Feds arrest multimillionaire Howard Rubin for alleged Midtown 'sex dungeon' abuse

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Sep 26, 2025

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NEW YORK — Wall Street multimillionaire Howard Rubin was arrested Friday on charges alleging he psychologically and sexually brutalized women inside luxury hotels and a Midtown“ sex dungeon” in a yearslong sex trafficking scheme.

Rubin was picked up by the feds in Fairfield, Connecticut, and was awaiting his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court on a bombshell 10-count indictment, which accuses the 70-year-old retired wealth manager of sex trafficking and transporting people for prostitution, stemming from allegations by at least nine women.

The feds say that from 2009 to 2019, Rubin and his assistant, Jennifer Powers, lured women to the city for paid BDSM sex with him, violent encounters that often took place in his 76th-floor penthouse on West 57th Street, where his so-called“ dungeon” was painted red, soundproofed and stocked with an electrocution device and other BDSM equipment.

The indictment also contains allegations that Rubin used force, fraud and coercion to traffic a woman in 2018 in Las Vegas.

In a statement, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella alleged that Rubin, with the help of his alleged accomplice, Powers, employed his staggering wealth to recruit women for sex and sexual torture without their consent, traumatizing them and often inflicting lasting physical injuries.

“ Today’s arrests show that no one who engages in sex trafficking, in this case in luxury hotels and a penthouse apartment that featured a so-called sex‘ dungeon,’ is above the law, and that they will be brought to justice,” Nocella said.

“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.”

Howard Rubin's Midtown apartment. (Google) Rubin is also accused of bank fraud in the indictment for the alleged lies he told when financing Powers’ mortgage for a Texas home for her and her husband.

Rubin, a former portfolio manager for George Soros’ investment fund, whose successful career was detailed in Michael Lewis’ best-selling books “The Big Short” and “ Liar’s Poker,” has faced similar allegations in civil lawsuits, but not criminal charges, until Friday.

Attorneys who repped Rubin in related lawsuits could not immediately be reached for comment.

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