Money Manager Howard Rubin has been charged with sex trafficking

Famous money manager Howard Rubin and his former personal assistant were arrested on sex trafficking charges Friday morning and transported women across state boundaries for commercial sex for a decade.

Prosecutors alleged a series of violent stomach abusive behavior by 70-year-old Rubin against a woman.

A federal magistrate in Brooklyn, New York, has ordered Rubin, who has been detained without bail after prosecutors claimed that the former Salomon Brother Bond Trader was a flight risk and that he argued that “men who hit women who targeted women who filed civil lawsuits against him.”

Prosecutors also cited the alleged prior attempts to threaten witnesses from retired Wall Streeter, saying that victims of the incident feared him “universally.”

Rubin was allegedly accused of participating in sexual acts with a woman at a luxury hotel in New York, and later rented a two-bedroom penthouse apartment in Manhattan, converted into a so-called “sex dungeon” equipped like bondage, discipline, domination, submission and sadomazo Kim.

The device is said to contain a device that was “shocked or electrocuted by a woman,” prosecutors said.

“In many such encounters, Rubin engaged in conduct beyond the scope of women’s consent,” the charges in the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York alleges.

“During many of these encounters, Rubin charged with cruelty about women’s bodies, fearing their safety and serious pain and injuries, and sometimes seeking a woman’s appointment.”

Jennifer Powers, 45, a former Soros Fund Management Financer and his former personal assistant, “operated and maintained” Rubin’s money, which lasted at least 2009-2019, for at least $1 million.

Rubin was arrested by an FBI agent at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut.

He pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon when he appeared at Brooklyn Courthouse.

In a letter to Kuo, the prosecutor asked him to be detained without bail because, where necessary, the conditions and combination of conditions could not reasonably ensure Rubin’s appearance in court or reasonably protect the safety of the community. The letter stated that he had “extraordinary wealth, some of which were held in overseas accounts.” In 2024, Rubin had more than $74 million in his Cayman Islands account, the letter said.

Prosecutors said there were at least 10 other people who helped Rubin promote his alleged crime, citing tax documents they allegedly claiming that he showed his financial crimes continued until his arrest.

They said Rubin was found on eight phones and three BlackBerry devices. He didn’t reveal where his passport was and did not surrender it when he was arrested.

Rubin’s lawyers argued that he was not a flight risk as two of his adult children and his grandchild live nearby.

The lawyer also cited Rubin’s health, saying he suffered a stroke in July.

Kuo refused to discuss the matter, but Rubin’s defense team was able to apply for new bail applications. He is next scheduled to appear in court on October 20th.

Powers was arrested at his home in Sutlake, Texas, and is scheduled to appear in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas next week. She is also being charged with bank fraud in connection with alleged misrepresentation she went to the bank while funding a mortgage for her husband’s home in Southlake, Texas, authorities said.

Prosecutors want a “substantial bail package” for power.

If convicted of sex trafficking, Rubin and Powers face the largest life sentence in prison and the mandatory minimum sentence in prison for 15 years.

Rubin was sued in November 2017 by two self-identified Playboy models and another Florida model. Florida claimed that Rubin was beaten, sexually abused and raped in multiple incidents in New York City in 2016.

In April 2022, a private ju judge in Brooklyn Federal Court ordered Rubin to be liable for sex trafficking, sued six women, sued power, and paid a total of $3.85 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Power was not held responsible by its ju apprentice.

Rubin is currently suing civil judgment.

A spokesman for the US Lawyer’s Office in Brooklyn did not comment when asked why there was a nearly eight-year delay between filing a civil case against Rubin and getting criminal charges against him. At the time the lawsuit was filed, the woman’s lawyer who sued Rubin told CNBC that the U.S. law firm had contacted him about a potential investigator.

The prosecutor’s detention stated that after Rubin was sued, he saw for commercial sex from 20014 to 2019, “As per his arrangement, Hitman was contacted on the dark web to target a woman who filed a civil suit against him, but ultimately he did not retain Hitman.”

Rubin also stinted for Bear, Stearns and Merrill Lynch after working as a bond trader with the Salomon brothers.

He first gained public infamy in 1987 when he made an unauthorized transaction at Merrill Lynch. The company said it contributed to a massive $250 million loss from mortgage securities. Rubin’s actions at Merrill that led to his firing are detailed in Michael Lewis’ Wall Street memoir, “The Liar Poker.”

Powers is accused of promoting Rubin’s commercial encounters from at least 2011 to 2019, and is said to travel to New York recruiting women to be paid for their actions with Rubin and administering “fallouts from women’s complaints” arising from those actions.

CNBC has requested comment from Rubin’s attorney Michael Gilbert and Powers’ attorneys.

The indictment alleges sex trafficking of six women, some of which have also been identified as women who were transported across state boundaries with the intention of engaging in prostitution in violation of Mann’s law.

“Rubin and Powers have requested women to sign a non-disclosure agreement… which claimed that they would require women to assume the risks and risk of injury to a BDSM encounter with Rubin, prohibiting disclosure of BDSM’s gender information with Rubin, and prohibiting them from requesting payment of damages in the case of Bleach’s events.

“Rubin used the NDA to threaten women with legal consequences and public shame when they sought legal reliance,” the office said.

In a letter to the judge, prosecutors said, “Rubin and Powers held a blank nDA stash in the penthouse safe and requested that the woman be signed.”

“The woman was not provided with a copy of the NDA before it was required to sign it,” the prosecutor wrote. “Before presenting an NDA, women had to prove that they were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of signing, when they were being offered alcohol or drugs by Rubin, Powers or conspirators.”

The office also said after Rubin’s sexual encounter with women, “Rubin and/or force use Rubin’s money to pay women with wire transfers or payment services such as PayPal or Venmo.”

“Sometimes, the authority constituted the payment to avoid sending a single transaction of $10,000 or more to avoid triggering a reporting obligation by the bank,” the office said. “The indictment alleges that the defendant spent at least $1 million in Rubin’s money to operate and maintain a trafficking network.”

“As allegedly, the defendant misled and employed Rubin’s wealth to mislead women and employed them to engage in commercial sexual acts, where Rubin tortured women beyond consent, causing permanent physical and/or psychological pain and in some cases physical injuries.”

“Today’s arrests show that no one engages in sex trafficking, in this case, in penthouse apartments featuring so-called sex “dungeons,” and that they are beyond the law and are brought to justice,” Nosera said.

“Humans are not chattered to be exploited for sex and sadistically abused, anyone else who can expect to face handcuffs and federal prosecution like these defendants,” he said.

– CNBC’s Mallory Leonard and Jim Fokin contributed to this story