Actual Property

Tal and Oren Alexander rose as excessive because the New York Metropolis penthouses they offered. They constructed a picture as jet-setting bachelors.

By Debra Kamin, New York Occasions Service

July 27, 2024 | 5:00 AM

With a knack for brokering luxurious properties, Tal and Oren Alexander, brothers who labored as actual property brokers, rose as excessive because the New York Metropolis penthouses they offered.

They constructed a picture as jet-setting bachelors, filling their social media feeds with photographs from Wimbledon, Artwork Basel, and the seaside in Mykonos. They took calls in between ice baths after periods with their private trainers. Their conventional beauty and magnetism attracted ultrarich shoppers who propelled the brothers previous 1000’s of different brokers to the very prime of the ranks at Douglas Elliman, one of many largest actual property brokerages within the nation.

However because the brothers partied and offered co-ops and condos from Manhattan to Miami, they had been quietly incomes one other popularity: Accusations that they drugged and sexually assaulted ladies had been spreading all through the world of high-end actual property.

Nonetheless, Tal and Oren continued to climb. They secured rarefied standing in 2019 after they helped dealer the sale of an almost $240 million penthouse — on the time, the most costly residential sale in US historical past. By 2022, that they had cofounded their very own actual property brokerage, Official.

Then in June, their reign as actual property princes ended. What had lengthy been shared amongst brokers lastly spilled into public view.

Two ladies sued Oren, 37, for assault, alongside together with his twin, Alon Alexander, 37, who didn’t work in actual property however often socialized together with his brothers. A 3rd girl sued the twins in addition to their older brother, Tal, 38. The brothers have denied all allegations of sexual assault, however Tal and Oren resigned from their very own firm.

Over the previous two months, The New York Occasions interviewed 10 ladies who stated they had been sexually assaulted by the brothers or imagine they could have been. A few of them had been talking for the primary time, together with Tracy Tutor, a prime dealer at Douglas Elliman Beverly Hills and one of many stars of the fact TV present “Million Greenback Itemizing Los Angeles.” Seven of the ladies stated they imagine that they had been drugged, describing a fog that erased or clouded their reminiscence.

“I’m nonetheless struggling to recollect the small print,” stated Tutor, 48. She stated she shared a drink with Oren Alexander at a cocktail celebration in 2014 after which blacked out. “Staying silent for thus lengthy has been damaging on many ranges, and remembering now what occurred feels debilitating.”

Dozens of former classmates, brokerage workers, and brokers advised the Occasions that that they had data of drugging and violent sexual assault by the brothers, relationship again a minimum of 20 years to when the lads had been highschool college students.

Leaders at Douglas Elliman had been conscious of allegations that Tal and Oren might have been drugging ladies, but the brokerage continued to help the duo, stated 5 actual property professionals who both advised executives about incidents or had been advised about them by firm executives. When the brothers had been beginning their very own company, actual property professionals tried to dissuade Aspect, a brokerage, from backing Tal and Oren. However Aspect partnered with them anyway, in keeping with interviews with three actual property professionals who stated that they had spoken with Aspect executives in regards to the brothers.

In a press release, Stephen Larkin, a spokesperson for Douglas Elliman, stated an incident had been raised casually and confidentially to the CEO, reasonably than within the type of an official human assets grievance.

“Had any such complaints been acquired, these complaints would have been completely investigated,” he stated. The assertion didn’t handle a second allegation raised by the Occasions.

Aspect had no data of claims ever having been made to anybody on the brokerage, a spokesperson, Katherine Mechling, stated in a press release.

“We’re unaware of anybody at Aspect who had earlier data of those allegations, and they’re allegations that we take very significantly and conduct that we might by no means condone or invite into our neighborhood,” she stated.

Nicole Oge, who co-founded Official alongside Oren and Tal, declined to remark. The ladies who’ve sued weren’t workers of Official, Aspect or Douglas Elliman.

Oren and Alon, by their lawyer, Isabelle Kirshner, declined to remark. Deanna Paul, a lawyer who’s representing Tal Alexander, stated that he was not conscious of any investigations into his conduct and he denied all allegations. “At no time was Tal notified, a lot much less accused, by Elliman or Aspect of any misconduct and denies these purported claims,” she stated in an e mail.

The lawsuits from the three ladies — filed simply earlier than a New York state deadline for victims of sexual assault to submit claims — all centered on allegations from the early 2010s. The lawsuits touched off a torrent of posts on social media by ladies who described unhealthy encounters with the lads.

“These had been allegations that had been so widespread that they had been frequent data within the residential actual property trade for greater than a decade,” stated Barbara Wagner, a public relations govt who labored with Douglas Elliman for greater than 16 years. She now runs her personal agency, and the corporate is now not her shopper.

Jessica Cohen, an award-winning agent with Douglas Elliman, stated in an interview with the Occasions that she awakened in a hospital in Manhattan in 2010 after she attended a birthday celebration with Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander. A hospital report reveals she traveled there by ambulance, however she stated she has no recollection of the journey.

Samantha Murphy, a mannequin, stated after she went to Oren Alexander’s house in 2017, he ripped off her costume as she screamed and stated, “No.”

“Telling this story publicly is, in reality, one of many hardest issues I’ve ever carried out in my life,” stated Murphy, 33. “Years later and I nonetheless get up in the midst of the evening with nightmares.”

‘I used to be terrified’

Tal, Oren and Alon grew up in Bal Harbour, Florida, a rich suburb of Miami Seashore. Their father is a profitable luxurious actual property developer.

Allegations of sexual assault had trailed the brothers since they had been youngsters, 5 former classmates stated.

One girl who went to highschool with the three brothers stated that in the summertime of 2004, when she, Oren and Alon had been ending their senior yr, she went to a celebration at their dwelling. Oren and Alon locked her in a bed room along with them, she stated, earlier than Oren sexually assaulted her.

When she advised her father in regards to the assault, he took her to the police station to file a report, she stated, however she didn’t in the end press costs. When she went to the police station this summer season to acquire a replica of the file, she was advised the police division now not had it. The girl requested anonymity as a result of she didn’t wish to be recognized as a sexual assault sufferer.

Rose Martinez, 38, one other classmate, was in the home that night and stated she noticed the lady instantly after the incident. The girl advised her what had occurred, and Martinez helped her get dwelling. “Everybody has been too scared to say something,” stated Martinez, who runs her personal enterprise promoting customizable gadgets. “They held numerous weight, particularly in Miami.”

In 2008, when he was 21, Oren Alexander moved to New York and joined Douglas Elliman, the place he offered his first property, a penthouse, for $8.2 million. Tal quickly adopted.

In 2012, the brothers based the Alexander Group throughout the brokerage, overseeing record-breaking offers. They didn’t simply cater to the rich, they had been the rich — posing on personal jets and using camels in Qatar. They turned fixtures on the New York social scene, frequenting personal golf equipment and reveling at invitation-only events in Manhattan, Miami and within the Hamptons. On social media, their lives seemed like a fraternity celebration that wouldn’t finish.

Throughout their meteoric rise, there have been extra allegations of sexual assault.

On Oct. 16, 2010, Cohen arrived at a birthday celebration on the Core Membership in Manhattan and had a drink with Oren, Alon and Tal.

She has no reminiscence of the subsequent 5 hours, she stated, although time-stamped images taken by a pal and reviewed by the Occasions confirmed she was with all three brothers late into the night. In one in all them, she is handed out on Tal Alexander’s shoulder, her hand intertwined together with his.

She stated she awakened after midnight at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai West Hospital. Her vomit-covered garments had been eliminated. A bystander had discovered her alone on the road and known as 911, in keeping with a medical report reviewed by the Occasions. Cohen stated what she felt was very completely different from any alcohol-induced stupor.

“I awakened feeling like I got here out of normal anesthesia,” she stated.

For a number of days, Cohen struggled to piece collectively what had occurred that night, describing the small print she may recall to a couple colleagues, together with Dottie Herman, Douglas Elliman’s vice chair. (The corporate stated that Herman has no recollection of talking with Cohen in regards to the allegations, and Herman didn’t reply to a request for remark.)

About three weeks after the birthday celebration, at an occasion for Gotham Journal, Tal Alexander approached her, Cohen stated, and plucked the drink from her hand. She stated he advised her that she wanted to watch out to guard individuals’s reputations, which she interpreted as a risk.

In 2012, Cohen recalled that hazy night to a different individual at Douglas Elliman: Howard Lorber, president and CEO of the corporate. Cohen, a former chess champion, would generally play chess after work with Lorber. Throughout one sport, he stopped to take a name from Oren Alexander. In that second, Cohen advised him that she believed she might have been drugged by the duo that evening. She requested Lorber to please not act on the data. “I used to be terrified,” she stated. “I used to be afraid they’d harm me.”

In its assertion, Douglas Elliman famous that Cohen had advised Lorber that she didn’t know precisely what had occurred to her that night. “Over a minimum of a decade in the past, a dealer advised a senior govt about having blacked out at a social occasion. She stated that she didn’t know what, if something, occurred, she didn’t specify who might have been concerned, and he or she insisted on absolute confidentiality,” the corporate stated. “Douglas Elliman revered her needs.”

Cohen, an award-winning dealer, nonetheless works at Douglas Elliman and is taken into account one in all its prime brokers. She was named Agent of the 12 months by the Actual Property Board of New York in 2019.

Extra allegations

A number of months after Cohen’s birthday celebration blackout, in the summertime of 2011, Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery proprietor in Brooklyn, attended a home celebration within the Hamptons with Tal Alexander. Acree stated she was handed a glass of wine as she stepped right into a scorching tub.

“I drank the wine, after which it’s simply nothing,” she stated.

Acree, 38, has a slight reminiscence, she stated, of being pinned down in a sauna by Tal Alexander and one other man she had met for the primary time within the automobile on her approach to the celebration. However for a minimum of 24 hours, she has no different recollections.

“I do not know what occurred to me. I do not know what occurred to my physique,” she stated.

About three years later, in 2014, Tutor, the actual property agent who now seems on actuality TV, went out to dinner with mates, following a Douglas Elliman-sponsored occasion in New York.

She stated her reminiscence went clean after sharing a drink with Oren Alexander. A pal discovered her within the restaurant’s rest room with Oren and pulled her away — an occasion she doesn’t bear in mind.

The pal who pulled her out of the toilet is a fellow Elliman agent. He requested that his title be withheld for worry {of professional} retaliation, however he corroborated Tutor’s model of occasions and stated he had knowledgeable a prime govt on the brokerage of the incident. He declined to call the chief and careworn he by no means filed a proper grievance.

About three years after Tutor’s incident, within the fall of 2017, Murphy went to dinner with Oren Alexander and mates one night and left with Oren. She went to his house however stated she was not but able to be intimate with him. However that evening, she stated, he tore off her costume, pinned her down and assaulted her.

Murphy is now married to Patrick Murphy, a former U.S. consultant from Florida. Early of their relationship, she advised him what had occurred to her, Patrick Murphy advised the Occasions.

The lawsuits

By the late 2010s and early 2020s, the brothers had been rising professionally in actual property and personally. In 2021, they introduced that that they had closed greater than $1.8 billion in gross sales, accounting for 3.5% of the enterprise that Douglas Elliman did that yr.

In 2022, they introduced that they had been leaving Douglas Elliman to start out Official, alongside three different co-founders. Each males had been in critical relationships with ladies who would grow to be their wives, however their reputations adopted them as they had been looking for a licensed brokerage to help them.

Earlier than the deal was signed, on a minimum of two events, issues had been raised to leaders of the brokerage, Aspect, in regards to the Alexanders.

Brian Meier, a dealer who labored with Elliman for almost 14 years, stated he was invited to a dinner with Aspect executives and requested what he knew about sexual assault allegations in opposition to the Alexanders. He advised them that rumors had adopted the brothers for years and had been thought of an open secret within the trade. He additionally advised them, he stated, that it was understood at Douglas Elliman that Lorber was conscious of a minimum of one incident.

“Aspect knew about these items and nonetheless went ahead with them,” stated Meier, who’s now with Berkshire Hathaway.

A feminine dealer in New York, who requested that her title not be shared as a result of she fears skilled retaliation, stated she advised a Aspect govt that she wouldn’t work with the corporate if it partnered with the Alexanders.

That govt, Meredith Moore, took her issues to Man Gal, Aspect’s CEO. “I handed alongside the message, however there didn’t appear to be a way of urgency,” Moore stated. “He didn’t deliver it up once more.”

Moore was let go throughout a spherical of layoffs on the firm a couple of weeks later.

In 2023, Tal and Oren received married months aside; Alon had gotten married in 2020. Oren Alexander’s wedding ceremony was featured in Vogue — his spouse advised the journal that they met when Oren approached her in a Las Vegas lodge foyer and “requested if I used to be misplaced.”

In November 2023, the brothers discovered that lawsuits had been on the way in which.

In March, Kate Whiteman filed the primary lawsuit in opposition to Oren and Alon, the dual brothers.

Whiteman, a former advertising govt, is represented by Evan Torgan. She stated that she met Oren and Alon at a Manhattan nightclub in 2012. As she was leaving, they compelled her into an SUV and drove her to the Hamptons, the place she stated she was assaulted at Sir Ivan’s Fort, in keeping with the lawsuit.

Whiteman’s case was adopted by a lawsuit from Rebecca Mandel, who accused Oren and Alon Alexander of drugging after which assaulting her at a celebration in Manhattan in 2010. She described consuming a drink — her first of the night — that had been handed to her by Alon earlier than her reminiscence went hazy. However within the lawsuit she recalled Oren forcefully penetrating her whereas Alon held her down. She stated they then switched locations and the assault continued, in keeping with the lawsuit.

Angelica Parker filed a 3rd lawsuit. She stated that she was sexually assaulted at an house in Manhattan. She stated she was assaulted by each Tal and Alon, and through the act, Oren watched.

Parker, who was beforehand generally known as Angelica Cecora, misplaced an analogous swimsuit that she filed in opposition to Oscar De La Hoya in 2012. In a authorized response to Parker’s swimsuit, legal professionals for Tal stated she was attempting “to make use of the court docket system to pursue fabricated allegations for monetary achieve.”

In a press release to the Occasions, Parker, who’s represented by Michael J. Willemin, stated she anticipated such assaults. “I knew once I filed this motion that Tal, his brother and their legal professionals would do all the things of their energy to disgrace, embarrass and discredit me,” she stated.

This text initially appeared in The New York Occasions.