Chapter 1: What are the details of the Alexander brothers' sex trafficking conviction?
Hey. Roy. Yes. Huge breaking news this week on stories that we have been following on this program for literally years, I think. First up, Rishi Kapoor. You remember that guy? The developer in Coconut Grove and Carl Gables? Yeah, that guy. The guy who is, I like that Roy is pretending to remember what I'm talking about. But Rishi Kapoor was the guy that had Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a.k.a.
On the payroll, secretly for $10,000 a month, paid him over $170,000. He actually rented an empty building from Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago. Steve Suarez, who is Francis Suarez's cousin, they bought this building. And a few weeks later, they sign a lease with Rishi Kapoor, who starts paying them over $12,000 a month in a building that he never used. What does that sound like to you, Ray? Fraud.
Well, Rishi Kapoor, amazingly, was arrested last Friday on his birthday, no less, wearing a U shirt and flip flops at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale, where I guess he was celebrating his cumpleaños. And he was charged in huge indictment, like so many counts and eighty five million dollar fraud scheme. Interestingly, none of it has to do with any of the politicians he had on the payroll. No kidding.
So I'm not sure if there's another shoe that's going to drop there or what's going to happen. But we're going to get all into that next week. Also, we're going to talk about Ball and Chain 4, or as the judge called it, Carollo the sequel. So remember the Carollo case where ball and chain owners Bill Fuller and Martin Pena sued Joe Carollo.
They got a judgment for $63.5 million because he weaponized city government to violate their constitutional rights. Now they're suing the city because they ain't never going to collect a penny from Joe Carollo, let alone $63.5 million. Because they don't have it. So they're now suing the city. for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. And that could break the city.
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Chapter 2: How did the Alexander brothers' past influence their trial?
And there was an epic knockout, drag out battle in court this week. It was amazing. The judge was like, he's this old school character. And Art Acevedo, remember him? The former police chief who got fired after six months for calling out the city commission for corruption. He was there. They wouldn't let him testify at first.
And then we discovered that the judge's daughter works on Art Acevedo's legal team for his lawsuit against the city for the whistleblower lawsuit for violating his right. It was such a like a real life courtroom drama. And it ends up all this craziness. They're talking about Jeffrey Epstein somehow. They're talking about the judge's daughter. They're talking about the police chief.
The judge recuses himself. After three years on the case, on the eve of trial, trial was supposed to start in like two weeks, the judge just goes, peace, and he's out. I mean, that makes sense if his daughter's dealing with the Acevedo case on the other side. It was wild. The whole thing was amazing. And we're going to talk all about that.
This week, though, Brother Lyle Muhammad returns from the Circle of Brotherhood to talk about the Hardeman crime family, the Miami Mafia just shaking down this charitable organization that does nothing but try to help the underserved, if not entirely unserved parts of our community. First up, Roy.
Three brothers, all convicted, Allen, Oren, and Tal Alexander, found guilty of all counts, including sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and sexual exploitation of a minor. The jury returned their verdict after 20 hours of deliberations. Eleven women testifying against them, all accusing one or more of their brothers of sexual assault, some even claiming they were raped.
Eight of the women said they were drugged. It's a fall from grace. Two of their brothers were once high-end real estate brokers, and the third a private security executive. Now they could face up to life in prison for their crime. The Alexander brothers are a sensational and salacious story of power, privilege and perversion.
Oren and his older brother, Tal Alexander, were known as the A-Team among the top luxury real estate agents in Miami, Manhattan, the Hamptons, Aspen and London.
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Chapter 3: What was the atmosphere in the courtroom during the verdict announcement?
They sold over $810 million in real estate in 2023 alone. In their 20s, they closed over $7 billion in deals. Their celebrity clients included Adam Neumann, Timbaland, Tommy Hilfiger. They sold Ken Griffin his $238 million penthouse in Central Park South. back in 2019, which was then the most expensive listing in the U.S. In Miami, they were famously Jared and Ivanka Trump's.
Well, I guess their name isn't Trump, but Kushner's realtor for their 24 million dollar home in Indian Creek Village, also known as the billionaire bunker private island with 40 homes, its own private police force. Neighbors include Jeff Bezos and Tom Brady.
Tal Oren and Oren's twin brother alone, who worked as a vice president for their parents company, Kent Security, which first opened in South Florida in the 1980s, were indicted in the Southern District of New York federally on this sex trafficking indictment. They've also been charged with three separate sexual assaults down here in South Florida by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
It's a wild story. And Vanity Fair's Willem Marks has covered this story for the magazine. He is also the author of an upcoming book about the Alexander brothers. He was in court for all of the trial, including the verdict. He's there working on the story as we speak, but is good enough to join us. Willem, I mean, this is an epic rise and fall.
These guys were private jets, $50 million, $30 million homes, not only that they sold, but they lived in. What was the atmosphere like when the prosecution, the U.S. Attorney's Office, got a clean sweep, 10 guilty verdicts on 10 charges for all three brothers?
It was actually remarkably somber, to be honest, Billy. The number of counts and obviously the number of defendants, three, meant that the announcement, as it were, by the foreperson of the jury went on for quite some time because the judge was having to ask on each individual count for each individual defendant. whether the jury had found them guilty or not guilty.
So that took some time to get through. The three brothers, flanked by their various attorneys, sat there in silence. At the end of it, one of the brothers kind of put his head in his hands. One of the twins slumped back into his chair when he heard the final word, guilty. On the final tenth count, the parents looked shell-shocked, and one of the wives, within a few moments, was pretty cheerful.
As for the rest of the courtroom, including the jurors, Very, very quiet until they were discharged by the judge and the marshals escorted the rest of us out of the courtroom.
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Chapter 4: What evidence was most persuasive in the trial against the Alexander brothers?
You were there in the courtroom. You heard the evidence that the prosecution presented. Talk a little bit about of what you felt and clearly the jury felt was among the most persuasive evidence, the most persuasive witnesses. And were you surprised based on that, that it was a clean sweep, that it was guilty on all 10 counts?
There were 11 women who were brave enough to testify in this trial about what had happened to them. Many of them wept openly and at length on the stand. That was very powerful for the jurors, very powerful for those of us in the courtroom to understand the trauma they'd been through. And many of them had corroboration in the form of outcry witnesses is their technically term.
Those are people who they had told about well before this became a huge public scandal. And that was used to buttress their account of what had happened to them.
There were also some experts talking about the role of drugs in this case, although not based on specific knowledge of the evidence in this case, but more broadly about the way that certain drugs react inside the human body and their experience of sexual assault victims, perhaps those that have been aided by pharmacological substances of the kind that
the prosecution alleged the brothers had been using and then there was also someone able to talk about the way that trauma operates in the mind and these were so consistent the way they talked about the experiences of witnesses on the stand although they'd not seen details of the case itself that would i imagine have been very persuasive for the jury to understand that that is
essentially what happened to so many of these women of the 11 who testified eight testified to have been drugged in the past and there were some videos a lot of seems text messages some blogs yeah i would say one of my takeaways as a non-american in case you couldn't tell from the accent is the power of the u.s federal government to really break down into immense detail
the defendant's digital lives. And many of the subpoenas, the warrants served on electronic devices, on online accounts, iCloud accounts, created this kind of underlying fabric of evidence that they were able to draw upon, not just for specific witnesses, but more broadly for the pattern of behavior that was the basis for one of the accounts, which was a conspiracy account to sex traffic.
And it really made me think how powerful it is to have access to all of our online worlds, if that makes sense.
Yeah, there was some pretty vulgar text. I mean, what I guess the defense attempted to frame or characterize as locker room talk or boys being boys. I think even the word scumbag assholes was actually bandied about from the defense itself. Was none of that particularly persuasive, apparently, to the jury? And are you surprised there wasn't at least one or two counts there that they faltered on?
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Chapter 5: How did the prosecution build their case against the defendants?
I think the concern of many amongst the supporters of the prosecution of these men, amongst witnesses, amongst victims, was a concern that that complexity would perhaps be a barrier to conviction. But it seems not to have been.
Speaking of the sex trafficking accusations and charges, they got a unanimous verdict here on all 10 counts. Last July, there was a mixed verdict in the Diddy case, which was also prosecuted in the Southern District of New York. So I think there was at some point or another, there were some overlap in the in both the prosecution team and the defense team on that case.
There, Diddy was acquitted of the more serious charges, racketeering and particularly sex trafficking.
This was a similarly novel interpretation of the federal sex trafficking statute to basically say they used their lifestyle, their luxurious lifestyle and their money and these beautiful houses they rented in the Hamptons for parties and things to lure these women in for these alleged commercial sex acts.
Can you give us a, you're not an attorney, but what did you glean in the courtroom about, I guess, why this was a more, what the allegations were with respect to sex trafficking and why perhaps it was a more persuasive argument here in this case?
Yeah, I mean, so two things on that. You're right to say that at least one of the attorneys worked on Diddy's case, Marco Nifilo, his firm, and Tony Garagos, his partner, had both been involved in that case. And talking to the defense team ahead of the trial, you know, they were at pains to point out that this was a very complex statute.
I think the phrase that one of them used to describe it to me was a square peg in a round hole. The behavior of these men, although it may be objectionable to many, didn't necessarily amount to sex trafficking technically. What's so striking, though, about this decision and why it may be different to the Diddy trial was that on this jury was
a very accomplished, very experienced lawyer who had an understanding of the law, who ended up serving as the foreperson. And my suspicion, although I can't confirm this right now, is that as that foreperson, she was the one that was really explaining the law repeatedly to her fellow jurors. And that may have been while they understood that this was A stretch, as it were.
There were some complexities around applying this behavior in this law that they were willing to follow the prosecution's theory of the case and therefore were willing to apply these federal statutes to the behavior that they'd seen described.
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Chapter 6: What accusations were made against Commissioner Keon Hardeman?
I have probably myself spoken to something approaching that number at this point and, you know, have pretty conclusive evidence about incidents dating back to the early 2000s when The brothers, I think the first instance I've come across in my reporting is when they were, the twins were, I think, sophomores at high school.
And Charles, my older brother, was a junior in Miami at Michael M. Cropp High School.
What happens next? August is sentencing. What are they looking at?
Yeah, August 6th, 10 a.m. There will be a couple of conferences involving the various attorneys on both sides and the judge in July. There are mandatory minimum sentences for some of these counts. There are guidelines for some of these counts. There will be efforts by the defense to provide mitigating factors that might induce the judge to think about a lower band of that
guideline for the sentences there will be no doubt arguments by the prosecution about aggravating factors the age of some of these women um not least the lack of contrition so far shown by the brothers and so you know i've talked to half a dozen attorneys both involved in the case and observing this saying that this could be 30 to 40 years even to life and so as the former general counsel of the fbi judge valerie caproni has throughout this trial been
very tough on the brothers and their defense teams. And, you know, there is a good chance men will spend decades behind bars, you know, if they're not able to appeal.
Might we also anticipate some victim impact statements? Might there be women who weren't even witnesses in the case allowed to come forward and make statements to the court to consider in sentencing?
absolutely so you'll probably hear from some of the main victims and witnesses expanding on their testimony on the stand during the trial to talk about the impact this had on their lives you might hear from other victims other witnesses who did not end up testifying the trial were not called or maybe have come forward since the start of the trial or more recently since the start of the investigation and so together that
avalanche of victim testimony and victim impact statements could, again, encourage the judge to impose a very strict sentence.
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Chapter 7: What challenges does the Circle of Brotherhood face in Miami?
and it does seem like there's every possibility those conversations could continue and it was actually the first time hearing about that possibility that drove me to start digging into that world of presidential pardons. And although I didn't end up focusing on the brothers, that is something certainly that will be worth watching in the months and potentially years ahead.
Willow Marks, read him at VanityFair.com and look for his upcoming book on the Alexander brothers. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks so much, Billy. See you later.
Bye.
Quick break to tell you about a special Miller time I had with my good buddy, Mochetta. Mochetta texted me the other day. He said, hey, what are you doing for the game? I said, I'm just on my couch right now, doing nothing, enjoying it. He's like, hey, do you want some company? I said, from you, Mochetta? Absolutely. Mochetta comes over to the house and I pull out the Miller Lite.
Miller Lite made that casual hang a memorable good Miller time with my good friend Mochetta. Because Miller Lite brought us together. We took that first sip after we toasted our beers and we knew we made the right call. We watched a game. All of a sudden we're standing up on our feet. Big threes are being drained.
And white cans are being clanged. See times like these? That's exactly why Miller Lite is my go-to.
Clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. The original Lite beer since 1975, and it still hits different for yours truly and his good friend Mochetta. Cheers to legendary moments made with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the Alexander brothers' case on the community?
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But I recognize gang activity. I know what it looks like to be threatened by somebody in the gang. I know how a gang acts in unison. And so to me, earlier today, when I saw some of the activity that was going on in front of these days, I recognized gang activity. What I'm seeing is an organization that uses our funding to do good in the community, supposedly.
An organization that started with individuals who were accused of robbery, extortion, giving plots of land, no development, and they are threatening us, especially the District 3 Commissioner, if we don't give them more. How should we handle that? I don't feel comfortable paying individuals who will continue to threaten me and my family.
I would request an immediate suspension of any payments being made to Nana and also to the Circle of Brotherhood for the actions that they have displayed, not only here today, but in the past, where in fact their executive director has said that he has people that can come see me. It's on the record. And so I won't be distorted on this day. I won't be intimidated on this day.
One thing I will not do is cower to any thug in a polo shirt that proclaims that he loves black people in our community. And by doing good from time to time, we'll take advantage of opportunities to do bad for people who are giving back to this community.
What we can't allow is someone who feels that they're too big enough to fail, that they're so big that they can threaten any one of you and force you all to do what they want you to do. This is terrorism, if you will. That's what these sorts of actions are like.
Hashtag because Miami.
That was former city of Miami commissioner, current Miami-Dade County commissioner, pay-to-play Keon Hardiman. That's what I call him. Keon Hardiman of the HCF, a.k.a. the Hardiman crime family. Part of one of these multi-generational political dynasties that have been plaguing and preying on this community for decades. And, wow, that was a lot.
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