Moment wife of Alexander brother collapses on street in tears: Dramatic minute-by-minute account of family’s total meltdown after guilty verdict left them trembling
Blocks away from Manhattan federal court, a distraught fashion model sat on a street corner, wiping tears from her face and gesturing in disbelief as a family friend tried to console her.
Only moments earlier, Shani Zigron had sat in the gallery watching as a jury sealed the fate of her husband, Alon Alexander, and his two real estate scion brothers, Oren and Tal, convicting them on all counts in a sprawling sex trafficking conspiracy dating back more than a decade.
The once high-flying siblings now face the possibility of life in prison.
Notice that the jury had reached a verdict came just 10 minutes before court was due to adjourn for the day – and after 21 hours of deliberation – bringing an end to a six-week trial marked by graphic and often emotional testimony.
At several points during the trial, the Alexander family had been scolded for passing notes or reacting animatedly. Before the verdict was read, however, Judge Valerie E Caproni warned those in the courtroom to sit silently.
The siblings’ Israeli-born father, Shlomi Alexander, placed a yarmulke on his head for the fateful moment – as did Oren – but any prayers for divine intervention went unanswered.
The room remained silent as each guilty charge was read out, but the despair on the faces of the brothers and the small group of family and friends gathered behind them was unmistakable.
Alon Alexander’s wife, Shani Zigron, 30, was pictured in floods of tears in the street shortly after her husband and two of his brothers were found guilty on sex trafficking charges
Zigron, a fashion model married Alon Alexander in 2020. They share two young daughters
Alon (left) and his brothers, Tal (center) and Oren (right), were convicted on ten counts by a jury of six women and six men at the Manhattan federal court. They will be sentenced on August 6
Alon, 38, whose chin had been raised proudly toward the jurors, closed his eyes and lowered his head in resignation. His twin brother Oren slumped angrily into his chair and stared at the ceiling. Tal, 39, kept his head bowed, his arms resting on the table in front of him.
Shlomi and the brothers’ mother, Orly, stared ahead vacantly, barely moving. Stone-faced, neither sought to comfort the other.
In the row behind them, a family friend squeezed her watering eyes shut, her hand covering her mouth in shock. Beside her sat Zigron, who kept her arms folded and head down as the verdict was read.
Zigron’s resolve did not last long. After the jury departed, she moved next to her in-laws, glanced toward Alon and placed her head in her hands, turning away from reporters as she began to tremble with emotion.
The brothers were then removed from the courtroom, visibly shell-shocked.
Outside, Assistant US Attorney Andrew Jones declined to comment on the government’s resounding victory but offered a coy smile when approached by the Daily Mail.
The brothers’ lawyers vowed to appeal the verdict. Speaking to reporters, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said: ‘We believe in our clients’ innocence and we’re not going to stop fighting until we prevail – and we believe that we will one day prevail.’
Exiting from the other side of the building, the Alexander family’s loved ones already appeared defeated – a marked departure from the confidence they had displayed through much of the trial.
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Zigron was comforted by a family friend as she sobbed on Thursday evening
Zigron, (seen on March 6 wearing her wedding ring) had been observedlaughing and smiling as she made her way to and from court during earlier parts of the trial
The Alexander Brothers’ parents, Orly and Shlomi, and Shani, wife of Alon Alexander, react as a jury foreperson reads the verdict
Zigron concealed her face with a black umbrella as she ignored reporters’ requests for comment. Orly ran off in the opposite direction, flanked by two women with a scarf wound tightly around her face, while Shlomi followed close behind wearing a black beanie and scarf.
Moments later, Daily Mail photographers captured Zigron sitting on a nearby street corner, clutching a tissue as she wiped tears from her face and gestured animatedly while speaking to a family friend.
The 30-year-old former Victoria’s Secret model – who shares two young daughters with Alon – had been a near-constant presence throughout the trial.
She often sat in the gallery behind her husband as accusers detailed the harrowing allegations of sexual abuse against him and his brothers.
Zigron had seemed convinced of his innocence, shaking her head during numerous portions of victim testimony. In a diary she carried to court, in hollow, child-like bubble letters, she had written: ‘Alon coming home now.’
But that belief shattered on Thursday.
Noticeably absent from the court was Oren’s wife, Brazilian model Kamila Hansen, who appeared in the weeks prior only a handful of times, never staying for the full day.
Niv Alexander, the elder sibling of the Alexander brothers, who was not accused of any wrongdoing in the case, was also absent, despite being a near-constant presence in earlier weeks.
Tal Alexander (front, blue shorts) and identical twins Oren and Alon (back row) faced 10 counts relating to federal sex trafficking charges
The judge instructed the defendants and their families not to react before the jury was called out to deliver the verdict
Tal and Oren were once known as the ‘A Team’ in luxury real estate circles, selling multi-million dollar homes to the rich, famous and powerful in New York and Miami, with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner among their clientele. Alon, meanwhile, was a trained attorney and ran their family’s private security company.
Their high-flying, hard-partying lifestyles came crashing down in December 2024, when they were arrested by federal prosecutors and accused of using their wealth, status and access to lure women into their opulent world and abuse them.
When the trial began in late January, Manhattan was in the dead of winter, battered by snowstorms as jurors first heard the disturbing allegations against the disgraced brothers.
Six weeks later, when the verdict arrived on Thursday, the season had shifted. Jurors stepped out of the courthouse into bright sunshine with temperatures nearing 70 degrees.
The long, dark chapter of the Alexander brothers’ trial had come to a close.
Over those weeks, jurors heard graphic testimony from 11 accusers who detailed graphic allegations of rape and sexual assault. In many cases, the brothers drugged their victims to incapacitate them and render them defenseless.
Several women told eerily similar stories: they would party with the brothers, only to suddenly feel overwhelmingly drunk despite little alcohol. They would black out and later wake to find themselves being raped by the brothers.
Zigron often sat in the gallery behind her husband as accusers detailed the harrowing allegations of sexual abuse against him and his brothers
Oren Alexander’s wife, Kamila Hansen, was absent from court on Thursday and had only appeared a handful of times – never staying for the full day
Niv Alexander, the eldest of the brothers, who was not accused of any wrongdoing, was also not seen on Thursday, having been present for much of the trial
One accuser said she was just 16 when Tal, Alon and two of their friends violently raped her at a home in the Hamptons in 2009.
Jurors were also shown a video of Oren Alexander raping an incapacitated 17-year-old girl in Manhattan in the same year.
The minutes-long clip reduced the courtroom to an eerie silence, leaving some jurors visibly uncomfortable and emotional.
The video was not shown to the public, but in closing, prosecutor Jones summarized the footage, describing how Oren recorded the video on his laptop, adjusted the angle and then climbed into bed next to the unconscious girl.
‘When you saw him pick up her limp legs and climb on top of her lifeless body, you knew what you were seeing,’ he told the jury.
The victim, who later testified under the pseudonym Amelia Rosen, said she had no memory of the assault and couldn’t remember ever meeting Oren. She was only made aware of the video’s existence when she was contacted by the government, Rosen tearfully testified.
None of the Alexander brothers took the stand to make their defense.
Their attorneys, meanwhile, described them as womanizers, playboys and men of questionable integrity – but not predators or criminals.
Each of their defense teams sought to discredit the accusers in lengthy cross-examinations and in their closing arguments, casting the dozen accusers as scorned women who had rewritten the past to smear the Alexanders out of their own shame, regret and greed.
Before being accused of drugging and raping dozens of women, Oren (left), Tal (second left) and Alon (right) lived a lavish life of private jets and luxury homes in New York and Miami
Alon and Oren still face three state rape charges in Miami – meaning their criminal fight is far from over
They tried to suggest the accusers – who didn’t know one another – had been influenced to frame past consensual encounters as violent rapes after reading reports about the brothers in the media and after conspiring with civil litigation lawyers, hopeful for a payout.
The message, it seems, did not resonate with the jury.
The Alexanders were initially charged with 12 counts of sex-trafficking-related offenses, but two of the charges were dropped by prosecutors before they rested their case.
The two accusers related to those counts were due to testify. However, the government claimed it was forced to drop the charges because one accuser had allegedly been intimidated by an investigator working at the behest of the defense team and no longer wished to appear.
The counts were reduced to 10 and they were found guilty on each charge. They now face the possibility of life in prison when they’re sentenced on August 6.
Yet the Alexander brothers’ legal saga is far from over.
Alon and Oren still face three state rape charges in Miami, while Tal is locked in a bitter divorce with his estranged wife, Arielle, who filed for separation days after his arrest – and just months after giving birth to their first child.
The brothers are also facing dozens of civil lawsuits filed by alleged victims in Miami and New York, placing the family’s estimated billion-dollar fortune in jeopardy.
