The personal assistant accused of sex-trafficking Playboy models to ex-Wall Street powerhouse Howard Rubin to fuel his BDSM dungeon was a former New York City bottle girl who put on a display of Christian values, an ex-friend says.
Married mom-of-three Jennifer Powers, 45, made it a point to be protective of other women that she worked with at Big Apple clubs while appearing determined to live a “celebrity-like lifestyle,” the former pal told The Post.
Powers and Rubin, a retired financier, were both slapped with sex-trafficking charges Sept. 26. Powers and her husband, Steve, were later also hit with tax-fraud charges for allegedly failing to report millions of dollars to the IRS that Rubin funneled to them over several years.
The trio appeared in Brooklyn federal court for a status conference Monday, with Rubin also having a hearing in which he failed to persuade a judge to release him on a $50 million bond package.
The sickening accusations against Powers left her former friend stunned.
“[Powers] always presented herself as having clear values, she made it clear she was a Christian, loves Jesus, all that, like she’s from Texas. Always was playing up the Southern belle thing,” said the friend, who was friendly with Powers starting in 2011 – the same year Rubin hired Powers as an assistant.
“That’s what really shocked me because I followed her on Instagram, she was always posting not like super religious stuff or anything but just like more Christian values type of thing, so to see that was running a sex dungeon I would think that would go far against those Christian values.”
The friend said Powers did not bring up religion much in person but her social-media posts show how devoted she at least wanted to appear to be.
A post from Powers’ Instagram account in December 2023 show her entire family inside a church with a caption that reads, “My Jesus loving boys make my heart happy.”
Another post from March 2024 shows the family celebrating Easter, with Powers writing, “He is Risen and we are grateful! Happy Easter friends.”
But Powers also tried to flaunt a luxurious lifestyle that left some people around her wondering how she and her husband paid for it all, the friend claimed in an interview shortly after the bombshell indictment.
The friend assumed Steve was raking in tens of thousands of dollars from each of his disc jockey gigs.
Powers worked as a bottle girl for various Big Apple clubs, including Manhattan’s hip LAVO, for several years, the friend said.
“She was just a nice person — definitely wanted the status, like she would talk about her closet of Christian Louboutin shoes, like that’s what was important to her,” the pal said. “She wanted to be the richest of all the LAVO girls, I think she just wanted to live that celebrity-like lifestyle.”
Photos obtained by The Post show Powers on extravagant jaunts and even posing in friendly photos with Aerosmith rock star Steven Tyler.
During Powers’ years on the clubbing circuit, the friend said her buddy presented herself as the “mom” of the other women who worked with her.
“She was a little bit older, and she sort of was the mother figure,” the friend said of Powers. “It seemed more like she was looking out for them.”
Powers’ hubby was “kind of like a jock” and “not the smartest person” but was nice and personable, the former friend added. The DJ played at different clubs, including LAVO almost weekly, she said.
The friend said she attended the couple’s engagement party that appeared to be thrown by Rubin, and went to an extravagant baby shower when the Powers were expecting parents that she now believes was paid for by Powers’ boss.
At those parties, other women would approach Rubin as if they were looking to “kiss the ring,” the friend claimed.
Rubin and Powers are accused of drawing women to New York City under false pretenses before Rubin allegedly tortured them at his penthouse-turned-sex dungeon.
The feds said this month Rubin doled out $9 million to Powers, including for rent, mortgage and credit card bills that were never reported to federal officials during tax season.
Powers and her husband lived in New York City for years before moving to Texas in 2020.
“I would have assumed she was making some extra money because I thought Howie, like, loved her, but not the amount he gave her,” the friend said.
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