The Wolves of Real Estate: The Alexander Brothers breaks down the horrific sex crimes committed by brothers Tal Alexander, Oren Alexander and Alon Alexander after they were found guilty of sex trafficking.
Ahead of the Peacock docuseries’ premiere, executive producer Emma Schwartz exclusively explains to Us how the Alexander brothers’ case correlates to the recent Cornell University gang rape case.“I think we’re at a time where we’re still really reckoning with: How do we create places where women feel safe to come forward?” she says.
Schwartz continues, “What is considered a crime when it comes to sexual assault? What is just unethical? What is inappropriate? How do we punish it? Where do we draw the lines and who should draw those lines? These are questions that we’re seeing.”
Noting that the Alexander brothers’ and Cornell cases are “not exactly the same,” Schwartz says they both “touch on a lot of these really important themes about power, about so many other questions.”
“I think the correlation is they both raise questions about how do we as a society reckon with you know what does it mean to be a young woman? What does it mean to be men in groups? What is allowable behavior? And what are the power dynamics at play, and what are the appropriate punishments?” Schwartz adds.
In September, a former Cornell student known by the alias of Jane Doe filed a lawsuit claiming that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity gang raped her on campus in October 2024. No criminal charges were initially pressed against the accused, but the investigation into the case has been reopened in light of the lawsuit.
As for the Alexander brothers, they were convicted of sex trafficking charges in March after they were accused of using drugs to forcibly rape several women. The brothers notoriously drew women in with their luxurious lifestyles.
Schwartz points out that the men involved in the Cornell case claimed that Doe “consented to everything.”
“That is sort of the same argument that the brothers were making in court,” Schwartz says, explaining that they admitted to being “playboys” and sleeping “with a lot of women, but it was always consensual.”
“That was their claim, right? That was not the claim that the jury bought and agreed to in the end, but it’s what they said,” she says. “You see a lot of parallels in the arguments and the mentalities, and in the sort of complexity.”
Schwartz says that both cases also show how hard it is for victims to speak up, because “not everyone comes forward right away.”
“Not everyone defines it as sexual assault right away,” she continues. “I think in the case of Jane Doe, it took several weeks. In the case of some of these women, it took years. I don’t think we as society necessarily have reckoned with that, nor do we necessarily have rules and laws that make it easy for women to come forward.”
In light of both cases, Schwartz says she hopes the docuseries “will continue to engage people in those conversations” and will “help us think more about what we believe as a society and as a culture.”
Viewers can learn more about the Alexander brothers’ case when all three episodes of The Wolves of Real Estate: The Alexander Brothers premiere on Peacock on Sunday, October 25.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
