New York judge hands Alexander brothers 30 years in prison for sex crimes

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - NEW YORK —Three brothers convicted of exploiting their access to wealth and high society in New York and Miami to ​drug and rape women were each sentenced on Tuesday to ‌30 years in prison after facing several of their victims during an emotional, hourslong hearing.

The twins Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander, 39, and Tal Alexander, 40, were sentenced by US District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan, ​seven months after being convicted in a six-week trial of ​multiple sex crimes including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

“These men spent years treating women and girls as though our lives, body, voices, humanity meant nothing,” a victim using the pseudonym Katie Moore said in court. “But we are not disposable and they are not untouchable.”

Moore was one of 12 women who delivered statements on Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Manhattan packed with victims and their supporters for the sentencing of the three brothers, who were convicted earlier this year of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and other charges.

The sentencing marks a dramatic fall from grace for the three men: Tal, 40, and Oren, 39, were top luxury real estate brokers, while Alon, Oren’s twin, was an executive at their family’s security company.

During the five-week trial, prosecutors laid out evidence demonstrating the brothers’ yearslong pattern of using their wealth and social status to lure women to luxury locations before using drugs or force to rape and sexually assault them – many of whom were unconscious or several incapacitated.

Eleven women testified at trial about being sexually assaulted by one or more of the men, though prosecutors said more than 70 women had reported their accounts to investigators.

Federal district judge Valerie Caproni likened the three brothers to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In letters to the court, the men’s supporters described them as gentlemen, while the women who testified credibly at trial described “sadistic, misogynistic sexual predators,” she said.

“Either all of those women are in the wrong line of work because they should all be actresses, or they were telling the truth and they were raped and drugged. And I credit latter,” the judge said.

As Caproni handed down the sentences, several victims nodded their heads with pained expressions. One woman wiped her eyes with a tissue.

The brothers, wearing beige prison outfits, each addressed the court and acknowledged being ashamed of their behavior but vehemently maintained they never drugged or raped anyone.

“I want to set the record straight – my brothers and I have never drugged and raped anyone. Have never trafficked anyone for sex. Have never conspired to harm anyone,” Oren Alexander said Tuesday, as several victims shook their heads.

As she sentenced the men, Caproni said she believed that was “entirely a lie.”

“Your conduct was monstrous,” the judge said.

All three men were also convicted of inducement to travel for unlawful sexual activity. Alon and Tal Alexander were also convicted of sex trafficking a minor. The twins were convicted of additional sex abuse counts, and the jury also found Oren Alexander guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Their defense attorneys had asked the judge to issue the lowest possible sentence of 15 years, saying the men were interested in “meeting women” when they were younger but are now dedicated fathers needed by their families.

“The defendants really left the conduct on their own,” Marc Agnifilo, a defense attorney for Oren Alexander, said. “All three defendants stopped and that matters.”

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, argued the men deserved life in prison, the maximum possible sentence, due in part due to the callousness with which they committed their crimes.

“These attacks were often relatively brief, an hour in an evening, and then after they were done, the defendants were able to laugh about it, brag about it, and move on with their lives,” Elisabeth Espinosa, an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said.

“The victims were left picking up the pieces, dealing with the shattering grief, the confusion, the pain of what the defendants had done to them, and what didn’t matter to the defendants.”

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement after the sentencing that the brothers preyed on young women and girls for years and used their social status to their advantage.

“Today’s sentence makes clear that this craven, sinister conduct is extraordinarily serious and will be met with serious punishment,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald – who attended the entirety of the hearing – said in the statement.