Despite offering exorbitant bail packages, the brothers failed to sway prosecutors that they should be granted bond. They will be detained until their trial.
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Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander failed to convince federal prosecutors on Wednesday to grant them bond in the sex trafficking case against them.
During a detention hearing on Wednesday, Judge Valerie Caproni of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handed down the ruling, The Miami Herald reported. In December, the feds arrested the brothers in Florida after an indictment alleged all three brothers had engaged in a long-standing sex trafficking scheme dating back to at least 2010.
In state charges levied against the brothers, a Florida judge had granted bail to Oren and Alon, with the caveat that the bail agreement could be made null if federal officials ruled that they should not be granted bail. With Judge Caproni’s ruling on Wednesday, Oren and Alon, therefore, will not be released on bail.
In those cases, Oren and Alon were granted bail amounts of $3 million and $2 million, but when it came time to negotiate bail packages with federal prosecutors, they were less agreeable to the brothers’ proposed terms, even after offering exorbitant packages of “any amount,” backed by the entirety of theirs and their families’ assets. They had also offered to be surveilled by a private, independent security company while under house arrest.
The brothers’ attorneys attempted to prove that they were not a flight risk, which federal prosecutors made a sticking point throughout their hearings, citing their family connections to Israel. Defense attorneys also attempted to contrast the case with those of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, who were arrested on similar charges, Bloomberg reported.
Tal’s lawyers had pointed out that Combs had also been charged with obstruction of justice for trying to coerce witnesses — a charge that the brothers did not face. Still, federal prosecutors seemed fixated on how the brothers, like Combs and Epstein’s circle, used their wealth and privilege to lure victims.
Oren also took the unusual step of offering as evidence to prosecutors a polygraph exam that had been administered by a former FBI agent, James Orr. Orr concluded that Oren was truthful in answering these questions:
- Did you have sex with [victim-2] when you knew she had been covertly given drugs?
- In New York, did you have sex with [victim-2] when you knew that she had been covertly given drugs?
- Did you have any kind of sex with [victim-2] when you knew she had secretly been given drugs?
- In New York, did you have any kind of sex with [victim-2] when you knew she had secretly been given drugs?
The questioning, however, did not contain questions about any other alleged victims involved in the indictment. There was no evidence that such poly examinations were given to either Tal or Alon.
The brothers will be detained in federal prison and head to trial at a later date. They face a minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison.
Tal, Oren and Alon have continued to deny the accusations against them, arguing that any encounters they had with women were consensual.
Earlier this week it was revealed that a hard drive was found during a search of Tal’s Manhattan apartment that contained explicit videos of at least one of the brothers and another man “physically manipulat[ing] the women’s bodies” in order to have intercourse with them, despite the fact that it was clear that the women “did not actively participate” or “turned away.”
The brothers had become the recipients of dozens of allegations by women of sexual assault and rape in the last several months through lawsuits and first-hand accounts, but the hard drive appears to be the first piece of physical evidence against them to be made public.
In addition to the sexual assault and sex-trafficking claims against them, Tal and Oren are also being sued by Side, the white-label firm that backed their luxury brokerage, Official. Side alleges that Tal, Oren and Official Partners defaulted on a $4.6 million loan, repayment of which the firm is now concerned may be complicated by their federal charges. Tal and Oren have also denied that the charges bear any weight.
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