Northeast

Wealthy Florida real estate brothers' 'trophies' uncovered as judge denies bail: feds

Published

3 hours ago

January 18, 2025

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Wealthy Florida real estate brothers' 'trophies' uncovered as judge denies bail: feds

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Three wealthy brothers were accused last month of drugging and then sexually assaulting and raping dozens of women in multiple states, and authorities say new video evidence in the case shows the “depraved” nature of their alleged crimes.

Tal, 38, and Oren Alexander, 37, two prominent jet-setting brokers in New York and Miami, and their brother Alon Alexander, Oren’s identical twin, were arrested in Miami Beach on Dec. 11 and have since been taken into federal custody.

Law enforcement officers have interviewed over 40 women, who reported “being forcibly raped or sexually assaulted by at least one of the Alexander Brothers,” according to a recent letter by the prosecution, obtained by Fox News Digital.

HIGH-PROFILE REAL ESTATE BROTHER MISSES HEARING AFTER MIX-UP IN IDENTICAL TWINS’ SEX TRAFFICKING CASE

Oren and Alon Alexander attend Jeff Gordon’s Last Lap on November 22, 2015, at The Villa, Casa Casuarina in Miami Beach, Florida. (Aaron Davidson/Getty Images for J Group)

Oren Alexander and his twin brother, Alon, attend a bond hearing after being charged with multiple state and federal crimes, including sex trafficking and rape, at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)

In many of these alleged instances, “one or more of the Alexander Brothers drugged their victim prior to the rape,” prosecutors wrote in the letter filed last week and addressed to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni, the New York judge who presided over a hearing in the case on Wednesday.

Prosecutors on Wednesday argued against setting bail for the brothers, whose “incentives to flee are through the roof,” they said, arguing that the Alexanders have significant foreign connections.

After hearing arguments for three hours, Judge Caproni denied bail, finding the Alexander brothers pose a flight risk and a risk to the community. She said the evidence is strong, adding that the men pose a danger to unsuspecting women.

Each of the brothers has separately been accused by at least 10 women of forcible rape between 2002 or 2003 and 2021, the letter continues.

Authorities executed a warrant on Dec. 11 to search Tal Alexander’s apartment inside a skyscraper on Manhattan’s “Billionaire’s Row.” During the search, multiple hard drives were discovered and seized, including one with a large quantity of sexually explicit videos and pictures, according to the letter and prosecutor’s statement during Wednesday’s hearing.

The apartment was previously shared by Oren and Tal Alexander, the letter continues, adding that the photos and videos were found on a hard drive in a closet that appeared to include items belonging to Oren.

LUXURY REAL ESTATE BROTHERS LURED DOZENS OF WOMEN OVER TWO DECADES WITH PROMISE OF LAVISH LIFESTYLE: FEDS

Tal Alexander attends the Charity Gala for Ukraine people and culture at Scuola Grande Di San Rocco on April 21, 2022, in Venice, Italy. (Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images)

A display showing images of Alon, Oren, and Tal Alexander prior to a news conference in New York

Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, during a news conference in New York, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Luxury real estate brokers Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother Alon were arrested and charged with sex-trafficking by federal prosecutors in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The seized photos and videos depict “at least Oren, Alon, and several third parties recording or photographing themselves with women in states of intoxication and undress,” and in multiple videos, “the women appear initially unaware that they were being recorded and became upset and attempted to hide or flee from the camera after realizing they were being filmed,” prosecutors wrote.

Other videos found in Tal Alexander’s apartment show Alon and Oren Alexander and other men engaged in sexual contact with women “who are visibly under the influence of alcohol or other substances,” the letter continues, adding that in some cases, at least one of the brothers and another man “physically manipulated the women’s bodies in order to have sex with them while the women did not actively participate in the sexual activity or turned away.”

Prosecutors explained that the new evidence reveals the “depraved nature” of the brothers’ actions, as well as the “immense danger” they present.

“The fact that video versions of trophies of the defendants’ criminal conduct were found in Tal Alexander’s residence as recently as last month also suggests that the defendants have not closed the door on their criminal conduct,” the letter continues.

‘DIDDY’ MAKES 3RD BAIL ATTEMPT AFTER PROSECUTORS ALLEGE HE BLACKMAILED VICTIMS FROM BEHIND BARS

Real estate brokers Tal Alexander and Oren Alexander at their home on Miami Beach on Feb. 1, 2019. (Patrick Farrell/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Prosecutors allege that the Alexander brothers “worked together, and with others known and unknown to repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape” victims in New York, Miami and elsewhere, according to a federal indictment filed in December.

All three brothers were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and a separate count of sex trafficking of one woman by force, fraud or coercion. In addition, Tal Alexander was charged with the sex trafficking of a second victim.

As part of their sex trafficking conspiracy, the Alexander brothers “engaged in a persistent pattern of rape and sexual assault, which included both pre-planned trips and events for which the defendants recruited women to attend and then raped and sexually assaulted them, as well as opportunistic rapes and sexual assaults of numerous victims who they encountered by chance,” prosecutors say.

According to the charges in the indictment, the three brothers had conspired in the sex-trafficking scheme since at least 2010, but prosecutors have alleged that their sexual violence against women actually spans more than 20 years, dating as far back as when the men were in high school in Miami.

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Alon Alexander and Oren Alexander appear in a Miami courtroom.

Oren Alexander, 37, center, and his twin brother, Alon, center-right, speak to their attorney Joel Denaro during their bond hearing after being charged with multiple state and federal crimes, including sex trafficking and rape, at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)

Defense attorneys for the three brothers have argued that they committed no sexual assaults, and that their relationships with the alleged victims were consensual, according to court records.

Attorneys for Tal Alexander wrote a responding letter to Judge Caproni this week, arguing that the prosecution “fails to detail when the videos were taken, how many videos, if any, the defendants are in, whether the purported participants have been identified, or whether the videos even depict non-consensual sexual activity.”

At Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Caproni said the women in the videos appear visibly incapacitated, adding, “In my view, that is rape.”

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A display showing images of Alon, Oren, and Tal Alexander prior to a news conference in New York, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Luxury real estate brokers Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother Alon were arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Oren and Tal Alexander co-founded the real estate firm Official, which offers luxury listings in places like New York City, the Hamptons, Miami and Los Angeles, in 2022 after rising through the ranks at Douglas Elliman, one of the largest real estate brokerages in the country, according to prosecutors.

Their past clients include Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Liam Gallagher and Lindsay Lohan, according to CBS News.

Alon Alexander, 37, did not work in real estate, but he socialized with them.

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Alon Alexander, 37, right, and his twin brother, Oren, left, attend their bond hearing at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building after being charged with multiple state and federal crimes, including sex trafficking and rape, on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Miami. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)

The Alexander brothers are still in custody in Florida and will be moved to New York next week, the judge added. They will likely be housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), the same prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried are being held.

The next status conference in the case is scheduled for Jan. 29.

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Vermont

Dramatic rescue of dog in Vermont goes viral

Published

6 minutes ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Dramatic rescue of dog in Vermont goes viral

Spotting a dog struggling to stay afloat in an icy Vermont River, Chris MacRitchie never hesitated.

He jumped into the frigid waters and waded over to the dog, gently pulling it ashore where his wife, Erica, draped it with a sweatshirt. The dramatic rescue of the dog Friday afternoon in Berlin, Vermont, was caught on video by his son and has been shared widely on social media.

MacRitchie’s son, Ace, first spotted the dog as they were going through the drive-thru of a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts. When they reached the river embankment, the father of two felt he had no choice but to save the pooch.

“It was like one of those moments everyone probably has in their life like you’re going to make a decision,” MacRitchie said. “So, I felt I was obligated to at least try to fetch this dog out of the river, as I have two dogs myself, and I would hope someone would do that for them if they were in that spot.”

The video shows MacRitchie approaching the embankment as the dog struggles to get out.

MacRitchie gingerly steps through the ice and into the river, audibly gasping as he wades about 20-feet toward the dog, which was on the other side of the frozen tributary of the Winooski River. His wife repeatedly shouts “c’mon” to the dog and exclaims “Oh, my God” as MacRitchie lifts the dog, later identified as Arizona, out of the water and onto the icy embankment. He carries it over to his wife.

MacRitchie called the dog’s owner, Morgan Cerasoli, whose number was listed on the dog tag.

Cerasoli said she had been looking for her dog, a seven-year-old mutt who had originally been rescued from the side of the road in South Carolina, since Thursday. She was heading to pick up her daughter from school, when she got the call from MacRitchie

“I started crying, and I told him, oh, my God, I love you, I love you, I love you,” she said, as she sat besides Arizona during an interview. She said the dog has mostly recovered, though a checkup did find it was suffering from Lyme disease.

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New York

André Soltner, Famed Chef at New York’s Lutèce, Dies at 92

Published

4 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

André Soltner, Famed Chef at New York’s Lutèce, Dies at 92

For a time, he and James Beard had operated a cooking school on the premises, but now Mr. Surmain envisioned a restaurant that, he proclaimed bombastically, would be the best in the world. At the suggestion of a pastry chef who had worked under Mr. Soltner, he dined at Chez Hansi.

Mr. Surmain, impressed, brought Mr. Soltner to New York to work at his new restaurant, Lutèce, named after the Latin term for ancient Paris. “I thought maybe I’d stay for two years,” Mr. Soltner told Nation’s Restaurant News in 1996. He never left. During the three decades he spent at Lutèce, he missed only four days of work — for the funerals of his father and his brother.

The restaurant, despite Mr. Surmain’s proclamation, got off to a rocky start.

Craig Claiborne of The New York Times gave it a dismissive review. “A few of the dishes, a fois gras en brioche or a roast veal with kidney, for example, could qualify as superb; others, such as a poussin rôti aux girolles (squab chicken with wild mushrooms), are routine,” he wrote. Overall, he concluded, “the food at Lutèce could not be called great cuisine.”

Lutèce “got the same rating as Chock Full o’ Nuts,” Mr. Soltner told The Times in 1995. “One star!”

The restaurant’s fortunes changed when the imperious Mr. Surmain tired of the business and, in 1973, sold his shares to Mr. Soltner, who became the public face of Lutèce.

Overnight, the tone changed. The surroundings remained plush — Baccarat crystal, Christofle silver, bone china and a Redouté rose print on the menus — but Mr. Soltner ran the restaurant like a bistro. He did away with the Surmain system of seating by status. He worked the dining room. Patrons responded with fierce devotion.

Boston, MA

Army Black Knights Surge Past Boston in Key Patriot League Showdown

Published

4 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Army Black Knights Surge Past Boston in Key Patriot League Showdown

A huge fourth quarter by Camryn Tade helped the Army West Point Black Knights women’s basketball team rally from a deficit to defeat Boston U, 59-52, on Saturday in Boston.

The Black Knights (13-3, 5-1 Patriot) have won two straight games since they fell to Lehigh a weekend ago and dropped from the ranks of the undefeated teams in the league.

Now, Army is tied for first place with both Navy and Holy Cross at 5-1 going into next week’s games. Lehigh is a half-game back at 4-1.

The Black Knights started the fourth quarter down 46-38. Tade came to the rescue, as she scored 11 of her 18 points in the final 10 minutes.

She got to work 40 seconds into the quarter with a 3-pointer that cut the lead to five points.

After several empty possessions, Tade struck again with another 3-pointer to push the Black Knights within two points, 46-44, with 7:30 left.

The Terriers remained in the lead as they and the Black Knights traded free throws before Army took the lead, thanks against to Tade. Her lay-up with 5:25 left put Army in the lead, 48-47.

From there, the Black Knights remained ahead. A Fiona Hastick lay-up pushed the lead to three points, followed by a 3-pointer by Tade with 3:32 left that made it 53-47 Army.

Boston (7-10, 1-5) never got any closer.

The Terriers controlled the game in the first half, as they took a 10-9 lead after the first quarter and then pushed that lead to 25-15 at halftime. Army surged to 23 points in the third quarter, but Boston hung in there by scoring 21 points before the Black Knights outscored the Terriers, 21-6, in the final stanza.

Tade made four 3-pointers for the game, three of which came in the fourth quarter. She also had seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Trinity Hardy led Army with 21 points, along with eight rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.

Reese Ericson hit some key free throws down the stretch, as she went 6-fot-6 from the line for the game and finished with nine points. She also had four assists.

Inés Monteagudo led Boston with 12 points, while Allison Schwertner added 11 points.

Next week is critical for Army’s Patriot League Tournament seeding as it will face Holy Cross on Wednesday and Navy on Sunday. The Black Knights already have a loss to Lehigh, so they can ill-afford a loss to either the Crusaders or their rivals, the Midshipmen.

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