A retired New York City financier once known as the “right-hand man” of billionaire George Soros has been indicted on charges of abusing women.
According to the New York Post, Howard Rubin, 70, allegedly used his Manhattan penthouse as a “secret sex dungeon” at the center of the case.
In a statement released Thursday, the Justice Department said Rubin and his assistant, Jennifer Powers, have been charged with trafficking and transporting women across state lines for sexual encounters with Rubin.
A bank fraud charge was lodged against Rubin “in connection with misrepresentations made to a bank in the course of financing Powers’s mortgage for the Texas home of Powers and her husband,” according to the
“It is in this secret sex dungeon that Rubin, now 66, is accused of having committed violent acts and sexual assault against a number of women, including actual Playboy playmates. A civil trial, with six of his seven alleged victims seeking at least $18 million, is scheduled for November,” The Post reported.
Among other alleged acts of deprivation, The Post reported that Rubin has been accused of “beat[ing a woman’s] breasts so badly that her right implant flipped” — an injury so severe that, according to court documents, her “plastic surgeon was not even willing to operate on her breasts.”
Prosecutors allege Rubin paid women up to $5,000 for BDSM encounters. However, several women contend they never consented to the level of violence and humiliation they say he carried out during those sessions.
Another plaintiff claims that, while Rubin allegedly had her bound in his ‘dungeon,’ he told her “I’m going to rape you like I rape my daughter” and then, according to the complaint, forced sex on her against her will.
“Rubin has three children with his estranged wife, including at least one daughter,” The Post added.
“I thought he was a nice guy. He was a nebbishy Jewish guy and totally normal. I was surprised to hear about him having that apartment [with a sex dungeon],” a trader who worked with Rubin at Soros Fund Management, created by billionaire investor George Soros, told The Post.
“As alleged, the defendants used Rubin’s 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,” Joseph Nocella Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in the DOJ release.
“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. 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,” he added.
“For many years, Howard Rubin and Jennifer Powers allegedly spent at least one million dollars to finance the commercial sexual torture of multiple women via a national trafficking network. The defendants allegedly exploited Rubin’s status to ensnare their prospective victims and forced them to endure unthinkable physical trauma before silencing any outcries with threats of legal recourse,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia.
“The FBI will continue to apprehend any trafficker who sexually abuses others for twisted gratification,” he added.
“This was not a one-man show. While Rubin dehumanized these women with abhorrent sexual acts, Powers is alleged to have run the day-to-day operations of the enterprise and got paid generously for her efforts,” said Harry T. Chavis, Jr., IRS investigative special agent in charge.
Ever since she entered the spotlight, Jennifer Lopez’s love life has been scrutinized under a microscope.
From her decades-spanning romance with Ben Affleck to her rumored dalliance with Drake, Lopez’s list of suitors continues to captivate the public’s imagination.
It’s a fascination that her ninth studio album This Is Me … Now and the accompanying movie-musical bolstered.
The singer nods to the many high-profile relationships that preceded and followed her most recent relationship with Affleck, and she also acknowledges her hopeless romantic tendencies. As she says while narrating the trailer for
This Is Me … Now: A Love Story: “Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always: ‘In love.’”
Ahead, we track all of Lopez’s marriages, engagements, and relationships—from her partnership with singer Marc Anthony to her broken engagement with Alex Rodriguez.
“Did you ever imagine your biggest dream could come true?” Lopez asked in a special edition of her fan newsletter, On the JLo. “Saturday night while at my favorite place on earth (in the bubble bath), my beautiful love got on one knee and proposed. I was taken totally off guard and just looked in his eyes smiling and crying at the same time trying hard to get my head around the fact that after 20 years this was happening all over again, I was quite literally speechless and he said, ‘is that a yes?’ I said YES of course that’s a YES.”
The two officially tied the knot in a surprise Las Vegas ceremony in July 2022. They celebrated the nuptials with a second, more extravagant wedding in Georgia the following month.
At the tail end of that year, Lopez announced the forthcoming release of
Affleck has similarly been open about his adoration for his wife since their unexpected reunion.
“She is incredibly knowledgeable about the way fashion evolves through the culture as a confluence of music, sports, entertainment and dance,” he told
And during a red carpet event, he told Entertainment Tonight, “She’s brilliant and [she] helps me in every conceivable way.”
Unfortunately, their second chance quickly soured into a second break-up. In August 2024, Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck, citing April 26, 2024 as the date of separation. The news followed months of speculation over their marital status, with the two reportedly living under separate roofs and spending much of the summer apart from each other.
In a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated, Lopez reflected on meeting MLB player Alex Rodriguez for the first time at a 2005 Yankees game in New York City: “We shook hands, and it was this weird electricity for, like, three seconds … Three to five seconds of looking at somebody right in their eyes, and getting stuck.”
But it would be over 10 years before the two eventually reconnected and started dating. “I was having lunch somewhere and I saw him as he passed by. Afterwards, I went outside, and for some reason I felt like tapping him on the shoulder,” Lopez recalled in 2017, during a guest appearance on
Throughout their yearslong romance, J.Lo and A-Rod made multiple high-profile appearances together at events like the Met Gala, the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and the Grammys. Rodriguez also accompanied Lopez to her performance at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in January 2021.
They announced their engagement in 2019, but plans for their wedding were postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Then, in April 2021, the couple announced their split. “We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,” they said in a joint statement at the time. “We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects. We wish the best for each other and one another’s children. Out of respect for them, the only other comment we have to say is thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and support.”
At the time, a source for E! News elaborated on Lopez’s reasoning for ending the engagement. “After months of questioning things and fighting, Jennifer felt like she could no longer trust Alex anymore,” the insider said.
Lopez was rumored to be dating Drake after the rapper was spotted cheering her on at her “All I Have” Las Vegas residency in December 2016. What followed was a streak of now-deleted cuddly Instagram posts, which included a photo of Lopez lying across Drake’s lap and another snap of the two embracing at a party. “She’s having fun,” a source told
Lopez finally put the rumors to rest during a 2017 interview on The Daily Show. “Let me clear this up,” she said. “I am not with Drake.”
Drake seemed to reference the end of their fling in a 2018 track titled “Diplomatic Immunity,” on which he raps: “2010 was when I lost my halo / 2017 I lost a J.Lo.”
Lopez began dating Casper Smart, who worked for her as a backup dancer, shortly after her split from Anthony in 2011. A source told People that the romance with Smart, who is 18 years her junior, was “a fun fling” and “not meant to turn into anything more.” The two developed an on-again, off-again relationship before ultimately calling it quits in 2016.
Although initial reports claimed that the breakup was amicable, an insider later told People that Smart had cheated on Lopez. “She kicked him out because he cheated on her and he got caught,” the source said. “It happened two years ago, and he promised he would never do it again, and once he did, she was done.”