Retired US financier Howard Rubin was arrested Friday on sex-trafficking charges for allegedly trafficking dozens of women, including former Playboy models, to be sexually and physically assaulted during encounters in his New York City penthouse in a soundproofed room described in court papers as “The Dungeon”.
Authorities announced the arrest of Rubin and his former personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, on charges in an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.
Rubin was arrested Friday at his rental home in Fairfield, Connecticut, while Powers was arrested at her home in Southlake, Texas, authorities said. Rubin was expected to be arraigned later Friday.
Messages for comment were sent to multiple lawyers for both of them.
During a three-decade career, Rubin worked at various financial firms, including Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Soros Fund Management.
Prosecutors said Rubin and Powers abused the women between 2009 and 2019 after recruiting them to fly to New York to engage in sex acts with Rubin in exchange for money.
They said Rubin and Powers targeted women who were desperate, including women who had previously been sexually abused, along with women who were financially desperate or who suffered from addiction. Once they were in New York, the women were encouraged to use drugs or alcohol to prepare for their sexual encounters, and they sometimes engaged in conduct beyond the scope of their consent, prosecutors said.
During the encounters, women suffered significant pain, including bruises and psychological trauma, and sometimes required medical treatment, according to court papers.
Rubin and Powers spent more than $1m of Rubin’s money to recruit the women to participate in commercial sex acts involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism, according to a letter submitted to a federal judge in which prosecutors sought detention for Rubin and a significant bail package for Powers.
Prior to 2011, the commercial acts usually occurred at luxury hotels in Manhattan, but from 2011 to 2017, the encounters usually occurred in a two-bedroom penthouse near Central Park, the letter said.
The penthouse contained “The Dungeon”, a soundproofed room painted red that had a lock on the door and was outfitted with bondage and discipline instruments, prosecutors said.
They said Powers maintained the dungeon, cleaned it between uses and restocked the equipment, while also recruiting women, arranging their flights and managing fallout from complaints about the sessions with Rubin.
Rubin and Powers required the women to sign non-disclosure agreements and pledge that they were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they signed the agreements, prosecutors said.
According to court papers, Rubin has funded virtually all aspects of Powers and her family’s lifestyle since 2012, including rent on their Manhattan apartment; her children’s private school tuition; and the down payment and mortgage on their Texas-based home after the Powers’ moved to Texas in 2020.
Prosecutors said Rubin and Powers were sued for civil sex trafficking in November 2017, but a jury found at trial that they were not liable. The case has been appealed.
If convicted, Rubin and Powers each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life.
