Retired New York financier Howard Rubin and his former personal assistant were charged in a federal indictment Friday with running a years-long sex trafficking ring that allegedly involved violence so severe that one woman required surgery, prosecutors said.
Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Rubin used his “wealth to mislead and recruit women to engage in commercial sex acts, where Rubin then tortured women beyond their consent, causing lasting physical and/or psychological pain, and in some cases physical injuries.”
A newly unsealed federal indictment charged Rubin, 70, and the assistant, Jennifer Powers, 45, with sex trafficking and transporting women in interstate commerce for sex acts.
Rubin was also charged with bank fraud after prosecutors alleged that he misrepresented information to banks while securing financing for Powers’ mortgage, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Both were arrested Friday; Rubin in Connecticut and Powers in Texas. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The indictment alleges that from 2009 to 2019, Rubin recruited dozens of women “to engage in commercial sex acts with him involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism,” known as BDSM. Prosecutors, however, said in the indictment that his conduct was “beyond the scope of the women’s consent.”
Powers allegedly facilitated the encounters from 2011 to 2019 by recruiting the women, arranging travel and accommodations for the women to fly to New York, and securing non-disclosure agreements, the indictment states. She is also accused in the indictment of purchasing BDSM “toys and instruments” and paying the women from Rubin’s money.
Prosecutors allege that if Rubin was satisfied with the way the women “endured” the encounter, he would pay them $5,000 per encounter, according to the indictment. The price dropped by several thousand dollars if he was dissatisfied, it alleges.
The indictment says that the pair spent at least $1 million of Rubin’s money running and maintaining the sex trafficking.
The alleged acts primarily occurred at luxury hotels in Manhattan from 2009 to 2011, according to the indictment. In 2011, Rubin leased a penthouse apartment near Central Park, where Powers allegedly transformed a bedroom into what prosecutors said was a sex dungeon that was painted red and soundproofed, the indictment states.
The room allegedly had a lock on the door, “was furnished with BDSM equipment,” and contained “devices to shock or electrocute” the women, the indictment alleges. At times, Rubin would travel out of state for the alleged acts, according to the indictment.
Many of the alleged encounters involved violence, the indictment says. The women are identified in the indictment as Jane Does 1 through 10.
Authorities accused Rubin of brutalizing the women’s bodies, “causing them to fear for their safety and/or resulting in significant pain or injuries,” the indictment states.
One woman’s breast implant had flipped upside down during an alleged encounter and required surgery to fix it, according to the indictment. Others allegedly had pain and bruising that sometimes lasted for weeks, the indictment says.
When the women would tell Powers about their injuries, she would allegedly tell them to ice it or apply cream, according to the indictment. She allegedly dismissed Rubin’s behavior by telling the women that he was too drunk or by blaming the women for letting him get drunk, the indictment says.
Rubin and Powers also encouraged the women to use alcohol and drugs, including sedatives, the indictment states. The pair allegedly found some of the women through social media, modeling pages, or “high-end prostitution networks,” according to the indictment. It accuses them of misrepresenting “the extent, manner and/or degree to which Rubin would engage in physical and sexual violence.”
According to the indictment, Rubin would sometimes provide a “safe word” for the women to use if they wanted the act to stop, but Rubin allegedly disregarded their request. Other times, the indictment alleges, the women were unable to object because they would be bound, gagged or unconscious.
After the encounters, Rubin would allegedly describe the acts in detail to Powers so she could use the information “to manage fallout with the women because of Rubin’s violence,” the indictment states.
“Human beings are not chattel to be exploited for sex and sadistically abused, and anyone who thinks otherwise can expect to find themselves in handcuffs and facing federal prosecution like these defendants,” Nocella said in a statement.
Rubin also allegedly funded all aspects of Powers’ life from 2018 to 2023. The indictment says that he paid the rent at her Manhattan apartment, paid for her children to attend private school, put a down payment on her home in Texas, and paid the mortgage.
Rubin built his wealth working in finance in New York City, being employed at firms such as Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Soros Fund Management.
In a letter to the judge on Friday, prosecutors said that in 2024, Rubin had about $74.4 million in an account in the Cayman Islands. They asked that he be held without bail “because no condition or combination of conditions can reasonably secure Rubin’s appearance in court as required or the safety of the community.”
Prosecutors requested a “substantial bail package” for Powers.
If convicted of sex trafficking, they each face a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.