Alexander brothers each sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking case

Three brothers - two of them wealthy real-estate moguls - were sentenced to 30 years each in prison for drugging and raping dozens of women over the course of decades.

Tal Alexander, 40, and twins Oren and Alon Alexander, 39, were found guilty in March of using their wealth and social status to lure women to parties and luxury homes, where they sexually assaulted them.

On Tuesday morning, the court in New York heard from 12 victims, including one who did not testify during the trial, about the psychological trauma they endured after the Alexander brothers raped them and their desire for the shame they had felt to instead fall on the defendants.

Many asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of life in prison for each brother.

Maya Miller told the court that after Tal Alexander raped her in 2014, she lost all sense of safety.

"I carry a quiet funeral within me for the person I might've become if this never happened to me," she said.

Another victim, who went by the pseudoym Isa Brooks, said after being raped by Tal and Alon Alexander when she was 16 years old, she lost the ability to trust herself.

"I had no idea the danger I was in til it was too late," she said.

Another woman said that when she planned to come forward about being raped, Tal Alexander threatened that he knew where her sister worked.

During the women's speeches, the three Alexander brothers showed little emotion. They stared ahead or conferred with their lawyers, who said they had advised their clients not to look at the victims while they spoke so it wasn't misconstrued as staring.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said the brothers deserved the maximum punishment for their crimes, saying the facts of the case "paint a truly devastating picture".

"For years, they honed their methods of luring women with the promise of luxury," she said, adding that they were "completely unmoved by the path of suffering they left behind them."

During the five-week trial, 11 women - including several who said they were minors at the time of the assaults - testified that the brothers gave them gifts and flew them to locations including Aspen and the Bahamas where they fed them drugs before raping them.

Prosecutors said the brothers' pattern of abusive behaviour began in high school, though the trial covered their crimes starting in 2008.

They had accused the three of slipping drugs in women's drinks, and said they "physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop".

Lawyers for the brothers had argued the sex was consensual and that they were womanizers, but not sexual abusers. They pushedd for the lowest possible sentence for the brothers, 15 years.

Two of the brothers, Tal and Oren, made their wealth from selling luxury properties in New York and Miami.

They worked for American real estate giant Douglas Elliman, selling properties for celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. In 2022, they founded their own New York-based firm called Official. Alon worked at the family's private security firm, Kent Security.

As they heard their sentences, the brotehrs did not react or show emotion, staring straight ahead.