The Sexual-Assault Lawsuits Against Oren and Tal Alexander
Twins Oren and Alon Alexander have been accused of sexual assault in two lawsuits filed this spring.
Photo: Jojo Korsh/BFA.com
Top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, formerly of Douglas Elliman, now of Official, and Oren’s twin brother, Alon, an executive at a private-security firm, have been accused of rape in lawsuits filed in March and June of this year.
Twin brothers Oren and Alon were accused of sexual assault in two lawsuits filed this March, as first reported by The Real Deal. The suits allege that the brothers raped two women in New York in 2010 and 2012. Tal, the twins’ older brother, who co-founded Official with Oren, was not named in the March suits. Following the lawsuits against Oren and Alon, attorneys for the women told The Real Deal that they have been contacted by nearly 30 other women with similar allegations of sexual abuse and rape against the twins. Five women shared similar stories of rape and sexual abuse at the hands of the twins with The Wall Street Journal, alleged assaults that “occurred as recently as 2020 and as far back as 20 years ago,” when Oren “was a high-school student.” An attorney for the brothers has denied the allegations.
The allegations against Tal were made in a third suit filed with the New York Supreme Court on June 18. That suit accuses Tal of participating in a sexual assault along with the twins in 2012.
On June 11, Oren announced on Instagram that he would be temporarily stepping down from Official “as I shift my focus toward fighting these baseless civil claims.” Official has increasingly moved to distance the brokerage from Oren, going from calling the split mutual to removing him as a founder and terminating his real-estate license. It has also made an effort to downplay the roles of the Alexanders as the company rainmakers and stars, an effort at odds with the firm’s past marketing and coverage.
Here’s everything we know.
Who are Tal, Oren, and Alon Alexander?
Tal and Oren spent more than a decade at Douglas Elliman, where they were known as boy wonders who became some of the top brokers in the country, closing what they say was more than $7 billion in real-estate deals, including a number of record sales, while still in their 20s. They were known for celebrity clientele — Adam Neumann, Timbaland, Tommy Hilfiger — and famously sold Ken Griffin the $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South in 2019, then the most expensive listing in the U.S.
In 2022, Oren left Douglas Elliman to found Official with Tal. The Alexander brothers grew up in Miami, where their father, Shlomi Alexander, was a developer who specialized in high-end spec homes.
Alon is listed as president at Kent Services, a security firm his parents founded, for which his mother, Orly, is listed as CFO. Kent’s website says its clients include many large New York City real-estate groups, including JDS, Fortis Property Group, Douglaston Development, and Stellar Management.
What do the lawsuits against Oren and Alon claim?
The first complaint, filed by Rebecca Mandel, claims she first met Oren and Alon in 2009, when she was 18, at a now-shuttered Meatpacking District nightclub called SL. She saw them at different events and parties several other times over the next few months, enough to consider them acquaintances. The suit claims that when Mandel ran into them again at SL in September 2010, Alon insisted on buying her a drink: “Notably this was the first drink the plaintiff consumed that evening.” A short time later, the suit claims, she started to feel hazy, and she believes “Alon had intentionally drugged” the drink “with an unknown substance.” The suit continues that the twins then suggested she go to a party with them; they got into a cab that took them not to a party but to the twins’ Chelsea apartment on West 26th Street. Mandel alleges in the suit that once inside the door, the twins took turns holding her down and assaulting her. “Defendants would then switch positions, repeatedly raping her,” the suit claims.
In a separate lawsuit filed by the same law firm the same day, Kate Whiteman claims Oren and Alon assaulted her on May 26, 2012, at a mansion in the Hamptons known as Sir Ivan’s Castle. (Its owner, Ivan Wilzig, was also named in the lawsuit for negligence, not as a defendant, and declined comment to The Real Deal.)
Like Mandel, Whiteman claims in the suit that she knew the brothers from social events and that Oren often texted to try to get her to go out with him but she always refused. Per the suit, she did, however, confirm she would be going to the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend when he texted her to ask.
That weekend, she alleges, as she was leaving the Dune, a Hamptons nightclub, the twins forcibly pulled her into an SUV and refused to release her or tell her where they were going. The lawsuit alleges that they drove to the mansion, where she was locked in the garage and told “she must change into a sarong.” When she tried to leave, the suit continues, a security guard forced her back into the garage. She was then led to a large bedroom where “she was sexually assaulted, abused, raped, pinned, groped, harassed, battered, and fondled by defendants,” according to the suit.
Both women say they suffered physical and emotional damage following the attacks, and the lawsuits further claim they were not the only women assaulted by the twins: “For years, defendants have engaged in a similar pattern of schemes, acts, and conduct with different women.”
What does the suit against Tal claim?
The third lawsuit, filed on June 18, accuses Tal and Alon of sexually assaulting and raping a woman in a “brief personal relationship” with Oren in a 2012 attack. Thee woman went to visit Oren at his New York apartment with a friend, according to the lawsuit, and after the friend fled to avoid the brothers’ advances, the woman who remained in the apartment “was raped by Alon and Tal Alexander, together, in a coordinated sexual assault that was planned and facilitated by Oren Alexander along with his brothers.”
What do the brothers say?
The brothers declined to comment on the first two lawsuits to The Real Deal, but a lawyer for the Alexanders, trial attorney Jim Ferraro (a longtime friend of Oren’s), denied the allegations, calling the Whiteman filing a “total shakedown.”
After a number of news outlets reported on the claims, Oren posted an announcement on Instagram that he had made the decision to “take a pause” from Official “out of respect for our customers and trusted colleagues,” calling the claims “baseless” and adding, “I am confident that through review of the extensive evidence, including text messages and other communications, that the truth will be brought to light.” He said that he “looked forward to clearing my name and rejoining my co-founders.”
Official, which initially released a statement calling the decision mutual, writing that the firm’s co-founders Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan, and Andrew Wachtfogel would continue to operate the businesses, with Tal overseeing all matters pertaining to The Alexander Team, has increasingly moved to distance itself from Oren, removing him as a partner. “The conflation or misconception about Official somehow being inextricably linked to any individual, whether it’s me or Oren or anyone else, is just false,” Nicole Oge told the New York Times several days after the allegations surfaced. “Official is not Oren Alexander.”
This week, the twins’ attorney Ferraro stepped aside and was replaced with Isabelle Kirshner of Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder. Of the third lawsuit, Kirshner wrote in a statement, “We have reviewed the allegations contained in the complaint and deny them, as they are pure fiction,” adding, “We look forward to presenting the facts in court.”
What are some high-profile projects Official is affiliated with?
The firm is handling sales and marketing for a Rosewood condo, the Raleigh, and JDS’ Dolce & Gabbana residences, both in Miami. Previous New York projects include 432 Park Avenue and 111 West 57th Street. It recently opened an Aspen office and, in addition to New York City, is active in the Hamptons, Miami, Los Angeles, and Orange County.
What’s next?
The deadline for the defendants to respond to the lawsuits is August 19.
