At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. Join us.
Luxury broker Tal Alexander has joined his brother, Oren Alexander, in taking a leave of absence from their co-founded firm Official in the wake of a recent lawsuit that alleged Tal raped and sexually assaulted a woman in New York in 2012 with the aid and participation of his brothers, Oren and Alon.
The news came on Tuesday as a rep for Tal told Business Insider that he would “take a leave from” Official, the firm he co-founded with Oren, Nicole Oge, Richard L. Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel in 2022.
About two weeks ago, Oren stepped down from Official after two lawsuits came to light that had been filed against him and his twin, Alon, by separate women alleging rape and sexual assault by the twins about a decade ago.
“Given the salacious nature of this false allegation and impact on Official, Tal and his partners have decided he will take a leave from the company to focus fully on clearing his name,” Walden Macht & Haran LLP’s Deanna Paul, the attorney representing Tal, said in a statement emailed to Inman. “He won’t allow these claims to be a further distraction to the company or its clients.”
Paul added that Tal looks forward to rejoining Official “in short order.” Tal’s case was moved to federal court on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Tal previously told Inman that it was “fully expected that shakedown artists are going to line up given the allegations against Tal’s brothers,” but maintained that Tal “had done absolutely nothing wrong.”
Oge told The New York Times that the decision to have Tal step away from the firm was a mutual one.
“I think Tal and Oren understand that their priority is focusing on the task at hand for them, which is different from mine,” Oge said. “Mine is focused on our business.”
The most recent lawsuit, which names Tal, Oren and Alon as defendants, was filed by Angelica Parker, formerly known as Angelica Cecora.
Parker alleges in the complaint that when she visited an apartment in New York City in 2012 where Tal, Oren and Alon all lived together, she was caught in an attack allegedly orchestrated by Oren, in which Alon and Tal raped her as Oren “sat and watched.”
Parker’s attorney, Michael Willemin, partner at Wigdor LLP, previously told Inman that the lawsuit was “intended to send a message that the law applies even to the very wealthy and well-connected, including the Alexanders.”
In 2012, when she still went by the name Angelica Cecora, Parker sued boxer Oscar De La Hoya for alleged battery and false imprisonment. A judge in that case found the claims “completely without merit” and ordered her to pay De La Hoya’s legal fees and a $500 fine, according to a report from The New York Post.
The earlier lawsuits, filed by Kate Whiteman and Rebecca Mandel in March, accused Oren and Alon of rape dating back to 2010 and 2012. Those lawsuits did not name Tal. However, after the suits became public, the attorney representing Whiteman and Mandel, Evan Torgan of Torgan Cooper + Aaron, told The Real Deal that roughly 30 alleged victims had come forward to his office, some of whom had named Tal in their allegations.
After Oren announced he would be stepping away from Official a few weeks ago, he was removed from the firm’s website. His license is also now inactive in Florida and New York.
All three lawsuits were filed under an extension of New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which has given survivors of gender-motivated violence a two-year window in which to sue their alleged perpetrators, no matter how long ago the attack occurred. The window to file a lawsuit closes in March 2025.
Get Inman’s Luxury Lens Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly deep dive into the biggest news in the world of high-end real estate delivered every Friday. Click here to subscribe.
