The Alexander brothers are headed to trial, and real estate’s potential ties to the proceedings are coming into focus.
The pre-trial hearings turned to jury selection this week, where Judge Valerie E. Caproni questioned potential jurors on any issues that would preclude them from serving on the trial, including their knowledge of and familiarity with certain names, companies and addresses the prosecutors and the Alexanders’ attorneys could mention in the course of the trial.
About 90 names were on the questionnaire presented to jurors as potentially testifying or being mentioned in the trial. Those people have not been accused of any wrongdoing and any mentions or inclusions of them in the trial, scheduled to commence on Jan. 26, remain to be seen.
Unsurprisingly, the real estate industry dominated the list, with Caproni name-dropping Douglas Elliman, the brokerage where Oren and Tal built their high-flying careers over a decade, and Official Partners, the luxury firm they left Elliman to found in 2022.
Caproni mentioned several New York City addresses, including the Soho and Union Square apartments the brothers previously shared and Tal’s former home at 432 Park Avenue. In South Florida, she included Oren’s former Miami Beach mansion, Alon’s Miami Beach home, their parents’ Bal Harbour home and a mansion built by spec developer father Shlomy.
The nightlife spots listed in the questionnaire include the shuttered Bootsy Bellows and Escobar nightclub in Aspen, along with the luxury enclave’s five-star hotel, the Little Nell. The judge also named the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. These destinations were previously mentioned in a fourth superseding indictment filed by prosecutors in November.
A multimillion-dollar home in East Hampton, along with a Southampton property, was also listed. The Hamptons have been a backdrop to a number of the allegations against the brothers, where prosecutors say they sometimes lured women from New York City for parties and weekend trips, only to attack them.
Among the people identified on the questionnaire was JDS Development boss Michael Stern, who told The Real Deal in 2019 he considers Tal and Oren very good friends of his. The Alexanders’ ability to weave professional relationships with personal ones is “part of what’s made them successful,” Stern said at the time, citing their “incredible social network.”
Stern, whose firm is behind 111 West 57th Street on Billionaires’ Row and Brooklyn Tower, tapped Official in 2024 to lead sales and marketing at one of his trophy Miami developments, 888 Brickell, the Dolce & Gabbana-branded condo project. Stern dropped Official from the project in June of that year, after The Real Deal reported on lawsuits accusing Tal, Oren and their brother, Alon, of rape.
The developer attended the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor “money fight” in 2017 with the brothers, enlisting a private plane from Teterboro, New Jersey, to shuttle Oren, Alon and friends to Las Vegas. The trip was where one woman told Business Insider in 2024 that the three brothers “forced” her, an 18-year-old college student at the time, into a hotel room where she said Tal raped her.
Also among the names was Mikey Ashkenazy, the founder of 101 Holdings and the brother of billionaire developer Ben Ashkenazy. In 2023, Oren represented Ben in the $29 million sale of his oceanfront property in Golden Beach.
Jim Ferraro, the South Florida injury lawyer who initially represented Oren and Alon in the first two civil suits against them, was identified along with sons Andrew Ferraro and Jim Ferraro Jr., who practice at their father’s eponymous firm.
Ferraro called the initial lawsuits “very bizarre” and denied all allegations on behalf of Oren and Alon. Ferraro has known the Alexanders for years. Oren’s big break in 2009 came from the $8.2 million sale of a penthouse at the Park Imperial to Jim Ferraro, and he represented Ferraro in later deals as well.
Real estate agents Julian and Jacques Cohen, sons of South Florida spec developer Felix Cohen, are also on the list of names released this week. Julian is a Miami Beach-based agent with Douglas Elliman agent and Jacques is based in New York. Julian co-brokered the $25 million sale of a waterfront Sunset Island mansion Felix and the Alexanders’ father, Shlomy, developed in 2021 alongside Oren.
Also on the list is New York real estate entrepreneur Steve Ostad, who was sued last year by his brothers Michael and Ed Ostad, the heads of fix-and-flip lender Flatiron Realty Group. The brothers filed a second suit after an initial rejection from a judge to demand the dissolution of the trio’s partnership so they could be freed from ties to 10 underwater rental properties.
Jury selection is expected to conclude pre-trial proceedings ahead of the trial’s scheduled start on Monday.
Katherine Kallergis and Sheridan Wall contributed reporting