Oren Alexander is facing a new claim that he raped a woman nine years ago in New York, marking the fourth lawsuit against the former top real estate broker and adding to mounting allegations against him and two of his brothers.
Actress and comedian Renee Willett filed a federal lawsuit against Oren, accusing him of sexual assault in a 2015 incident. In the lawsuit obtained by The Real Deal, the 31-year-old says Oren gave her a “carbonated beverage” that left her “physically impaired” before attacking her in his Soho apartment.
Willett says in the complaint she decided to file the suit after claims against the top broker surfaced in early June. TRD first reported the two lawsuits filed by Kate Whiteman and Rebecca Mandel, who alleged they were raped by Oren and his twin brother, Alon, who is an executive with his family’s private security business, Kent Security.
The complaint alleges Willett, who was 23 at the time, was “drugged and forcefully raped” by Oren. The lawsuit was filed on Friday under New York City’s Victims of Gender-motivated Violence Protection Law. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
Oren’s attorney Isabelle Kirshner declined to comment on the latest allegation, according to the New York Times, which first reported the lawsuit. The brothers have previously denied the claims.
Tal was named in a lawsuit filed shortly after by Angelica Parker, who accused him of raping her in a group attack with Alon that was allegedly orchestrated and witnessed by Oren. The co-founder also stepped back from Official.
In the latest lawsuit, Willett claims she met Oren on a membership-only dating app in November 2015 and exchanged messages for about a month before agreeing to meet in person at the Mercer Hotel bar. But the bar was closed when she arrived, so she instead agreed to meet at Oren’s apartment.
There, she alleges he offered her a drink, but she asked for water instead. He returned with a carbonated beverage.
After embarking on a tour of his art collection around his apartment, he led her to his bedroom, where he then blocked the door and sexually assaulted her despite her repeatedly asking him to stop.
Since TRD reported the initial lawsuits in June, plaintiffs attorney Evan Torgan said he and his partners heard from dozens of women who claimed they’d been assaulted by one or more of the brothers. The latest lawsuit is similar to additional accounts reported by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal from women who claimed they were assaulted and drugged by the Alexanders, in alleged attacks dating back to when they were in high school.
Attorney Jonathan Tabar of Torgan Cooper + Aaron is representing the plaintiff. Torgan filed the first lawsuits on behalf of Whiteman and Mandel, though he no longer represents Mandel.
An FBI child exploitation and sex trafficking task force is speaking with women who allege they were assaulted by the brothers or witnessed the attacks.
This week, the Times reported that top Douglas Elliman agent Tracy Tutor alleged she had been drugged by Oren in 2014. Jessica Cohen, another top agent at the brokerage, said she was also drugged by Oren and Tal in a separate incident in 2010.
Cohen said she told Elliman chairman Howard Lorber in 2012 that she thought she’d been drugged. Stephen Larkin, a company spokesperson, confirmed that Lorber had been informed of one incident but that it was confidential. The firm maintained that no formal complaint had ever been filed.
Cohen also said she told Elliman vice chairwoman Dottie Herman about the incident, though Herman told the Times she had no recollection of the conversation.
Oren and his brother Tal were top real estate agents in South Florida and New York who co-founded Official, a Side-backed brokerage firm, in 2022 after they spent about a decade at Douglas Elliman. The jet-setting brothers worked on some of the biggest luxury residential deals in the country.
Since the allegations came to light, Oren and Tal’s licenses with Official have been removed. Official, which they co-founded with former Douglas Elliman executives Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel, lost some of its new development business.
Top Los Angeles broker Tyrone McKillen said he plans to leave the brokerage with his eight-person team. In New York, John Hudak left the firm and joined Elliman, and in Miami, Anna Sherrill returned to One Sotheby’s International Realty after a short stint at Official where she was tapped to lead sales of Michael Shvo’s Raleigh luxury condo development. Shvo cut ties with Official in late June.