As they await their criminal trial in a Brooklyn jail, disgraced brokers Tal and Oren Alexander are still tangled in legal issues with Side, the firm backing their brokerage.
The white-label firm sued the Alexanders and Official Partners in October, as sexual assault allegations were stacking up against them and their brother Alon. In the lawsuit, Side claimed the co-founders hadn’t made payments on a $5 million loan the firm provided to launch Official in 2022.
But the Alexanders hit back hard.
The brothers filed counterclaims alleging that Side “manufactured” a default on the loan as part of a “political decision” to break off their relationship. The Alexanders’ response, filed in Florida last month, also claims the firm poached agents and other employees from Official.
Side and the Alexanders tentatively agreed to a settlement, according to a joint status report filed on Tuesday. The report didn’t include any details about the agreement but stated the parties expected it to be finalized next week.
Initiated two months after Tal and Oren became the sole owners of Official, the lawsuit has unfolded as dozens of women have come forward alleging they were drugged and raped by one or more of the brothers. The crush of accusations culminated in the arrest of the Alexanders in December, after they were indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
While all eyes are on their trial scheduled for early next year, Side is trying to recoup its investment in the once-promising young firm, as signs point to mounting financial peril for Oren and Tal. The co-founders, along with Alon, are now facing more than two dozen civil lawsuits and an expensive criminal trial without a functional business to boost their income.
A potential deal with Side could end the legal battle that exposed details about the founding of Official and the deal that cemented the former star agents’ departure from their longtime firm, Douglas Elliman.
From all sides
News of the allegations broke in June, when The Real Deal first reported two lawsuits accusing Oren and his twin, Alon, of raping two women in New York more than a decade ago. Days later, a third lawsuit was filed by a woman alleging Tal had raped her.
The brothers — first Oren, then Tal — announced that they would step back from their roles at Official while the claims were being litigated. Side alleges that at the time, the Alexanders had agreed in separate phone calls to drop their licenses, though attorneys for the brothers claim that never happened.
Without Tal and Oren at the helm, Official’s remaining co-founders — Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel — struggled to keep the business rolling, as developers dropped Official from their projects and agents left in droves.
Among those who departed were top Los Angeles broker Tyrone McKillen and his eight-person team, who took their business direct with Side under Plus Real Estate Group.
As the summer continued, the Alexanders appeared to be out of the Official picture.
But in August, Oge, Jordan and Wachtfogel exited the firm, following a dispute with Oren and Tal over their potential return to the company. Sources told TRD that the brothers threatened legal action if their fellow co-founders voted to remove them as owners.
With the others out, Official was left in the hands of the Alexanders.
Side sued the brothers and the company over the unpaid balance two months later. In the complaint, filed in California, the firm alleged Tal and Oren, who personally guaranteed the loan, defaulted on the note in June, and that by the end of July, the two were refusing to make payments.
At the time, James Cinque, an attorney for the Alexanders, denied that the brothers had missed a payment and characterized the lawsuit as “an incredibly greedy attempt by Side to take over the business of Official Partners.”
As more women came forward with allegations against the brothers, Side petitioned the court to grant a temporary restraining order to bar the Alexanders from offloading or concealing assets used to collateralize the loan.
The judge granted Side’s request and issued a preliminary injunction in December, days after all three brothers were arrested in Miami. The order prohibits Oren and Tal, or anyone working on their behalf, from selling three South Florida properties and another in Colorado.
Side alerted the federal court in Miami to the injunction in January and requested the court issue public notices that the properties were subject to pending litigation — a move Oren and Tal are pushing back on amid reports their father is trying to sell the properties, which would violate the terms of the injunction.
Oren and Tal are requesting the Florida court to remove notices, called lis pendens, from two Miami Beach properties, arguing Oren’s home on Lake Avenue should be exempt as it was his primary residence before his arrest and that his wife and infant child still live there. State law typically does not allow courts to foreclose on a homestead property to satisfy a civil judgment.
One of the other homes under dispute is 1611 W 24th Street on the Sunset Islands, which the brothers’ attorneys are arguing should be excluded as it’s owned, not just by Oren and Tal, but an LLC managed by other family members Alon, Shlomy and their uncle, Gil Neuman.
Attorneys for Side argued that attempts to offload the properties are in “blatant disregard for the California court’s order” and that the “risk of dissipation of the underlying collateral is very high – as can be seen by Defendants’ affiliates’ current attempts to secretly sell the three frozen properties.”
The brothers’ fight over the Miami homes comes after another set of their attorneys withdrew from representing them in January over claims that Oren and Tal hadn’t been paying their legal bills.
Oren and Tal took aim at Side in February, filing counterclaims against their former backer. The Alexanders, in court documents, accused Side of intentionally “impairing” them from continuing to do business and “falsely claimed” the brothers had agreed to disassociate their licenses.
“Side demanded payment of an accelerated balance of a promissory note, while depriving Defendants of their ability to generate the revenues necessary to make payment,” attorneys for the Alexanders argued. “At no time did Tal or Oren disassociate their respective real estate licenses with Side.”
The Alexanders’ attorneys also alleged Side poached agents and employees from Official Partners, “further cementing the destruction of [its] business and rendering Tal’s and Oren’s equity interests worthless.” The motion claims the downfall of Official cost the brothers more than $30 million.
Side urged the California judge to enforce the injunction and restraining order, arguing that the brothers transferred a significant amount of money from their accounts with JP Morgan Chase, including the accounts dedicated to Official Partners. Side also claimed the brothers had “moved funds to unidentified locations” and closed most of their accounts with the bank after the restraining order was issued.
“Official Partners and the Alexanders have engaged in, and almost certainly plan to continue to engage in, dissipation of assets and activities in contravention of this Court’s temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction order.”
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