In March, Oren and Tal Alexander were at the top of a booming business.
Official Partners, the brokerage they founded in 2022 with the backing of white-label firm Side, launched an office in Aspen and teased plans for an expansion to Palm Beach to keep up with the high-end clients they developed a reputation for courting over a decade in the ultra-luxury residential game.
So it was a stunning scene in Miami this week, where the brothers appeared before respective judges — Oren and twin Alon answering sexual assault charges from the state and Tal appearing for federal sex trafficking charges — and were ordered to remain in custody, deemed flight risks and dangers to the public.
An indictment from federal authorities alleges Alon, an executive at the family’s security firm that often socialized with his broker brothers in New York and Miami, started compiling information on women who accused the brothers of sexual assault in lawsuits, media reports and even those who hadn’t made their allegations public.
The claim by prosecutors adds to a playbook described by accusers of the brothers, who alleged they employed intimidation tactics and relied on their status and wealth to keep the “worst-kept secret in New York and Florida real estate circles” under wraps.
The last six months have seen the brothers, who have denied the allegations, initially step back from the spotlight under a wave of disturbing allegations before appearing to set the stage for a comeback after the firm lost all of its agents and the brothers’ co-founders.
Take a look back at how the mounting allegations clashed with the defiant Alexanders before landing them in court.
First allegations
In June, The Real Deal first reported two lawsuits by women alleging Oren and his twin brother, Alon, sexually assaulted them in two incidents in 2010 and 2012.
Less than two weeks later, another woman filed a lawsuit against all three brothers, alleging Tal and Alon raped her at the same time in an attack orchestrated by Oren.
The cases were filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily eliminated the statute of limitations for civil sexual assault claims in the state of New York.
Later that month the Wall Street Journal reported allegations against Oren, dating back to high school and as recent as 2020. The New York Times reported accounts from seven women, including top Douglas Elliman broker Tracy Tutor’s claim Oren drugged her in 2014 and at least two accounts reportedly raised to Elliman senior leadership during their time as top performers at the brokerage.
News of the lawsuits also prompted nearly 30 women to approach plaintiffs’ attorney Evan Torgan, he told TRD.
Prominent South Florida attorney Jim Ferraro pulled out from representing the Alexanders a week after the lawsuits were reported. Ferraro, who has known the brothers for a decade and served as the client behind Oren’s first New York City real estate deal in 2009, was replaced with New York attorney Isabelle Kirshner, who has a history of defending clients against high-profile allegations of rape and sexual assault.
Federal interest
The Alexander brothers in part responded to the wave of allegations by removing themselves from Instagram, where they had a huge following. And despite rumors they fled to Israel, they were spotted over the summer in Bridgehampton, at a Barry’s Bootcamp class in Miami, and Oren was seen in Ibiza, behind a DJ booth.
Despite locking down their public image, the brothers had already attracted attention from federal investigators. By July, the lawsuits and bombshell reports of allegations against the Alexanders prompted the FBI to launch its own probe into the brothers.
The agency declined to comment when reports of its investigation first emerged, but agents from a child exploitation and sex trafficking task force were reportedly pursuing allegations of assaults by one or more of the brothers dating back to their time in high school two decades ago.
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Official collapse
The Alexanders’ team at their barely two-year-old brokerage started the year on a high. In TRD’s ranking of the Manhattan residential brokers that ruled 2023, the team finished in second place with $263 million in volume across 42 deals, knocking Elliman’s top-performing Eklund-Gomes to third with $260 million.
But the allegations against the co-founders shook the business from the inside out. Oren responded to news of the initial suits by stepping back from Official Partners, claiming a bid to minimize distraction from the business while the suit was adjudicated. Tal followed suit weeks later.
Official dropped Oren’s real estate license in Florida and New York as his co-founders, who became acquainted with the brothers during their decade-long careers at Douglas Elliman, worked to remove him as owner of the company. As the Alexanders started negotiating an exit from the firm, exclusive sales and marketing agreements dried up, while agents fled.
The exit negotiations soured, leading the Alexanders to plot a return to the top of the company. In August, TRD reported they were planning on a rebrand of the company, which would be fronted by Tal. Oren and Tal’s headshots and bios returned to the website where they had been scrubbed, while those of the other three co-founders vanished.
James Cinque, an attorney representing Oren and Tal, told Business Insider at the time the brothers were taking over the company and would be announcing details “very soon.”
But the brokerage business ran into more trouble in October, when Side sued Official. The firm, which alleged Official breached its contract and failed to repay a loan, sought repayment in the millions of dollars. Side later filed for a restraining order against the former top brokers to prevent them from destroying or concealing the collateral underpinning the Side loan.
Family bonds
The brothers’ father Shlomy and mother Orly were present in court when judges sided with prosecutors’ arguments that Oren, Alon and Tal were dangers to the community and posed a flight risk due to their wealth, social connections and international ties. Shlomy, a luxury spec home developer in South Florida, is at the center of his sons’ bids for release.
Shlomy and Orly’s waterfront Bal Harbour home is being used as collateral, securing Oren and Alon’s appearances. If the twin brothers fail to appear in court while out on bail, Shlomy is on the hook for a combined $5 million. The home is valued at $40 million and currently has a $3 million mortgage, according to pre-trial release orders.
A lawyer for Tal offered a $115 million bond package using assets like his parents’ waterfront Bal Harbour home and his brothers’ Miami Beach homes. An Assistant U.S. Attorney with Florida’s Southern District, pushed back, saying “no combination of bond conditions can reasonably [protect] the community.”
Federal authorities plan to relocate Tal to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, but didn’t specify when. Oren and Alon, who are also facing state sexual battery charges, are still in custody and are scheduled to appear before a federal judge this week.
Ohad Fisherman, who previously worked as an agent with Official and now leads his own brokerage, is an associate of the Alexanders who has not yet responded to a sexual assault charge in Florida.
Fisherman, who the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office previously referred to as a cousin of theirs, learned of the charges after landing in Japan for his honeymoon and will surrender to the state on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall contributed reporting.