Alexander brothers sentenced over 'monstrous' sex trafficking

Three brothers convicted of leveraging their wealthy lifestyle to drug and rape dozens of women have learned their fate after being found guilty of sex trafficking earlier this year.

US District Court Judge Valeri E Caproni slammed their behaviour as monstrous as she sentenced each brother to 30 years in prison.

Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, known collectively as the Alexander Brothers, stared blankly as Judge Caproni announced their punishment, which was less than the life sentences that federal prosecutors sought.

"Your conduct was monstrous," Judge Caproni told the men, equating them to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde during her sentencing remarks.

The brothers claimed being fathers and husbands had changed them from the partying, womanising ways of their youth, which Judge Caproni rejected.

"It's hard for me to believe the defendants changed their spots just like that," she said.

The brothers, jailed without bail since their 2024 arrests, must also each pay at least $US300,000 ($420,000) in fines.

Oren Alexander was ordered to pay another $US50,000 for producing child sexual abuse material by recording a video of him raping a 17-year-old girl.

While the brothers — twins Oren and Alon, 39, and Tal Alexander, 40 — expressed regret for how they treated and regarded women, they all denied drugging and raping anyone.

"That's entirely a lie, and you all know it," Judge Caproni told them, adding that she hoped they some day feel "deeply ashamed of themselves".

The brothers speak ahead of sentencing

None of the brothers testified at their trial, but each spoke before sentencing.

Oren Alexander said he and his brothers came of age at the height of hook-up culture and Howard Stern's hypersexualised radio show.

Looking back as a father, he said he regrets many of the things he said about women at that time. However, he insisted that they never broke the law.

Choking up, Tal Alexander asked Judge Caproni to "understand how difficult it is to stand here" and express "genuine regret about something I did not do".

"I feel like an atomic bomb has been dropped on my life and destroyed everything in its wake," he said.

Alon Alexander said he had evolved and acknowledged that having a wife and daughter does not excuse messages he wrote that degraded women or times when he bragged to others about sex.

"The party life you heard about and saw in the courtroom ended long before the FBI came knocking," Alon Alexander said.

"Six years before my arrest, I was building a different life."

The brothers asked to be assigned to the same prisons, which Judge Caproni said she would leave up to the bureau responsible for such arrangements.

She agreed to recommend they be locked up near Miami, where they grew up and have relatives, but added she would have them sent to different lock-ups.

"I believe that they are and will continue to be bad influences on each other," she said.

Victims describe a lasting dread

The accusers who spoke in court, and another whose statement was read by a prosecutor, were among at least 70 women who prosecutors say were assaulted by one or more of the brothers over the last two decades in posh locales including the Hamptons and Aspen, Colorado.

Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner, testified that she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a Hamptons home in 2011 after taking a drink that she said left her feeling paralysed.

Scrapping her prepared remarks, she told Judge Caproni that a life sentence would not begin to do justice for the women whose lives were irreparably harmed.

"This has wasted my damn time. It's wasted your time. It's wasted everyone in this room's time," Ms Acree told the judge.

Turning to the brothers, she asked them why they did what they did.

"I don't understand the cruelty. I don't understand the hatred toward women," she told them.

Stars of New York real estate scene

Oren and Tal Alexander were once nicknamed real estate's "A Team" for their ultra-high-end sales and celebrity clientele.

After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, they started their own firm.

Alon Alexander ran their family's private security company.

The brothers projected an exclusive lifestyle of yachts, private jets and waterfront mansions in Miami, but prosecutors said they began sexually assaulting women as early as 2001 or 2002, when they were in high school.

Over time, they developed a pattern of drugging and raping women, who they enticed to join them on luxury getaways, the court heard.