Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last days, a bombshell move in the case of the so-called real estate bros, three brothers rolling in money charged with sex trafficking and rape. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. In the last days, a federal judge throws out real estate moguls Tal Oren and Elan Alexander.
Raped a woman, was thrown out. Joining us, Lauren Conlon, investigative reporter, host of Pop Crime TV. Lauren, thank you for being with us.
Chapter 2: What are the allegations against the Alexander Brothers?
What's that all about? while highlighting inconsistencies in witness testimony. In a significant development, prosecutors have indicated that they plan to drop counts six and seven of the indictment. These are two standalone sex trafficking charges that each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years if convicted.
However, it remains unclear why prosecutors are seeking to dismiss those counts.
Defense attorneys have suggested the move reflects weaknesses in the government's case and alibis that the brothers have, while prosecutors have characterized this as a strategic legal decision, noting that allegedly an investigator for the defense had intimidated witness number four by going to her neighbor's home and asking about her minor children.
The dismissal is not yet final and must be formally approved by U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni. The trial itself has also faced disruptions. One juror was dismissed after admitting he had already formed an opinion about the defendant's innocence before deliberations, leaving only one alternate juror remaining.
To secure these convictions on the remaining charges, prosecutors must prove the brothers used force, fraud, or coercion to compel women into sex acts. And the prosecution has really focused on drugs as a coercion element. This is the legal standard at the heart of federal sex trafficking laws.
With prosecutors again signaling their case could conclude imminently, the focus will soon shift to the defense and ultimately the jury, who must decide whether the once celebrated real estate moguls are guilty of of orchestrating what the prosecution describes as a years-long scheme of sexual exploitation. What is at the heart of the allegations against the so-called real estate bros?
A trio of brothers, luxury real estate agents to the super rich, indicted on federal sex trafficking and battery charges. Claims go back more than a decade.
Claims going back more than a decade, try two decades. Now, 40 women that we know of claiming these filthy, rich real estate moguls took part in rape after rape after systematic rape and that the allegations go back to when they were in high school. All that money, all that privilege and education has bought them a one way ticket to hell with a pit stop in the federal penitentiary.
That's my prediction, but I want you to hear what Damien Williams, the US attorney has to say.
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Chapter 3: How have the Alexander Brothers responded to the charges?
Having the ability to work with my brother, to have a partner with your brother. Just think about that for a second. The biggest issue you have in partnership is trust and knowing that you don't have to worry.
Honey, you got something to worry about now. What if your brother flips on you and testifies against you? Let's just analyze what we just heard. And that's where our friends that from the founder on YouTube, that's Orrin Alexander, one of the, and I mean, filthy rich people. rolling in money.
That's Orrin Alexander quote, having the ability to work with my brother, to have a partner who's your brother. You know, just think about that for a second. Don't worry. I'm thinking about it. The biggest issue you have in partnership is trust and knowing you don't have to worry. Okay. What happened? With me, an all-star panel. Let's get to it.
Straight out to Christina Awayo, joining us, national news anchor, Salem News Channel. Christina, thank you for being with us. I'm really curious about how much money these two have. And this goes all the way back. Their family is wealthy. Their grandfather wealthy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Kind of like Luigi Mangione, just all that money, two silver spoons in the mouth. And yet this.
What happened, Christina?
You know, actually, I think it started way back when they were in high school, as people are now starting to come out and say that they actually had a sex van that was parked in front of their parents. Forty million dollar beachfront estate where the boys, the brothers in high school would take women to have sex in that bus in in front of their parents house.
So this has been behavior that has been encouraged perhaps by their parents all the way through. Then you add the hundreds of millions of dollars in properties that these brothers have sold and the security business. And they're pretty much running around town doing anything that they want, including, according to prosecutors, drugging women, raping women.
Each brother has separately been accused of at least 10 rapes, 10 forcible rapes by women.
And prosecutors are saying that- Hey, hey, hey, Christina, Christina, hold on. Wait a minute. We were just looking at them. Karen Stark. Why is it so hard for people to believe that super wealthy, college educated, great job guys can commit heinous crimes? That's what he posted on his own Facebook. Go ahead.
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Chapter 4: What evidence do prosecutors have against the Alexander Brothers?
Now, obviously, this is a family show, so I'm not going to get into all that. But that's why they're using drugs like GHB to drug these women so they can't say no. That's what this is all about. And it's a tale as old as time. It doesn't matter if it's the Alexander Brothers, Diddy, Abercrombie, Steve.
I can see that I'm clearly, I think you and I have a communication problem. Because you're just basically saying everything that I say. I'm, Lynn Shaw, help me out here. Founder executive director, Lynn's warriors committed to ending sex attacks on children and women. Lynn Shaw, I'm trying to make the point that the argument will be made by the defense.
I already know the facts as presented by the state.
Chapter 5: What role do drugs play in the accusations against the brothers?
Everything that Romani just said, I get it. I've read the indictment. Okay. The defense is going to argue at trial. They don't need to rape women. They can get any woman they want. Therefore, this is consensual. That's BS. It's argued in so many rape cases. I call them the Alexander brothers crime family. And I call these dirty ditty complicit wannabes.
Listen, the egos are so big they're out of control. Again, this is the same story we heard with Diddy and others facing charges like this, that so many vulnerable girls and women. I'm going to throw in the girls again. I wish we could get down to were there any minors involved, but that'll unfold at some point. They want to see and live this lifestyle.
Many of these women were approached online, complete strangers, and they said, we'll fly you out, we'll give you hotels, we'll give you parties, we'll give you clothes, and vulnerable people, girls especially, really want to experience this. I'm here to say, if this case can help us educate the general public.
Because we're hearing about all these, you know, Dirty Diddy, we're hearing about Tate Brothers, we're hearing about Jeffrey Epstein, we're hearing about now these criminal Alexander Brothers. If it could water down eventually, my hope is, to everyday cases that are happening that nobody will ever hear those victims or see those victims, so we can educate everybody.
When they offer you something like this, this lifestyle for free, they're going to fly you somewhere. Run in the other direction. This is, again, their powers, their money, their egos, their homes, overtaking people's common sense. We have to do better educating the public, girls and women about all of this.
Their family wealth has been estimated, correct me if I'm wrong, Christina Awayo joining me from Salem News Channel, over $115 million.
Correct. And I'm sure that's even more than that, as the parents have offered to put up. to $1 billion to get their three boys out of prison, out on bail. They've even offered to put them up in a second-story apartment complex for their jail time pretrial that has no beachfront, that has no luxury, that's, you know, guarded 24-7 by guards. Wait, wait, wait.
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Chapter 6: How do the Alexander Brothers' past actions relate to the current charges?
Christina, wait. Did you say... The parents want to get them out of jail on a billion, as in brother, B brother, billion dollar bail. And the jail is because they don't have a beach view.
They won't have a waterfront view. They won't have any orgies and it won't be luxury. So that's what they're considering to be jail. And yes, up to one billion with a B is what they're willing to put up to get their three sons out of prison.
Bill Daley, it's the ditties. It's the new ditties. Because all the money, procuring the women, making other people be your henchperson to bring women to you to drug them and rape them, those are the allegations. They're presumed innocent. But also, it's Luigi Mangione. all over again.
Here is a rich brat kid whining about how us common people have to live with the healthcare industry while he's in a beachfront Hawaii luxury high rise condo. His great grandparents and grandparents broke their backs. coming to this country and becoming millionaires, working up from nothing, nothing, passing it down so Luigi Mangione could whine in his luxury condo.
these two same thing bill yeah and in this case they've actually built their business so they built their brand they now feel omnipotent i mean they're they have money they're they're traveling with celebrities they're flying on private jets you know they're selling these huge uh multi multi-million dollar properties they're getting headlines in in all kinds of of media including their own real estate uh empire so you know these are paper people if i put a profile around i'm not
FBI profile, but I know enough of them to speak about how these people can become emboldened, emblazoned. It's both feeding the ego as well as also just their ability to control things. So they like to be able to control everything, whether it's the deal or people.
Guess what I got? A superseding indictment. I bet that's making Nima Romani just clinch. Because when you see the feds have a superseding indictment, this is for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking on these rich brats. That means, hey, we had one go at you, but we're not through. We're issuing a revised, a new and improved indictment with more charges. It supersedes the previous indictment.
Yeah, they may be rolling in money, but apparently the feds don't care. So exactly who are the so-called real estate bros?
There are three Alexander brothers. Two of the brothers are twins, Oren and Alon. Their older brother, Tal.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the defense's strategy in this trial?
Then they co-founded their own real estate brokerage company called Official.com. Now, Alon Alexander, 37, the other brother, the other twin, did not work in real estate, but he socialized with the two brothers, I guess just enough to catch a little sex trafficking charge. Okay, what do we know?
First witness in the sex trafficking trial involving three brothers, two of whom are prominent real estate brokers, recounted her harrowing experience on Tuesday. The excitement of attending a party at actor Zac Efron's apartment swiftly turned into a nightmare. When hours later, one of the brothers assaulted her in their residence, taunting her throughout the ordeal.
The woman, who spoke under a fictitious name, is among several alleged victims slated to testify against Tal Oren and Alon Alexander, who face accusations of drugging and raping women and girls over several years. Defense attorneys for the brothers assert that the encounters were consensual.
Prosecutors allege that the Alexander brothers exploited their connections to wealthy and influential people to entice multiple victims. The witness explained that she was just 20 years old and studying anthropology when she met two of the brothers at a party at Efron's New York City apartment.
She had accompanied a friend who had recently befriended Tal Alexander, who invited them to watch the final game of the 2012 NBA Finals. She noted that their interaction with Efron was minimal, as he is not implicated in any wrongdoing. After the game, she attended an after-party at a Manhattan nightclub where she accepted a drink and lost consciousness.
She later woke up in a different apartment, naked, with Alon Alexander standing over her, also unclothed. Despite her attempts to rise, he repeatedly pushed her back down, leading her to declare, I don't want to have sex with you. She said he laughed and responded, you already did. She recounted how he then forced himself on her during the assault.
Tal Alexander briefly entered the room but did not intervene. Leaving her feeling that he was, quote, super nonchalant about the whole thing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Madison Smyers, in her opening remarks to the jury, described the Alexander brothers as perpetrators masquerading as party boys.
She stated that they employed various tactics, including luxury accommodations, flights, drugs, alcohol, and sometimes physical force to manipulate women involved. into compromising situations. Defense attorney Tini Garagos, representing Oren Alexander, urged the jury to dismiss the prosecution's monstrous story.
Garagos portrayed the brothers who graduated from college in 2008 as ambitious and occasionally arrogant young men navigating the nightlife scene in search of romantic encounters, arguing that while their behavior may seem immoral, it is not criminal.
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Chapter 8: How does the public perception of wealth influence views on the case?
In that case as well, Bill Daley, former FBI agent, Trophies, quote, trophies were obtained. During that raid, Bill Daley, video equipment was reportedly discovered, along with over a thousand bottles of lubricant, baby oil. trophies have been the bane of many criminals' existence. Why trophies?
Well, Nancy, if you go to other kind of repeat offenders, repeat criminals, such as Dennis Rader, the buying, torture, kill fiend, they either keep pieces of clothing, they keep something to remind them, something that's going to get them excited, something that's going to make them remember how wonderful it was that they controlled this person, that they did what they did.
And so for all these things, it's sometimes- Why are you putting perfume on the pig daily? That's not like you. The souvenirs, the trophies, quote, get them excited. You mean give them an erection?
Well, you know, that as well as sharing it among other people. In some cases, they like to share it because they've had this experience with other people. They keep it. They look at themselves. You know, there may be other people. They let them see that. That all kind of gives them a sense of control. It goes back to that-
essence of controlling individuals, controlling their environment, doing what they want to do, using that leverage over people. You know, in this case, Nancy, a very interesting point that came up, which is similar to what we've seen in other cases, is that as the FBI was investigating this, reports are coming out that multiple victims have the same stories.
Again, people who've been not connected, not there at the same place, same time, but have the same story to tell. All of that is extreme and is part of what I believe the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office is making their case out of. is that they have statements, and it would encourage people.
You know, I'm very curious, Bill Daley. I think this goes beyond your or my kin. colloquial for understanding. Joining me, psychologist Karen Stark. Everything Bill Daley said is correct, but what is the reason, the mental or the psychological reason that people like Dennis Rader, or in this case, the real estate bros, also called the rape bros, but those are just accusations.
Why keep all these videos?
They're damning. It's a wonderful way for them to relive the crime, Nancy. And whatever got them off when they were doing it, whatever got them excited and gave them erections and orgasms, they can do that all over again repeatedly because they have these trophies. It's great if it's a video, but it can be an earring. It could be a necklace. It could be a piece of clothing. It doesn't matter.
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