Howard Rubin, a millionaire financier, faces shocking allegations of violently assaulting women in a Manhattan “sex dungeon,” including one incident so severe it reportedly caused a woman’s breast implant to flip. According to court documents and a Wall Street Journal report, Rubin advised the victim to replace her saline implant with a sturdier silicone one.
Prosecutors allege Rubin paid women $2,000 per encounter, with sums reaching $5,000 if he found the encounters particularly satisfying. The abuse reportedly took place in a soundproofed room in his luxury Metropolitan Towers apartment, retrofitted around 2012 with BDSM equipment and devices, including whips, chains, and a large X-shaped frame dubbed “St. Andrew’s Cross.”
Court filings indicate that Rubin provided women with a safeword, “pineapples,” but abuse allegedly intensified when it was used. One woman, who sued Rubin, claimed that after invoking the safeword, he tightened her restraints and continued assaulting her before allegedly raping her. Other victims reportedly had their mouths bound to prevent communication.
Rubin also allegedly had women sign consent forms under the influence of alcohol, with clauses imposing a $500,000 penalty for reporting abuse. Text messages cited in court records show Rubin expressing a desire to inflict pain, telling an associate, “I want to hurt her. I don’t care if she screams.”
Rubin, 70, is currently held in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial. He has been ordered to pay $3.8 million in civil judgments to his alleged victims. Rubin’s attorneys maintain that the encounters, which spanned from roughly 2009 to 2019, were consensual, citing messages from women showing anticipation for the encounters.
Prosecutors allege Rubin enlisted his personal assistant, former Hawaiian Tropic model Jennifer Powers, 45, to recruit women for the encounters, which included Playboy and Penthouse models as well as financially vulnerable women. Powers has pleaded not guilty.
Rubin, a married father of three and Harvard Business School graduate, turned his card-counting skills from Las Vegas into a multi-million-dollar financial career, with stints at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers. Authorities say the case bears similarities to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, with allegations that Rubin and Powers orchestrated the sexual encounters in a calculated and exploitative manner.
