A disgraced Wall Street superstar who worked for George Soros ran a years-long sex-trafficking operation out of a soundproofed Manhattan penthouse "sex dungeon," where he allegedly recruited women for paid encounters that devolved into violent sexual abuse and torture, prosecutors allege.
Howard Rubin, 70, who worked as a portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management from 2008 until his retirement in 2015, was indicted in September on federal sex-trafficking, transportation, and bank fraud charges tied to the alleged scheme that ran from at least 2009 through 2019.
Rubin’s penthouse allegedly contained a soundproofed BDSM-style room outfitted with restraints, whips, and electronic devices, and prosecutors have described texts in which the former Soros executive appeared to relish hurting women.
"I want to hurt her," Rubin said in a text message about a woman who was going to visit his penthouse. "I don’t care if she screams."
He and his longtime assistant, Jennifer Powers, recruited women, including former Playboy models and financially vulnerable individuals, to fly to New York for paid sexual encounters that allegedly involved brutal, non-consensual violence, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. The indictment says Rubin and Powers spent more than $1 million on the operation, using nondisclosure agreements to silence victims and structuring payments to evade reporting rules.
He 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," U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said. The scheme used Rubin’s status to ensnare victims and "forced them to endure unthinkable physical trauma before silencing any outcries with threats of legal recourse," FBI assistant director in charge Christopher Raia added.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and up to life in prison. Rubin has pleaded not guilty and remains detained without bail because of a suspected flight risk. He's housed in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, the same jail as Nicolás Maduro and Luigi Mangione.
The September arrests "show that no one who engages in sex trafficking … is above the law, and that they will be brought to justice. 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.
