame and recognition as real estate brokers at Douglas Elliman. In 2011, Oren made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for real estate, and in an interview with Business Insider a year later, he opened up about his early ambition.
“I knew who I wanted to be and to get there I had to be selling big product,” he told the outlet. “It’s the only way to get recognition. Otherwise, you’re just another real estate broker.”
Tal and Oren’s clients included investor Leon Black, Steve Madden and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. In 2019, they made headlines for representing hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin in his record-breaking $238 million purchase of a New York City penthouse. However, Griffin’s lawyer later said the brothers “publicly touted (and grossly overstated) their role,” Business Insider reported.
Eventually, the two split from Douglas Elliman, forming their own firm in 2022 they called Official. A press release at the time touted their $7 billion in sales and plans for the company that they described as an “ultra-high-end global property firm and lifestyle brand.”
What had allegedly been an open secret exploded into the public eye in March, when Mandel and another woman, Kate Whiteman, filed lawsuits against Oren and Alon.
Whiteman had been an acquaintance of the twins since 2008, and in May 2012, Oren asked if she’d be spending Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons, her complaint said. She said she was, and later as she was out with her friends at a Hamptons nightclub, Alon saw her — then grabbed her by the hand and led her into a black SUV where Oren was waiting, the lawsuit said. Frightened, Whiteman repeatedly asked the brothers where they were going as the driver sped off.
Whiteman recalled the twins refusing to answer her question, and instead smirking at one another until they arrived at the castle owned by Ivan Wilzig, a musician who was known at the time for throwing wild parties at the property. Wilzig is also named in the lawsuit; an attorney listed as representing him did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
According to Whiteman’s lawsuit, the twins grabbed her from the SUV and led her into a room inside the garage and told her she needed to change into a sarong. Whiteman attempted to escape by running to the stairs leading up to the house, but a security bouncer employed by Wilzig caught up with her and dragged her back into the garage, the lawsuit said.
The brothers allegedly forced Whiteman to change, placed her phone and other belongings into a locker and led her into a large bedroom. Whiteman was then sexually assaulted and raped, the lawsuit said. And, it alleged, she was far from the only victim.
Over the next months, another woman,Angelica Parker, also filed a lawsuit, accusing Tal and Alon of raping her at Oren’s home in 2012.Brokers left the brothers’ firm, and media reports suggested the FBI was looking into the mounting accusations against them. On Dec. 11, federal authorities in New York made a shocking announcement: All three brothers had been arrested, and they were accused of a sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. Tal was charged with an additional count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. In a separate press conference, Miami-Dade prosecutors announced three more sexual battery charges against the twins, citing incidents involving different alleged victims in 2016, 2017 and 2021.
According to federal prosecutors, the brothers on multiple occasions paid for the transportation of women to stay at high-end locations like the Hamptons and Tulum, where they then raped them.
In a group chat between two party promoters and Tal entitled “Hamptons Hot Chicks,” the older Alexander brother arranged for women to stay at the family’s property in the Hamptons, prosecutors said. He allegedly told the promoters, “Lol guys were going to have a lot of fun.”
One of the women, referred to only as victim 2, was then raped by Oren, according to prosecutors.
In a WhatsApp group chat entitled “Lions in Tulum,” the brothers and other men arranged to transport multiple women to the Mexico beach town in 2016, discussing splitting the cost of lodging, flights and providing drugs such as “coke, shrooms, and G,” prosecutors said.
One unnamed man in the group chat wrote, “Lol. It’s gonna be hard to get girls up to your standards,” to which Oren allegedly responded, “Just warn him ur boys are hungry.” To which Tal allegedly said, “Girls look fresh.”
Prosecutors also said the Alexanders leveraged their wealth and status to silence the alleged victims.
In one instance, federal prosecutors said Tal and Oren filed a police report, accusing a woman who they’d allegedly sexually assaulted of harassment. Tal also threatened the woman with a defamation lawsuit if she did not stop telling people about the assault, prosecutors said.
Paul addressed prosecutors’ accusation in a statement to HuffPost, saying “Filing a police report or defamation lawsuit is not a crime. Neither is illegal and neither amounts to witness tampering.”
Another woman who met Oren through Instagram in 2017 told authorities in Miami-Dade County that she was raped by him after a dinner date, according to an arrest warrant. She recalled not having control over her body, but she mustered enough strength to cry and express her displeasure, the warrant said.
“Stop it, we’re having great sex. You’re ruining it,” Oren allegedly told her.
Over the following months, the woman confided to her sister and friends about what happened, according to the arrest warrant. Word spread and apparently reached Oren’s ears.
In early 2018, Oren messaged the woman telling her, “Nothing happened,” according to the warrant.
“If you keep talking about it, I’m going to ruin you,” Oren allegedly told her.
At a Dec. 11 press conference announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said he expects more victims to come forward and added he didn’t believe the Alexanders acted alone.
“We’ll continue investigating, as long, as hard as it takes to get to the bottom of the full scope of the conduct,” Williams told reporters.
Since their arrest, one of the alleged victims cited by Miami-Dade prosecutors went on to file a lawsuit against the twins. Identified only as Jane Doe, the woman said she met Alon in fall 2016 through Bumble and they engaged in a casual relationship.
According to the lawsuit, she traveled to Miami to celebrate New Year’s Eve that year, not knowing that Alon was also there for an unrelated trip. After finding out they were in the same town, Alon invited the woman to meet him at a luxury condo for a barbecue and pool party, even sending her photos that appeared to show people enjoying the event, her lawsuit said.
But when she arrived at the unit, she was allegedly met by only Alon, Oren and another man, Ohad Fisherman, who is also named in the lawsuit. (Fisherman’s attorney did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment but denied the allegations to The New York Times. He was also charged with sexual battery and turned himself in this week.)
According to the woman’s lawsuit, the twins then “engaged in a demonic discussion about which brother would be the first to rape” her, and she was allegedly held down by Fisherman while Oren and Alon took turns raping her as they ignored her pleas to stop.
In a statement to HuffPost, Doe said she never thought she would have the courage to come forward, and for a long time, she felt like her voice would never be heard. She said that now, knowing that her story is being acknowledged gives her hope — not just for herself, but for others who may have felt silenced or powerless.
“If my decision to speak out encourages even one person to share their own truth, whether it’s about these brothers or anyone else, then this effort will have been worth it,” the woman said. “No one should have to carry this burden alone, and I hope this serves as a reminder that justice starts with a single step forward.”
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