Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander are sitting in jail, days after the FBI arrested the brothers on federal sex trafficking charges.
It would be an understatement to say that last week’s events mark a dramatic turning point for the Alexander family and for the brothers’ alleged victims.
Wednesday morning, we found ourselves in front of Oren and Alon’s waterfront Miami Beach homes. The FBI had, hours earlier, ordered both brothers to surrender themselves to authorities. Oren and Alon were booked into Miami’s TGK jail, while Tal was taken to a federal detention center downtown.
Soon after, a federal indictment was unsealed, revealing that the brothers were accused of operating what prosecutors described as a “long-running sex trafficking scheme” and raping more than a dozen women over at least a decade.
The charges came after investigators interviewed about 40 alleged victims who say they were raped or assaulted by Oren, Tal or Alon or a combination of the brothers dating back to when they were in high school. Their investigation began after The Real Deal and other publications reported in June on civil lawsuits accusing the brothers of rape.
Later on Wednesday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office announced its own set of charges against Oren and Alon, accusing the two of committing sexual battery. State prosecutors slapped Oren with three counts linked to alleged attacks in 2016, 2017 and 2021, while Alon and the Alexanders’ family friend, Ohad Fisherman, were implicated in just one of the incidents. The brothers have denied the allegations.
The next morning, Oren and Alon made their first appearance in court, wearing green vests designed to protect at-risk individuals from physical harm. Oren asked Judge Mindy Glazer, who many recognized from a viral video, to release him from custody to attend the impending birth of his first child, but she pushed the decision to Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lody Jean the following day.
After another night in jail, the twins returned to court Friday. This time, only Alon was in a protective green smock. Oren, wearing red prison garb, called out to his parents as he was escorted in. “Love you guys,” he said. (Absent from the courtroom were Alon and Oren’s wives, but they were present for Tal’s federal hearing later that day.)
The Alexander family rallied hard to get the brothers out on bail. In state court that morning, Judge Jean granted pre-trial bail packages for Oren and Alon, anchored by their parents’ waterfront Bal Harbour home as collateral. But with a federal hold on them, the twins remain in state custody. They’re expected to appear in federal court this week.
At the federal courthouse, attorney Milton Williams offered a $115 million bail package secured by the Alexander family’s homes and an office building. Under that proposal, Tal would live in his parents’ home and wear an ankle monitor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Astigarraga argued this was another attempt by the brothers to use their wealth.
Judge Lisette M. Reid appeared to be leaning toward granting Tal (bail, but she returned from a recess to rule that he would be detained.
“My area of concern is risk of flight,” Reid said. “He clearly has the financial resources to flee if he wants to.”
Tal’s next stop is New York, though federal authorities have not specified when he’ll be transferred. There, he’ll be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, also the detention site of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
What we’re thinking about: Did Kent Security, the Alexanders’ private security firm, play a role in the alleged scheme? And who will prosecutors go after next? Send me and Sheridan a note at kk@therealdeal.com and sheridan.wall@therealdeal.com.
NEW TO THE MARKET
The oceanfront estate at 516 South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach hit the market for $60 million. The half-acre property, with a cabana, covered loggias and a heated pool, has seven bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms. It’s on the market with the Corcoran Group’s Cathy Franklin. The property is owned by a trust, records show. It includes a full house generator and 100 feet of ocean frontage.
A thing we’ve learned
Compounds in the venom of Gila monsters that help regulate hunger aided drug developers in creating the latest obesity and diabetes drugs, including Ozempic, according to Business Insider.
Elsewhere in Florida
- Orange production fell 33 percent this year in Florida, which is partly due to storm damage from Hurricane Milton, according to Spectrum News 13. Production this season will likely total 12 million boxes of oranges, with each weighing about 90 pounds.
- A group of 20 of the smallest species of sea turtles were brought down to the Florida Keys after suffering “cold stuns,” which cause turtles to stop eating and swimming, NBC 6 reports. They’re at the Florida Keys Turtle Hospital.
- Three construction workers were injured on the site of a Fort Partners condo project in Surfside, TRD reports. Two were transported with traumatic injuries, and a third was taken by ground to a local hospital.
