New York
Luxury real estate brokers charged in federal indictment with sex trafficking
NEW YORK (AP) — Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with sex trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors allege in the indictment that Oren and Tal Alexander, known for brokering deals on high-end properties in New York City and Miami, and sibling Alon Alexander worked together to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims.”
“This conduct was heinous,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.
Williams said the brothers used their wealth and influence to take advantage of victims during a period from at least 2010 to 2021.
The brothers, who all reside in Miami, used “deception, fraud, and coercion” to entice victims to travel with them or attend parties or events in which they covered flights, hotels and other expenses, according to the indictment. They even at times used the promise of a romantic relationship, it said.
The women were then drugged and raped by one or more of the brothers, as well as other men, the U.S. Attorney said.
After the assaults, the brothers often gave their victims concert tickets and luxury items, Williams added.
The brothers often met their victims on dating apps, through social events and at bars and nightclubs, but they also used party promoters to “source” women, according to Williams.
The women were often provided drugs, including cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and GHB, and the brothers even surreptitiously drugged some of the women’s drinks, leaving them physically impaired and unable to fight back or escape from the sexual assaults, prosecutors said in their indictment.
“In some instances, the defendants physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop,’’ the indictment said.
Williams said the brothers were arrested in Florida on Wednesday and will appear in Miami federal court before being brought to New York to answer to the charges.
Tal Alexander, 38, and Oren Alexander, 37, and Oren’s twin brother, Alon Alexander, have each been charged with one count of engaging in a sex trafficking conspiracy.
Williams declined to say if others also will be charged as the investigation is ongoing.
“They were not acting alone,” Williams said.
Washington
Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about Bidens agrees to plead guilty to charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant accused of fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court papers filed Thursday.
Alexander Smirnov’s deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss to plead guilty comes just weeks after prosecutors filed new tax evasion charges against him. The two sides will recommend a sentence of at least 48 months behind bars and no more than 72 months, according to the agreement.
Attorneys for Smirnov didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
Smirnov was arrested in February on allegations that he falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
Smirnov has agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and causing a false FBI record, according to court papers.
Texas
Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution
A federal court on Wednesday affirmed a federal judge’s 2021 ruling imposing a $14.25 million penalty on Exxon Mobil for thousands of violations of the federal Clean Air Act at the company’s refinery and chemical plant complex in Baytown.
The decision by a majority of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejects Exxon’s latest appeal, closing over a decade of litigation since the Sierra Club and Environment Texas sued the company in 2010.
“This ruling affirms a bedrock principle of constitutional law that people who live near pollution-spewing industrial facilities have a personal stake in holding polluters accountable for non-compliance with federal air pollution limits, and therefore have a right to sue to enforce the Clean Air Act as Congress intended,” Josh Kratka, managing attorney at the National Environmental Law Center and a lead lawyer on the case, said in a statement.
From 2005 to 2013, a federal judge found in 2017, Exxon’s refinery and chemical plants in Baytown released 10 million pounds of pollution beyond its state-issued air permits, including carcinogenic and toxic chemicals. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Exxon to pay $19.95 million as punishment for exceeding air pollution limits on 16,386 days.
“We’re disappointed in this decision and considering other legal options,” an Exxon spokesperson said in response to the ruling.
Baytown sits 25 miles outside of Houston, with tens of thousands of people living near Exxon’s facility.
Exxon appealed and asked Hittner to re-examine how the fine was calculated, including by considering how much money the company saved by delaying repairs that would’ve prevented the excess air emissions in the first place. The company also argued that it had presented sufficient evidence to show that emissions were unavoidable.
In 2021, Hittner reduced the fine to $14.25 million — the largest penalty imposed by a court out of a citizen-initiated lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, according to Environment Texas. Exxon appealed again, challenging the plaintiffs’ standing to bring the lawsuit.
While a majority of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Hittner’s 2021 decision on Wednesday, seven members of the 17-judge panel also said they would have upheld the $19.95 million fine.
“The principal issue before the en banc Court is whether Plaintiffs’ members, who live, work, and recreate near Exxon’s facility, have a sufficient ‘personal stake’ in curtailing Exxon’s ongoing and future unlawful emissions of hazardous pollutants,” the judges wrote in a concurring opinion. “We conclude that the district court correctly held that Plaintiffs established standing for each of their claims and did not abuse its discretion in awarding a penalty of $19.95 million against Exxon to deter it from committing future violations.”
The Sierra Club and Environment Texas sued Exxon under a provision in the federal Clean Air Act that allows citizens to sue amid inaction by state and federal environmental regulators. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rarely penalizes companies for unauthorized air emissions, a Texas Tribune investigation found.
“People in Baytown and Houston expect industry to be good neighbors,” Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said in a statement. “But when companies violate the law and put health-threatening pollution into neighborhoods, they need to be held accountable.”
Louisiana
U.S. appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
An appeals court in Louisiana has ruled that Nasdaq can’t require diversity on the boards of companies that list on the exchange.
The decision comes more than three years after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s proposal to boost the number of women, racial minorities and LGBTQ people on U.S. corporate boards.
The proposed policy — which was to be the first of its kind for a U.S. securities exchange — would have required most of the nearly 3,000 companies listed on Nasdaq to have at least one woman on their board of directors, along with one person from a racial minority or who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer. It also would have required companies to publicly disclose statistics on the demographic composition of their boards.
Some conservative groups and Republican lawmakers have strenuously opposed the proposal, arguing the requirements were arbitrary and burdensome.
And on Wednesday the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans decided that the proposal was not legal.
The court said in its ruling that the SEC should not have approved Nasdaq’s proposed diversity policy.
“It is not unethical for a company to decline to disclose information about the racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ characteristics of its directors,” the ruling stated. “We are not aware of any established rule or custom of the securities trade that saddles companies with an obligation to explain why their boards of directors do not have as much racial, gender, or sexual orientation diversity as Nasdaq would prefer.”
Nasdaq stands by its proposed policy.
“We maintain that the rule simplified and standardized disclosure requirements to the benefit of both corporates and investors,” Nasdaq said in a statement. “That said, we respect the Court’s decision and do not intend to seek further review.”
The Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange is dominated by technology companies, like Apple and Microsoft, but there are many financial, biotech and industrial companies as well.
The SEC also weighed in.
“We’re reviewing the decision and will determine next steps as appropriate,” an SEC spokesperson said in a statement.
The court ruling comes at a time when many companies are taking a closer look at their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In October a group of Democrats in Congress appealed to the largest U.S. companies to hold onto their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saying such efforts give everyone a fair chance at achieving the American dream.
The 49 House members, led by U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, shared their views in a letter emailed to the leaders of the Fortune 1000. The move followed several major corporations saying in recent months that they would end or curtail their DEI initiatives.
A handful of U.S. companies, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowes and Molson Coors, dialed back their DEI initiatives over the summer. The retreats came in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing affirmative action in college admissions and after conservative activists targeted prominent American brands over their diversity policies and programs.
Luxury real estate brokers charged in federal indictment with sex trafficking
NEW YORK (AP) — Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother have been charged with sex trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors allege in the indictment that Oren and Tal Alexander, known for brokering deals on high-end properties in New York City and Miami, and sibling Alon Alexander worked together to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims.”
“This conduct was heinous,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a news conference in his Manhattan office.
Williams said the brothers used their wealth and influence to take advantage of victims during a period from at least 2010 to 2021.
The brothers, who all reside in Miami, used “deception, fraud, and coercion” to entice victims to travel with them or attend parties or events in which they covered flights, hotels and other expenses, according to the indictment. They even at times used the promise of a romantic relationship, it said.
The women were then drugged and raped by one or more of the brothers, as well as other men, the U.S. Attorney said.
After the assaults, the brothers often gave their victims concert tickets and luxury items, Williams added.
The brothers often met their victims on dating apps, through social events and at bars and nightclubs, but they also used party promoters to “source” women, according to Williams.
The women were often provided drugs, including cocaine, psychedelic mushrooms and GHB, and the brothers even surreptitiously drugged some of the women’s drinks, leaving them physically impaired and unable to fight back or escape from the sexual assaults, prosecutors said in their indictment.
“In some instances, the defendants physically restrained and held down their victims during the rapes and sexual assaults and ignored screams and explicit requests to stop,’’ the indictment said.
Williams said the brothers were arrested in Florida on Wednesday and will appear in Miami federal court before being brought to New York to answer to the charges.
Tal Alexander, 38, and Oren Alexander, 37, and Oren’s twin brother, Alon Alexander, have each been charged with one count of engaging in a sex trafficking conspiracy.
Williams declined to say if others also will be charged as the investigation is ongoing.
“They were not acting alone,” Williams said.
Washington
Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about Bidens agrees to plead guilty to charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant accused of fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden’s family has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, according to court papers filed Thursday.
Alexander Smirnov’s deal with Justice Department special counsel David Weiss to plead guilty comes just weeks after prosecutors filed new tax evasion charges against him. The two sides will recommend a sentence of at least 48 months behind bars and no more than 72 months, according to the agreement.
Attorneys for Smirnov didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
Smirnov was arrested in February on allegations that he falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he “expressed bias” against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
Smirnov has agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and causing a false FBI record, according to court papers.
Texas
Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution
A federal court on Wednesday affirmed a federal judge’s 2021 ruling imposing a $14.25 million penalty on Exxon Mobil for thousands of violations of the federal Clean Air Act at the company’s refinery and chemical plant complex in Baytown.
The decision by a majority of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejects Exxon’s latest appeal, closing over a decade of litigation since the Sierra Club and Environment Texas sued the company in 2010.
“This ruling affirms a bedrock principle of constitutional law that people who live near pollution-spewing industrial facilities have a personal stake in holding polluters accountable for non-compliance with federal air pollution limits, and therefore have a right to sue to enforce the Clean Air Act as Congress intended,” Josh Kratka, managing attorney at the National Environmental Law Center and a lead lawyer on the case, said in a statement.
From 2005 to 2013, a federal judge found in 2017, Exxon’s refinery and chemical plants in Baytown released 10 million pounds of pollution beyond its state-issued air permits, including carcinogenic and toxic chemicals. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Exxon to pay $19.95 million as punishment for exceeding air pollution limits on 16,386 days.
“We’re disappointed in this decision and considering other legal options,” an Exxon spokesperson said in response to the ruling.
Baytown sits 25 miles outside of Houston, with tens of thousands of people living near Exxon’s facility.
Exxon appealed and asked Hittner to re-examine how the fine was calculated, including by considering how much money the company saved by delaying repairs that would’ve prevented the excess air emissions in the first place. The company also argued that it had presented sufficient evidence to show that emissions were unavoidable.
In 2021, Hittner reduced the fine to $14.25 million — the largest penalty imposed by a court out of a citizen-initiated lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, according to Environment Texas. Exxon appealed again, challenging the plaintiffs’ standing to bring the lawsuit.
While a majority of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Hittner’s 2021 decision on Wednesday, seven members of the 17-judge panel also said they would have upheld the $19.95 million fine.
“The principal issue before the en banc Court is whether Plaintiffs’ members, who live, work, and recreate near Exxon’s facility, have a sufficient ‘personal stake’ in curtailing Exxon’s ongoing and future unlawful emissions of hazardous pollutants,” the judges wrote in a concurring opinion. “We conclude that the district court correctly held that Plaintiffs established standing for each of their claims and did not abuse its discretion in awarding a penalty of $19.95 million against Exxon to deter it from committing future violations.”
The Sierra Club and Environment Texas sued Exxon under a provision in the federal Clean Air Act that allows citizens to sue amid inaction by state and federal environmental regulators. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rarely penalizes companies for unauthorized air emissions, a Texas Tribune investigation found.
“People in Baytown and Houston expect industry to be good neighbors,” Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said in a statement. “But when companies violate the law and put health-threatening pollution into neighborhoods, they need to be held accountable.”
Louisiana
U.S. appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
An appeals court in Louisiana has ruled that Nasdaq can’t require diversity on the boards of companies that list on the exchange.
The decision comes more than three years after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s proposal to boost the number of women, racial minorities and LGBTQ people on U.S. corporate boards.
The proposed policy — which was to be the first of its kind for a U.S. securities exchange — would have required most of the nearly 3,000 companies listed on Nasdaq to have at least one woman on their board of directors, along with one person from a racial minority or who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer. It also would have required companies to publicly disclose statistics on the demographic composition of their boards.
Some conservative groups and Republican lawmakers have strenuously opposed the proposal, arguing the requirements were arbitrary and burdensome.
And on Wednesday the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans decided that the proposal was not legal.
The court said in its ruling that the SEC should not have approved Nasdaq’s proposed diversity policy.
“It is not unethical for a company to decline to disclose information about the racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ characteristics of its directors,” the ruling stated. “We are not aware of any established rule or custom of the securities trade that saddles companies with an obligation to explain why their boards of directors do not have as much racial, gender, or sexual orientation diversity as Nasdaq would prefer.”
Nasdaq stands by its proposed policy.
“We maintain that the rule simplified and standardized disclosure requirements to the benefit of both corporates and investors,” Nasdaq said in a statement. “That said, we respect the Court’s decision and do not intend to seek further review.”
The Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange is dominated by technology companies, like Apple and Microsoft, but there are many financial, biotech and industrial companies as well.
The SEC also weighed in.
“We’re reviewing the decision and will determine next steps as appropriate,” an SEC spokesperson said in a statement.
The court ruling comes at a time when many companies are taking a closer look at their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In October a group of Democrats in Congress appealed to the largest U.S. companies to hold onto their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saying such efforts give everyone a fair chance at achieving the American dream.
The 49 House members, led by U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, shared their views in a letter emailed to the leaders of the Fortune 1000. The move followed several major corporations saying in recent months that they would end or curtail their DEI initiatives.
A handful of U.S. companies, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowes and Molson Coors, dialed back their DEI initiatives over the summer. The retreats came in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing affirmative action in college admissions and after conservative activists targeted prominent American brands over their diversity policies and programs.
