A retired financier has been charged with sex trafficking after allegedly running a New York City penthouse sex dungeon over the course of a decade.
Howard Rubin, 70, was arrested Friday morning in Fairfield, Connecticut, while his former personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, 45, was taken into custody in Texas.
A newly unsealed 10-count indictment accuses the pair of running a sex trafficking operation, recruiting dozens of women to perform BDSM acts with Rubin that were at times reportedly non-consensual and left some with painful injuries requiring medical care.
“During many of these encounters, Rubin brutalized women’s bodies,” the indictment states, adding that he spent at least $1 million to operate and maintain the sex network, which ran from 2009 to 2019.
Prosecutors say that Rubin paid different women for commercial sex “multiple times a week,” and if he was “dissatisfied,” he paid them less than $5,000 for a sexual encounter.
In 2011, prosecutors say that Rubin leased a luxury penthouse near Central Park—described in the indictment as “the penthouse.” He and Powers converted one bedroom into a red-painted, soundproof sex “dungeon” with a lock on the door and BDSM equipment, including devices prosecutors say could “shock or electrocute” women.
The New York Post reported that the penthouse, leased by Rubin, was located on West 57th Street, an area known as “Billionaires’ Row,” as it’s home to some of the world’s most expensive residences.
The women recruited by Rubin and Powers were often former Playboy models, all of whom were made to sign a non-disclosure agreement—often after consuming alcohol—that they never received a copy of.
According to the indictment, Rubin and Powers downplayed and misled women about the nature of the BDSM encounters, and some women later contacted Powers to report violent acts and injuries Rubin had inflicted on them.
The indictment lists examples of Rubin’s violence, including cases where women agreed to encounters on the condition they could use a “safe word” to stop. Prosecutors say Rubin ignored the safe word, continuing activities, including “penetrating women with foreign objects” without their consent.
At times, the women were unable to give consent because they had been encouraged to become intoxicated with drugs and alcohol.
One woman’s breast implant flipped upside down and required surgery, and some women were unable to work due to injuries Rubin allegedly inflicted.
When women reported injuries to Powers, she allegedly downplayed Rubin’s behavior, blamed his intoxication, and at times faulted the women themselves, according to prosecutors.
This is not Rubin’s first accusation of sexual misconduct. In 2017, two Playboy models and a Florida model claimed he beat and raped them in New York City. In 2022, a Brooklyn federal jury found Rubin liable for trafficking and ordered him to pay around $4 million in damages.
The millionaire’s career in finance includes working at Soros Fund Management, a firm founded by George Soros.
Rubin was scheduled to appear in Brooklyn federal court on Friday to hear the charges against him before Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo.
If convicted, Rubin and Powers face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and could receive up to life in prison.
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