Effective Real Estate Damage Control Is Unlikely In A Hurricane Of Toxic Accusations

June 18, 2024
  • So far, 35 Women Have Accused Real Estate Broker Oren Alexander of Rape
  • Official Partners Says They Began Process Of Removing Oren From Ownership
  • A Partner Claims “Official is not Oren Alexander”

As of this post today, at least 35 women have come forward (and a lot more seems likely), with accusations against super luxury real estate broker Oren Alexander and his twin brother Alon. The firm Oren co-founded in 2022, Official Partners, is in full-on damage control mode. Nicole Oge, a co-founder speaking on behalf of Official, said they began the process of removing co-founder Oren Alexander from ownership.

Official Partners’ response was in sharp contrast to the syrupy platitudes Nicole just espoused to Oren and the third Alexander brother Tal (not named in the original two lawsuits) on May 31st on Facebook. To save you time I suggest you skip most of the embarrassing homage below and go directly to the last two paragraphs of that post if you can.

Source: Nicole Oge Facebook Account

Oge’s post conveyed that the Alexanders are the driving force behind Official Partners, contradicting her recent communications on behalf of the firm.

Official Partners decided to make the case that Oren had little to do with the company. As I watched their effort to distance themselves from the crisis, their statements seemed so cringeworthy given the overwhelming news coverage. Good grief.

“Oren was not involved in our business processes and OFFICIAL’s operations have always been overseen by Richard, Andrew and myself, and continue normally,” Oge wrote in the email. Oge is referring to her partner Richard Jordan and Andrew Wachtfogel. 

The Real Deal

In the closing paragraph of Monday’s New York Times article on the scandal, Oge, seemingly exasperated, said:

“The conflation or misconception about Official somehow being inextricably linked to any individual, whether it’s me or Oren or anyone else, is just false,” she said. “Official is not Oren Alexander.”

New York Times

Despite Oge’s claim that “Official is not Oren Alexander”, Official Partners and Oge herself had previously marketed their firm essentially as powered by the Alexanders, as in Official Partners is the Alexander brothers and will likely cease to exist without the Alexander brothers (and the Alexander brothers will likely cease to exist as brokers after this scandal).

Official Partners spent the past two years making inroads as the marketing representative on luxury condo development projects, building their brand, largely on the activities of the Alexander brothers who very much appeared to be the rainmakers and driving force behind the Official Partners brand.

Rumors of bad behavior by the Alexander brothers have been the worst-kept secret in New York and Florida real estate circles for well more than a decade. If their supposed illicit activities have been going on for years as the current media coverage indicates, what the hell did the Alexanders do to keep so many women so quiet? Think about the immediate outpouring of 28 more victims the day the bombshell Real Deal piece came out after two victims filed their lawsuits. And 5 more came forward today. To make it worse, there are potentially a lot more victims, according to the lawyer representing the two victims. In the Wall Street Journal piece: Luxury Real Estate World Rocked by Rape Allegations Against Star Broker that came out today, five more victims came forward but remained anonymous. What did the Alexanders do to keep all their victims so quiet for so long? We need to know.

Reportedly Oren and his brothers fled to Israel as this story blew up.

Oren announced on his Instagram story last Tuesday that he’s taking a “pause” from the company while the lawsuits are underway. His bio was removed from the company’s website and its founder page, and his license is no longer active in Florida or New York, records show. 

Oren’s model wife locked down her Instagram account.

In a recent Bloomberg piece on this situation, Miami Tower Weighs Cutting Ties to Broker After Rape Accusation it was made clear that Oren covered South Florida for the Alexander Team which were the rainmakers for Official Partners:

Oren Alexander focused largely on South Florida while Tal has led sales in New York. The brothers ran their own sales team within the firm and notched $810 million in transactions across New York, South Florida and other luxury markets, making it the top-selling mid-sized US team by volume, according to RealTrends.

Bloomberg

There can be millions in fees and commissions at stake and the key requirement is that a marketing company needs to be trusted and effective at sales. As the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link even if the other partners didn’t do anything wrong. My dad repeatedly told me growing up that the “only good partner is a dead partner” whenever challenging business situations would occur.

The other Official Partners should jump ship right away or they will be forever associated with this situation (if not already) and become metastasized collateral damage.

After digesting Official Partners’ damage control efforts via Oge, consider how public relations damage control is defined and how important it can be.

Public relations is about building, improving and maintaining the public image and perception of an individual, company or organization. Damage control is one duty of a public relations department and it involves minimizing the negative effect caused by an event or series of events.

Chron

Damage control is a super basic concept.

But then it gets worse for Official Partners. The Real Deal reported on Monday with the following stark headline: Alexanders’ attorney out, replaced by experienced rape-defense lawyer. The attorney who is being replaced is the same attorney who initially claimed the following about one of the original two cases filed against the Alexander twins:

Ferraro said they have “very powerful” evidence, including documents, telephone records and emails that show it is “totally made up”

The Real Deal

According to The Real Deal, Ferraro is being replaced by criminal defense attorney, Isabelle Kirshner, who is known as a heavy-hitter for men accused of doing things claimed about Oren. She has represented Matt Gaetz with good results (for him).

Never in my career would I ever expect to see a real estate news headline about people I know in our local market like this: Alexanders’ attorney out, replaced by experienced rape-defense lawyer. It’s such a raw but direct headline. It is not just a news title designed to capture SEO points, but one that goes all in on capturing the essence of what is happening right now.

And it gets even more twisted. The New York Times published an article yesterday Elite Real Estate Broker and His Twin Face Sexual Assault Suits which shared additional insights on the case that might add another brother to the mix:

Evan Torgan, founding partner of the firm Torgan Cooper + Aaron, which is representing both women, said that since last week, he has fielded more accusations of sexual assault against all three brothers. “The flood of phone calls and emails is still coming,” Mr. Torgan said.

New York Times

After seeing that quote, the Wall Street Journal piece emphasized the following in today’s piece:

A third brother, Tal Alexander, who is also a luxury broker and a co-founder of Official, wasn’t named in either of the lawsuits. In an email sent to co-workers Sunday, he said he anticipated being unfairly implicated. He called the allegations against his brothers reprehensible and said he would never behave in such a way. 

“I have little doubt that given my close relationship with my brothers, at some juncture, a lawyer or many lawyers will soon try to lump me in with the allegations against Alon and Oren,” he wrote.

Wall Street Journal

Is this an indirect confession? What an odd thing to say.

With the following statement by the attorney, the scale of the accusations has mushroomed and therefore its coverage could very well expand exponentially. It makes me wonder: when will this situation convert to a criminal matter from a civil one? When does the appropriate government agency step in and start asking questions? My goodness, that seems long overdue.

Mr. Torgan said he had met with women who say they were assaulted in New York City and the Hamptons, as well as in Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida. Some of the allegations date back as far as 2004, when Oren and Alon were high school students in Miami.

New York Times

The first rule in reputational damage control is to go silent and let the momentum fade which is probably what Official Partners is doing right now. But for Official Partners, the attempt to do damage control has probably fostered more media coverage as evidenced by yesterday’s TRD and NYT releases and today’s WSJ release. Sometimes there is no effective counter to severe brand damage, like this situation has shaped up to be.

I believe Official Partners is beyond repair and is “officially” a toxic brand. One thing remains obvious. This story isn’t over.

Author’s note: From the time I started writing this yesterday until now, the topic had to be modified significantly as more and more information was released by various publications. I began with the topic of “brand damage control” which now seems trite, I have the feeling this is going to be a rapidly evolving story over the next several weeks.

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