Retired Wall Street money manager indicted in sex trafficking scheme

Howard Rubin, a 70-year-old retired Wall Street money manager, was arrested Friday at his rental home in Fairfield, Connecticut on a 10-count federal indictment that accuses him of operating a yearslong sex trafficking scheme that allegedly subjected multiple women to violent sexual abuse in luxury hotels and a Midtown Manhattan penthouse near Central Park. Rubin and his former personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, 45, who was arrested in Southlake, Texas, are charged with sex trafficking and transporting people for prostitution, and Rubin also faces a separate bank fraud count tied to financing Powers family home.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn say the conduct occurred between 2009 and 2019 and involved women who were recruited to fly to New York and paid for sex acts that prosecutors say often exceeded the scope of consent. Court papers describe a soundproofed room in Rubin's penthouse, referred to as the Dungeon, painted red and outfitted with restraints, a cross and an electrocution device. Prosecutors allege victims were sometimes restrained, beaten and shocked, that safe words were ignored, and that some women required medical treatment for injuries and psychological trauma.