The estranged wife of former financier and accused depraved sex trafficker Howard Rubin says he should be allowed bond. Mary Henry, in a letter to the court, say Rubin is actually a loving grandfather who should should be allowed to spend time with his three young grandchildren until trial.
Former Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin busted by the feds at his Fairfield, Connecticut, home for a decade-long Manhattan sex-trafficking scheme. With the help of his assistant, Jennifer Powers, “Howie” Rubin is accused of luring women into BDSM sex sessions in exchange for cash, then exceeding their consent and torturing and raping his victims.
Rubin accused of luring victims to BDSM sex sessions, first in luxury Manhattan hotels and later in his $18,000-per-month penthouse apartment, equipped with a soundproof “sex dungeon.” Women were bound on a bed or a cross, beaten, and electrocuted. The pleas of those who weren’t gagged went ignored, and the torture often continued even when a woman fell unconscious. Rubin allegedly paid the women several thousand dollars afterward, including for injuries that required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.
10 Jane Does are listed as victims in the indictment, but prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York say there are dozens more and are asking the public for tips. Rubin is charged with 2 counts of sex trafficking, 6 counts of transporting women to engage in prostitution, and bank fraud.
Howard Rubin’s name becomes a Wall Street commodity in the 1980s while trading bonds at Salomon Brothers. Rubin is profiled in Michael Lewis’ 1989 book Liar’s Poker for his contributions to the development of a collateralized mortgage obligation market. Rubin goes on to hold senior positions at Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and Soros Fund Management.
Rubin's successful life doesn't stop him from getting married to fellow financier, Mary Henry. After three children and 36 years of marriage, Henry divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence in a civil suit.
Rubin tasked Jennifer Powers, his “personal assistant,” with recruiting victims. Powers is arrested at her home in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, accused of running the “day-to-day” operations of Rubin’s sex-trafficking scheme and being paid handsomely. Powers arranged the victims’ travel and coerced them into signing NDAs. This evil empire these two created by victimizing so many is crumbling, and more victims are expected to speak out.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Danny Rubin - Criminal Defense Lawyer and Founder of Rubin Law, PC. website: rubinlawpc.com
- Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive
- Dan Murphy - Former NYPD Detective-Sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Former Chief Security Officer, US Bancorp, andCo-Host of "Gold Shields" Podcast; Author: “Workplace Safety: Establishing an Effective Violence Prevention Program”
- Lynn Shaw - Founder and Executive Director of Lynn's Warriors - An Organization Committed to Ending Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, Host of Lynn's Warriors on YouTube; X: @lynns_warriors, YouTube: @LynnsWarriors
- Megan Palin - Senior Journalist, The New York Post; X: @megan_palin
- Sydney Sumner - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
In the last hours, the wife of a money manager
sex trafficker suspect Howard Ruben insists her husband is quote
a family man who should be freed on bond. I'm
(00:28):
Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us. Yes, love is blind. I
guess former financier and depraved sex trafficker suspect millionaire Howard
Ruben is actually a loving grandfather and father who should
(00:50):
walk free on fifty million dollars bond. And he's got
it too, by the way, says his wife in new
court documents. If he's such a great fan, family man
and you love him so much, why are you estranged?
Why weren't you living together in holy matrimony? Mary Henry
(01:11):
writes a letter to the court demanding the judge spring
her bond trading husband Howard Ruben on a whopper bell
package so he can continue quote spending time with his
three young grandchildren translation torturing women and his sap dungeon.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Oh who said that? Oh? It was me?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Has she lost her mind? Or is he paying her
to write this letter? That's possible because this is what
we know. Poward Ruben, multi millionaire financier.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
A money manager.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's what he's called a money manager. He manages other
people's money, much like Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein, who apparently brought in,
you know, a couple of million dollars, but somehow I
was transferring out five hundred million dollars to overseas accounts,
(02:06):
including Russian banks that were on the US watch list.
What is it with these money managers? And how does
this guy, not Epstein, but Reuben allegedly lure women, educated
women into his sex dungeon that he personally had sound proofed. Okay,
(02:31):
right there, right there, I need a shrink. Right now,
let's go straight out to doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining
us out of LA She's the author of deal Breaker.
You can see her now on Peacock and find her
at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Right there, a soundproof dungeon.
I mean, when an artisan a worker gets to call
(02:53):
from a dude that wants to sound proofed dungeon and
you go in there and you see it's a torture chamber,
doesn't that like wave a red flag of alarm? What
freak wants a sound proof torture dungeon, a freak who
has sexual sadism disorder.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
In other words, somebody who can only get sexually aroused
when the victim is humiliated, frightened, or terrified.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
And Nancy.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Maybe this is why he's a financial planner. Maybe he
needed to make a lot of money so he could
build that dungeon and buy all of that equipment.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, let's just take it from the top.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Listen to this Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin busted
by Feds at his Fairfield Connectic get home for decade
long sex trafficking with the help of assistant Jennifer Powers.
Howie Rubin accused of luring women into BDSM sex sessions,
then torturing and raping them. Ken Jane Doees listed as
victims in the indictment, but prosecutors say there are dozens
(03:51):
more and are calling for tips.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Joining me an all star panel to make sense of
what we know. Right now, Straight out to Megan Palin,
your journalist from the New York Post who has been
all over this. I mean really now, everybody here in
the studio is piping up that it only costs five
thousand dollars to soundproof a dungeon. I don't know where
(04:14):
they have that knowledge. But that said, this guy, I
wouldn't call him just a money manager with you because
he's he's worth millions and millions of dollars. I don't
mean one or two million dollars, I mean multi millions
of dollars. And this has been going on for a
long time. Why has it just been uncovered? But let's
(04:37):
just start at the beginning. Who is this guy?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Howard Ruben.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
He grew up in Massachusetts. He's got a chemical engineering degree.
He was very successful on Wall Street once he moved in,
originally as a bond trader and then kind of climbed
his way up through the ranks from there and ended
up becoming so successful at least financially.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And he moved around in.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
For trophy philanthropic circles. He was well known for donating.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Hug the way, put her up, Put her up, Megan Palin,
you just said he quote moved around in philanthropic circles.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You mean he was a benefactor.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
He gave a lot of money away, and everybody thinks, oh,
Howard Rubens, this great guy that cares about the needy
b s. According to police, Megan, he is strapping women
to the Holy Cross, you know, and I feel about
that and other apparatus, and then electrocuting them in their genitals.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
With an electric cattle prod.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Let's say that's what gets my attention, not his fate philanthropy,
of course.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And absolutely it's what he was known for.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Prior to while he was obviously hiding or it was
a well kept secret in terms of publicly this extremely sadistic, dark,
horrid side of himself, which is now. I mean, the
claims first came out about ten years ago, so he
has been known for these things for some time now.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But this is sort of very way wait wait, wait again.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but Megan.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Did you say that this was this was like an
open secret.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Everyone knew what was happening ten years ago when their
first civil suit was filed in twenty seventeen. Yes, that's
when it all first sort of coming here, he started
coming undone.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Okay, first civil suit was over, was about ten years ago, Okay,
joining me right now is a renowned criminal defense attorney,
a veteran trial lawyer, founder of Reuben Law. No relation.
I assume Danny Ruben is joining us out of La Danny,
before you put on your defense hat and start arguing
with me, Ken, I just talked about the duality here,
(06:59):
the d of going to these you know, ten thousand
dollars a plate, philanthropic events dinners where rich people walk
around sniffing of each other, and it's a scene. It's
a scene like a nightclub scene, or you know, just
any scene. The same people go over and over and over,
(07:22):
and I'm glad they do, because they do wonderful things
for the needy. But the facade that he has created
of this benefactor while all the time the word is
he's torturing women and a sex dungeon after luring them.
There just that duality, you know, you tell that to
(07:43):
a jury, it's like putting a nun up for the defense.
Of course they're going to a believer.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
I mean, I think that the duality is important. I
agree with you. On the one hand, it might be
a mask to what's going on elsewhere. On the other
he might actually care about certain things that he's donating to.
But I do want to say that these things are
alleged right now, They're they're not a given, they're not proven,
and he's innocent soil proven guilty. I think we have
(08:13):
a lot more to get into before we can start
casting judgment on whether.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Did or didn't Reuben. Anybody watching crime stories knows about
the presumption of innocence, and as predicted, you only gave
the first portion of that charge to the jury, or
presumption of innocence, and I believe you will agree with
me that the actual charge is that the defendant is
(08:41):
presumed innocent. I would like to see him, please, that's
not him. The charge is to the jury that the
defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the state pierces
an overcome that presumption with evidence proving guilt beyond a
(09:05):
reasonable doubt. You always seem to kind of leave off
the left hat last half of that sentence regarding presumption
of innocence.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Ruben is presumed innocent.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
He is innocent tonight unless and until the state pierces
the presumption of innocence with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
Would you agree that that is the judicial charge.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
I agree that that's the charge. But all we have
right now is the public is the indictment, and whatever's
in the civil suit. I personally am looking forward to
what transpires in this case. I want to see what
the alleged witnesses have to say. A grand jury has
heard it. I would like to hear it. I think
the public should hear it. And I think as we
get closer to trial date than this, if it does
(09:51):
ever go to trial, we'll start to hear more and
more about the evidence.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Danny Rubin another question to you, and again, this is
neither defansw er state oriented. It's like a horrible deja vous.
It's happening all over again. We just saw this with
Sean Combs, we saw it with r. Kelly, we saw
it with Epstein over and over and over. Where As
(10:17):
you just heard Megan Palin with the New York Post
state that there was a civil suit alleging the same
things in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Where's the government? Where are they?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Why has it taken them seven years to bring this
case to a criminal trial.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I have a problem with that.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What have they been doing?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
I think what they were waiting for was the trial
that took place I believe in twenty twenty two or
twenty twenty three. They wanted to see what testimony came out,
and I think that Howard testified in that case, both
at his deposition and that a trial. They want to
make sure that they have a slam dunk case, considering
they have an egg on their face from the Ditty case.
I know that when we all know that didn't go
(11:01):
the way that the Ausa's office wanted it to go.
Getting four years in change is not was not the
goal of the office. So I think now they're bringing
this case and they want to make sure they have
an ironclad I can't promise you they do. No one
really knows that yet. But again, as more evidence comes out,
(11:21):
we'll see how well cooked this case is.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Guys, this guy with every advantage still charged with major
major offenses, sex offenses and more.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Who is this guy?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Listen?
Speaker 7 (11:37):
Ruben is accused of luring victims, first in luxury Manhattan
hotels and later his eighteen thousand dollars per month penthouse
apartment equipped with a soundproof sex dungeon. Women were bound
on a bed or across and beaten and electrocuted while
they were provided with a safe word. The pleas of
those who weren't gagged went ignored, and the torture often
(11:57):
continued even when a woman fell on conscious. Ruben allegedly
paid the women several thousand dollars afterwards, including for injuries
that required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, that sounds really painful, a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It goes so much further than that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Lin Shaw joining me, founder and director of Lynn's Warriors,
dedicated to the eradication of sexploitation of women and sex trafficking.
And let me remind you it is a non profit.
She's certainly not doing it for the money. How is
it that these multimillionaires mingle at, for instance, charity functions
(12:39):
for ten twenty thousand dollars a plate for Pete's sake,
and nobody will call them on their bad behavior. And
we see it over and over again. There's Diddy, we
pointed out, this is are near with NXVM. There is Epstein,
there is are Kelly, there's year in Fogel. I mean,
(13:01):
I could just list him off the top of my head,
on and on and on rich or famous.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
People that get away with this.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And as in your backyard, Landshaw, what you may have
brust ams with this guy.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I am living in the devil's playground.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
This building is around the corner for me, and it
has tighter security than Fort Knox did. He was arrested
directly across the street. Epstein was a neighbor. I ask you,
where has everybody been? What is going on? Who was
complicit with this? This Jennifer Powers and this Howard Rubert
(13:38):
And I'm not giving him a cute nickname because I
am disgusted in the name of all of the victims.
How was this allowed to go on for so long?
How did for instance, door men and medical professionals and
other people. It wasn't just these two doing all this,
not ten you know, not see things with these women.
And yes, in New York they just seem to float
(13:59):
because you know what happens new York happens in other
places too. Money talks. That's all people care about money
or taking a picture with somebody of wealth and floating
around town and showing up at events. But you know what,
people knew. People knew because we started hearing a lot
of whispers two to three years ago about this, and
we also heard that women were warning other women, do not,
(14:20):
no matter how much money is thrown at you, do
not go and visit with this guy. As they put
it to me, do not get near this guy. So
I ask everybody again, we're on repeat. Let's talk about
the victims, let's talk about who's helping them, and let's
talk about why the justice system is taking so long
to do anything about all of these cases.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I mean, who's next.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
I expect tomorrow another case to pop up in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
My case has been going on for years, speaking of
the perfect facade and this guy's philanthrop it worked, his
charity work, and how many dollars he gave away to
the needy, how many fancy gallas.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He went to?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What were the fads and the local authority's LA law enforcement?
My people blinded by his money and his local famele
I'm not blinded.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Here is part of his facade.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
Rubin becomes a Wall Street commodity while he trades bonds
at Solomon Brothers. Ruben profiled in Michael Lewis's book Liar's
Poker for his contributions to the collateralized mortgage obligation market.
Ruben goes on to senior positions at Merrill Lynch, bear
Stearn's and Soros Fund Management. Mary's fellow financier Mary Henry,
and the couple is very active in the NYC philanthropy scene.
(15:39):
After three children and thirty six years of marriage, Henry
divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Howard Rubin and his former assistant Jennifer Powers have allegedly
been drafficking and transporting at least half a dozen women
across state lines.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
For a decade.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
Most of these women were former playboy models.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
These women educated beautiful, many of them models, and he
would ictl like he's taking them out on a date.
We've spoken to restaurant employees state Oh, here comes Ruben,
Here comes horrible Howie, who had always had these beautiful,
statuesque women with him. They would charge like hundreds and hundreds,
(16:21):
even thousands of dollars dinners, and then he would take
them up to his penthouse. I don't know where his
wife was during all of this. And we're showing you
this because many of them were modeled after this.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It ruined their careers.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That is when they would be lured into his soundproof
sex dungeon. One thing that is perplexing me is a
woman named Jennifer Powers. Jennifer Powers, his personal yes, her
personal assistant.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
How does she fit into this listen.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Ruben Dash, Jennifer Powers, his personal assistant, was recruiting baked.
Powers is arrested at her home in a Dallas Fort
Worth suburb, accused of running the day to day operations
of Rubens sex trafficking scheme and being paid handsomely. Powers
arranged the victims travel and coerce them into signing NDAs
that were later used to threaten legal consequences and public shame.
(17:16):
Powers oversaw the victim's payments, distributing funds from Ruben and
amounts up to ten thousand dollars per session.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And NDA non disclosure agreement. You've heard of those. That's
where you get someone to sign away you've see in
exchange for something the ability to ever discuss what they
have witnessed? Okay, who is Jennifer Powers? The Devil's minion?
According to prosecutors Meghan Palin joining us from the New
(17:45):
York Post, Meghan, who is Powers?
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I was started out as Reuben's personal assistant in twenty eleven, and,
according to the indictment, quickly became basically.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
His aid for this alleged trafficking scheme.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
This guy, Howard Rubin, It's just amazing to me. Too,
Danny Rubin, no relation. I hope he had everything going
for him. He graduates with a degree in engineering that's
not easy from Lafayette College, then goes on and gets
his NBA at Harvard. I'm sure Harvard is so proud
(18:23):
tonight they yet another one of their NBA grats has
on gone onto greatness. He had everything going for him.
How did he degenerate into this? You know, very often
we see criminal defendants that, let's just say, our dope dealers,
no education, rap sheet as long as your arm starting
(18:45):
in juvenile court. This guy was pristine. He had a
choice not to do this.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Ruben.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, everyone's actions are their own. But
first and foremot Just wait, that's what you've got to say.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Everyone's actions are their own. Please, Reuben, tell me something
I don't know. I'm talking about someone with so much advantage,
a silver spoon stuck down their mouth at birth. They've
got it all, yet they resort to a life of crime,
horrible crime. This isn't a t by teeth if by taking,
(19:26):
This is not a five dollars crack kit. This is
violent crime on women where he would beat them and
their face and their breast. That's how that breast implant
got slipped. That didn't just happen. I mean, how do
you go from having it all to this?
Speaker 6 (19:43):
Well, there are two ways they look at this. The
first is is he is he doing this of his
own volition? Is it actually his own conduct or is
it the product of mental health issue? As Megan talked
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Please let me see him say this. Okay, you are
you do have a straight face. This is a Harvard
NBA worth millions and millions of dollars near forty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
He had the sense to call him, hey.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Hey, can you soundproof my sex dungeon so I can
torture flight attendants? Really, and you're saying there's a minimum?
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Seeing it's possible? I think that we can't rule it
out until someone takes a look at him and says, okay, well,
what's the issue. There's certainly a divide and certainly something
antisocial if what's said in the complaint is true, if
someone is actually working.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
A mental illness to hurt that antisocial Okay, what that's
not a mental illness? Anti social is But you're saying
mental illness and you're doing it antisocial, like that's misleading
people to think that is a mental illness rube and
it's not.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
It's cool. My point is that maybe I miss misspoke
by saying anti social. What I mean is that it's
not normal. Normal people aren't making sex dungeons. Normal people
aren't torturing other people just done. So the question is,
like you said before, why is it because you had
the privilege or because there's something else that's a little
bit deeper. Maybe it's both, but I think.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That are you suggesting motive You said that that's why
it's it's really not.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
State doesn't have to prove it. You do know you're right.
You can't just throw that out.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
There and pretend to think I'm not going to hear it.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
Oh. I just think it's going to be mitigative. I
think that if we if there is an issue of
mental health, of mental health, it may come up later
at sentencing, but I think the question is we and
I would owe it to a client, is to figure
out why this actually happened and at least get them assessed.
And like I said before, this is entirely adnorable behavior.
If what's in the complaint is true.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Crime, stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
In the Last Days, former financy year and depraved sex
traffic suspect. How is painted as a family man, a
loving father and grandfather who should be freed on bond
so he can spend time with his grandchildren. B s
(22:15):
technical legal response. And this is why I bet you
can't find one law book, one case that was actually
affirmed on peel that says antisocial behavior equals mental defect
or not normal as you put it, equals a mental
illness that's not going to happen. Can you point to
(22:37):
one of those books behind you and showed me one
case that was affirmed where that actually worked. Yes, I know,
we've got the twinkie defense, We've got the pre minsal defense,
we've got the temporary insanity defense. All of those aren't legit.
They've actually worked in court. But not normal or anti
social behavior has not worked as a mental defect.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
No, I completely agree with you. What I meant, what
I what I'm trying to say is that it's mitigated.
I think that if there is, let's say, a conviction
down the line, certainly that's going to factor into sentencing.
And I think that if you do have some sort
of mental health issue. The question is going to be
does it actually is it sufficient enough that he didn't
(23:23):
understand what he was doing was wrong at the time.
I don't necessarily think you'd get there with sufficient evidence.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Why do you think it was.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Chamber? It is a secret because he knew he had
to hide it, because he knows that beating women in their.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Breasts is wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Okay, you know what I have mind, this feel, I've
exhausted it. I'm gonna let Danny Rubin think about what
he just said. Doctor Bethany Marshall help me out. This
guy did so much to conceal his behavior, and as
I don't know, Ruby might come up with a case
that actually says differently, But I don't think so. Evidence before, during,
(24:05):
and after an event a crime can be shown to
a jury. Why what matters before and after the crime? Intent,
course of conduct, frame of mind, motive that shows for instance,
if you flee the scene, it shows, hey, I got
to get out of here. I know I just killed somebody,
(24:27):
or I just committed a crime. Keeping his sex dungeon
secretive to me would be evidence of knowledge of guilt.
But could you You got to hand it to Ruben
All right, he wins a lot of cases. And he
said all that with a straight face, and I would
say a good fifty percent of it was true.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Well, he said that Reuben had a site like a
mental health defect. He didn't. That would be schizophrenia, bipolar,
something like that. He wouldn't have got through Harvard with
a psychiatric disorder. Now, Rubin did say antisocial, which is
a fancy word for sociopath, So we could hold out
in the back of our minds, sociopaths relate to others
(25:10):
through cruelty and power illness. It is not a mental illness.
It's just a personality disorder. Nancy. Let's make clear Rubin
could only get an erection by beating women up. That's
it torturing them in reality. In the real world, he's
a little man with a huge compulsion. He goes to
(25:32):
these philanthropic events so he can mine for victims people
who are a sociopathic And I'm not sure I've never
seen him, but they want to associate with high network
individuals because they can get something from them. It makes
them feel powerful, it makes them feel big, and this
is what he wanted to feel with his victims down Nancy,
(25:53):
he was very manipulative. Okay, he offered them money, he
would take them to these fancy dinners and use the
term b DSM as if this was like a consensual
relationship with somebody tying another person up and then giving
them a safe word, and when that person says the
safe word, you know you release the ropes. This was
(26:15):
not that. This was a torture chamber dressed up as
something different. And one final thought, Nancy so Si passed,
where's something that we call the mask of sanity, meaning
they know that they're different from other people in society,
so they learn to move and act in a way
that appears normal so they can compensate for their defects,
(26:38):
when in fact, this guy had a compulsion that was
organizing his entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Bethany, please don't say defect anymore as it relates to
Howard Rubin, because Dan Danny Ruben will hear that and
he will run with it, claiming there's some kind of
mental defeate.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, I forgot Ruben.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I forgot to throw in about him graduate from Harvard.
Good luck trying to claim mental defect. You know you're
bringing to mind. Brian Coberger, I hadn't can say his
name and his attempt to claim he had some kind
of mental defect because he let's see, there were so
many things he tried. He tried that he was under
(27:19):
the spectrum ocd oh. At the end, it was sad
he was even claiming Danny. He was even claiming that
he had an eating disorder, as if that's somehow justified
what he did or it should be a mitigating factor
in sentencing.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
In the end, it worked out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
For him because he had a really weak prosecutor that
kind of let him off the hook. But Bethany, please,
I'll say defect again because Ruben of the Danny variety
will run with it like a dog and a bone.
Dan Murphy former NYPD detective sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force,
(27:57):
former chief security Officer, anchor and star of Gold Seals podcast,
also author Dan Usually, I agree with you, but I'd
like to point out that this is right down the
street from you, and everybody else knew what was going on,
since there was a civil suit back in twenty seventeen,
(28:20):
but nobody in LA law enforcement did anything.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Was he giving too much to the police fund?
Speaker 10 (28:29):
I wish I knew, I wish I knew why no
one did anything. Maybe maybe no one had come forward
and filed a formal complaint other than the civil one.
And as oddly as that sounds, there's a bureaucratic process
to filing police reports, to getting investigation started. Perhaps that
was the case. Perhaps someone looked into it and they
decided they needed more. Sometimes these investigations take a long
(28:50):
time to tie this upone, this one up right, You're
going to want to make sure you have credible witnesses.
You're going to want to make sure that you have
corroberative evidence, and you're going to want to make sure
you have somebody somebody flipping and giving this person up.
I would look to have tape recorded conversations with him
where he discusses this sort of thing. I'd look to
collect texts and emails and anything else I could that
(29:11):
can corroborate the stories being told by these victims. And
maybe that was going on. I don't know, but I
can tell you that the people I worked with the
law enforcement, if we had learned about this, they would
have been a case assistant.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Jennifer Powers would handle the operations, logistics, recruiting and booking
the women's flights, managing payments, restocking his dungeon, and getting
the women to sign NDA's Ruben apparently spending over one
million dollars to fund the enterprise.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
At what point do you look up and say, why
am I restocking a torture chamber? I really didn't imagine
as a little girl that I would grow up restocking
a torture chamber.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Who is this woman?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You just heard Dan Murphy from gold Shields podcast, former
NYPD detective sergeant that Dan Murphy talking about out when
was the first police report filed? Because cops can't just
go forward when nobody has made a complaint, even though
there was a twenty seventeen civil lawsuit laying all of
(30:12):
this out right now, the fat actually asking for victims
to come forward, much as they did in the Sean
Combs case. But I want to get to Jennifer Powers
because I find it very odd that she went along
lockstep with all of these crimes.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
According to police listen.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
For more than ten years, Powers entire life funded by
financi your boss Howard Ruben down to her iTunes account.
Ruben's funding kicks in in twenty twelve, allowing Powers to
afford a nineteen sixty six convertible Lincoln Continental as a
wedding gift to her husband. The couple takes lavish vacations
in following years when their children are old enough to
attend school, Ruben Bank rules, private educations, and even a
(30:53):
mortgage for a home in the wealthy south Lake suburb
for Powers.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Holy moly.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Okay, wait, he paid for a lavish wedding convertible Link
and Continental Vintage, pays for a children's private school, and
the mortgage for their home and a ritzy suburb in
South Lake. Okay, you know what. It took criminal investigators
(31:25):
a long time to finally try and bring this guy down.
The guess who is about three inches up their tail pipe.
When criminal prosecutions fail, the taxman does the cleanup Listen.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Despite Powers working part time as a substitute teacher in
carol isd and her DJ husband reporting just forty thousand
dollars in income since twenty eighteen, the family pays off
five hundred thousand dollars in credit card bills, lives in
a home valued at one point seven million dollars. The
children attend private school, and they take luxurious family vacations.
(32:05):
The IRS finds the Powers failed to report nearly nine
million dollars in income received from Howard Ruben, Jennifer Power's
former boss. The couple is charged with tax fraud, for
which neither have made a first appearance.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Right row, what happened to Megan Palin? I mean, if
the local authorities LA law enforcement won't lift a finger,
the tax men will, right, Okay, what is this all about?
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Look, they've been living a life of luxury by all
accounts for many years. Social media posts have emerged from
Jennifer Powers that show them on all of these luxury
holidays all around the world, and they had I think
it was nearly nine million dollars in total given to
them by Ruben. So for her, she's obviously benefited greatly
(32:54):
from this partnership.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Guys, this would not be the first time the tax
man and did the dirty work for law enforcement. I'm
sorry to say that right to your face. Dan Murphy,
former NYPD to take to sergeant Joint Terrorism Task Force.
It goes on and on and on. I mean, you've
heard of al Capone, right Murphy, al Capone, the head
(33:21):
of the mob him and you've probably heard of Wesley Snipes,
the famous actor MC hammer. Remember the hammer.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It goes on.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Willie Nelson, Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, all of them, all
of them got into a tangle with the taxman Danny Ruben.
When Ellie won't lift a finger and won't go forward,
the Irs will and you better run. Like you see
the grim Reaper outside your living room window, just staring
(33:55):
at you. Oh yeah, and I'm not talking about hey, hey,
you have to pay us back. They will put you
in jail and you will rot in there.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
That is one hundred percent right. And let me tell
you it is very clear that I am that anyone
should respect and fear the Irs. Everyone should should report
their taxes as they should. In fact, make sure you
do it right, make sure you do it often. They
are merciless. And many times, as you said before, they
(34:28):
brought down al Capone. When Elliott Ness couldn't bring down
al Capone and they couldn't find anything on them, the
Irs did and they got it for taxi vision and
put them in Algatratz. So it is a very stupid
person who does not respect the Irs.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Man, I'm telling you, like I said, grim Raper looking
in your kitchen window. You try to make some coffee
there they are staring at you. Don't do it, you know,
I want to get to the phenomena. And I've seen
it before Danny Rubin, and I'm sure you have two
where you have a thug in this case Ruben Howard
(35:01):
Ruben aka Horrible Howie. But why would someone go along
with his crimes? I'm talking about powers? Why would she
go along with it? I mean she has everything, she's got,
this husband, this home, these children, for Pete's sake, we
(35:21):
risked all of that just for money?
Speaker 10 (35:24):
Hell no?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Why?
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I mean it's probably a number of things. Again, assuming
everything that complained is true, we're talking about it. Access
to not just money, but a lot of money. Nine
million dollars is a lot of money. And you're hobnaming
with people who are of very high social status and
very high wealth individuals. I mean, you don't just get
that access from anyone, and being part of that world
(35:51):
can change you. Being part of that world gets you
access to things you wouldn't normally get and sometimes if
you're asked to do something distasteful, maybe it's one of
the it's that access which keeps you coming back, and
eventually you become dependent on it. You start going on
let's say, vacations or private school or whatever, and you
start to get those golden handcuffs where now you're roped
(36:12):
in sometimes and as you do things over time, potentially
it doesn't seem as bad as it was yesterday or
the day before, and tomorrow is going to be a
little better. As you get more and more accustomed to it,
it can be wharping to your personality.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Doctor Bethany Marshall is living high on the hog, having
all the luxury trips, the beautiful home, they ventage, convertible car,
the private skills, all that. Is it like an addiction?
Speaker 3 (36:41):
No, I think the money is only a small part
of it. I think in every organization, usually these kinds
of criminal enterprises, there is a woman somewhere who is
willing to abuse other women. Look, we saw it with
Gilan Maxwell, with the Jeffrey Epstein case. What about the
FLDS cult where there were women within that organization suppressing
(37:04):
other women. So I would believe that I would guess
that Jennifer Powers has in her very personality or her
character the capacity for great cruelty towards other people. Otherwise
she wouldn't do this. She seems very bright, and like
she could have made money otherways, get a job, you know,
(37:24):
for God's sake, but she must feel and take some
secret satisfaction in women being punished, tortured, electrocuted and then
texting this guy Ruben back and forth about it. So
when women act in concert with a man to abuse
(37:44):
other people, it is always nancy because they are taking
some pleasure and satisfaction from it, beyond the monetary game.
That's just icing on the cake. But they are sayis themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Guys, it's not just dumb doing his bidding.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
When you see their text messages back and forth between
each other.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's sick.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Listen.
Speaker 9 (38:09):
In text messages, Ruben shares horrifying details of his exploits
with Powers and casual conversation, Powers asks for details. When
Ruben says he used the cross in his last session,
I can only imagine what you did to her on
that cross. Did you shock her? Ruben responds with a
complaint that his cattle prod isn't as strong as it
used to be.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Lynshaw, this is the type of conversation that I would
expect from a pimp talking to another pimp about how
some of the Johns torture the women or the girls.
This is a guy in your neighborhood that attends all
of these glitzy gallas raising money. Yeah, him for the needy,
(38:55):
a multi millionaire Harvard grad and his hints person the
reals abub to his satan. They're laughing about shocking ladies
genitals with a shot device after forcing her, binding her
to across.
Speaker 8 (39:14):
Listen to what we're talking about, Jennifer Powers, do you
know how disappointing and horrific she is a woman doing
this to other women, all of the cases I can
think of. I'm sitting here trying to think in my
mind there's now a woman involved. They're doing all the
dirty work, and this woman is laughing about all of
this and taking joy. And I agree a thousand percent
(39:36):
with doctor Bethany. She really nailed it. There's something wrong
with this woman. And my goodness, couldn't she even think
of her children and clean it up and get out
of this or not do it at all. But here's
the thing, this is why we have women who don't
want to come forward. Girls who don't want to come forward.
They see another woman does this, and they're seeing again
(39:56):
that dynamic of power wealth, and they're seeing it wasted
on this and this is why we can't get them
to come into court to testify. It's falling apart. This
is another case, another example, and again a woman doing
this to another woman. I can't imagine. This is just
not exploitation. This is morally corrupt. This is evil, evil happening.
(40:17):
And you know what, I'm just going to throw this in.
A friend of mine in real estate said, there's a
big demand lately. She told me this about three months
ago for these sex dungeons and people's apartments here in
New York. How horrific is this that people are normalizing
and becoming habituated to these terrorist acts horrific on women.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
The majority of the victims are women.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
To Sidney Sumner joining me Crime Stories Investigative Reporter in
other text messages, Sidney Sumner, isn't it true that this
hint person Powers? Jennifer Powers speaks freely, even in writing,
in text messages, recorded conversations. For instance, I don't care
(41:03):
if she screams next to a laughing face emoji, words
like this will be fun, exclamation, exclamation, another she hates submits,
she's so desperate, We've got to make her cry stating
that they will give the victim quote plenty of valuume
(41:24):
so she can endure more pain. Repeat, We've got to
make her cry. That's part of the state's evidence, is
it not, Sidney Sumner.
Speaker 11 (41:34):
Absolutely, and not only were these conversations over text message,
but on Ruben's work email discussing what was happening in
that sex dungeon. So these text messages evidence that Ruben
was just so brutal. He enjoyed the women's pain. It
was a horrible situation, and Ruben and Powers are just
(42:00):
talking about it casually over text, laughing about the victim's pain.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Danny Rubin, The defense has a big problem when these
text messages come out with the laughing face emoji beside
their plans. Have you read this indictment? According to the state,
the defendant, Howard Ruben would conduct sex sessions like say felonies,
(42:27):
multiple times a week, sometimes on consecutive days, one after
the next, after the next. Where was the wife did
she not notice anything weird was happening? It goes on
and on and on. But when you have your client
Danny using work email to plan a crime, they're basically, uh,
(42:50):
let me just say.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Creek without a paddle.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
They wrote it down Nanny on the work email.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
Yeah, that's that's not a great fact. I think what
they're going to want to focus on is whether or
not the acts were consented to. And I know, I
know how the complaint reads. I know that there's a
civil case. But just because some and part of it is,
they're going to want to introduce the NBA's they're going
to want introduce the fact that there's a presumption of consent.
(43:19):
Of course, you can revoke consent at any time. Many
of the women and the complaints said that they did.
But they're going to want to show that there was consented,
that it was not revoked, the consent was properly obtained,
and that this this after discussion about what it occurred,
is going to be tangential to.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The consent crime stories with Nancy Grace. His estranged wife,
Mary Henry writes, quote, I understand far too well the
(43:57):
series charges before the court. I can speak from my
own experience when I say they do not represent the
Howie Ruben. I saw a caring father, a loving son
in law, a devoted grandfather known affectionately as Pops. Well
that's not what the women called him as they were
(44:18):
bound to a cross and tortured with an electric prod. Oh, sorry, misstatement.
They couldn't say anything because they were gagged. Women.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
These women, many of them, consented to a date.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
They did not know that they were going to be
handcuffed to a cross in a dungeon and be shocked
with a cattle prod all over their body to where
they were screaming if they could, because many of them
were gagged. According to court documents, they couldn't even scream.
They would be passed out, they would be drugged. And says,
(44:57):
how can you consent to that?
Speaker 1 (44:59):
How can you can sent.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
To a crime?
Speaker 10 (45:02):
You can't in a case like this, These people were
absolutely sold a bill of goods that turned out to
be completely and sadly incorrect. He's a manipulator, he's a liar.
He knows how to get people to do what he
wants them to do. He knows how to keep it secret,
he knows how to pay people off. He knows how
to do all the things we've seen now in the
Ditty case, the Epstein case, and who knows how many
(45:24):
more cases like this out there. Money talks as well
as persuasion, Manipulating people is something these people do very
very well, and in this case they did that, but
it fell apart, as they all do at some point,
it falls apart. Now in this case, these poor women,
they went up there thinking it was going to be
a date, maybe they were going to make a few
(45:44):
bucks whatever. They had no idea what they were going
getting themselves into. And that is a very very scary thing.
And I can imagine that the wealth and power of
this individual and his world scared them into silence for
a long time. You have a few maoris in this foot.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
I'm not imbursing you.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
It's just that I don't I don't feel comfortable.
Speaker 6 (46:04):
I don't have a fight with beautiful preeze.
Speaker 7 (46:06):
If I'm not going to do anything, I swear my
children please come in on everything.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
I'm a famous guy, very uncomfortable. He's coming now and
one minute.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
And if you want to leave when the guy comes.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
In my tree, I please.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'm sorry, I just come on. I'm used to that.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
That was another all time a whole that was Harvey Weinstein,
and he was threatening and coercing Ambra Mattaliana into sex acts,
unwanted sex acts, and the same techniques were used to
(46:45):
Meghan Palin joining us from the incredible New York Post. Meghan,
the defense there and the defense here is that these
women agreed to what was happening and then had second
thoughts when it was over or it went too far.
(47:06):
Bottom line, that they essentially consented to the acts. Apparently,
finally LA law enforcement came out of their trance and
started investigating this case and it's file charges. They apparently
disagree with that theory of consent.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious that things change once
they got there, because even after the case, once they'd
left this sex dungeon, there's text messages that have come
out that show that these women were texting Jennifer Powers
explained that their injuries were so severe to various degrees,
and she was responding telling them to ice them to
(47:50):
deal with them in other such ways. These were all
sort of like it appears to be part of the
management at the aftermath of things that they certainly weren't
expecting to get out of it. When they entered this apartment, which,
by the way, I know you mentioned earlier that you'd
wondered where his.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
Wife had been.
Speaker 5 (48:07):
This penthouse was not his residential property. It was least
eighteen thousand dollars a month, specifically for these sexual escapades
that he was having there.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Megan, I'm curious you're describing how powers the catch person,
the secretary, as you said, managed the victims. What were
there injuries that we know of?
Speaker 5 (48:34):
Well, I mean, the most severe one that we've heard
of so far was the breast implant that was flipped
upside down because she'd been beaten so hard by Reuben
with a closed fist that it had physically switched sides
within her body and then later required surgery. Others were
talking about bruising and pain to their bodies and whatnot.
(48:57):
The full extent of the injuries we haven't heard yet.
I guess it's all going to come out at some stage,
but they were severed from the details that we have
heard so far, particularly the breasting plan.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
To doctor Bethony Marshall, I know you just heard our
friend Megan Palin from the New York Post to be
a lady in her breasts so violently it flips the implant.
Just how does anyone derive pleasure out of that?
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Nancy? This is what we call a perversion, and specifically
this is sexual sadism, where watching the humiliation, the suffering,
and the fear of the victim causes the perpetrator to
become sexually aroused. Now, what's interesting is that men with
sexual sadism, they have a very hard time becoming aroused
(49:52):
in normal ways with normal women out in the world.
So if they were having lunch date or in a
business meeting or something where there where it's an equal
playing field with other women, this guy would have lost
interest in those women. He can't deal with real people
with thoughts, feelings, and emotions of their own. But there
is some theory that when that aggression and sexuality is
(50:17):
processed through the same part of the brain, and in
brain scans with these kinds of perpetrators, the amygdala lights up.
The aggression center of the brain, the part of the
brain that's responsible for sexual pleasure, also lights up. So
these two things are kind of fused and confused. Aggression arousal,
(50:40):
those two things go together in this disorder. And also
it's a compulsion. People with compulsions, as I said earlier,
they organize their entire life around the compulsion. So everything
you look at that he did, even getting married and
having children, that might have just been a way to
cover up his sexual deviancy so he could pass as
normal in society.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Danny Ruben veterans try a lawyer out of LA. I
got a question for you. It's a personal question. When
you're representing people such as Howard Ruben and you're sitting
there beside them, do you ever get totally disgusted, totally
schethed out and just want to, like, right now, even
(51:23):
talking about this, I just want to get it, run
out of the studio, screaming as if I'd seen a monster.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (51:32):
How do you quell those thoughts that aversion and keep
a straight face and keep doing it because that's your
duty as a defense lawyer, to the utmost of your
ability to save your client. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 6 (51:50):
I look at all the facts, the first and foremost.
I don't judge clients as to what happened. That's obviously
if you if you have to do that, and you
do that, you have no busines as being a defense attorney.
The fact is, I look at the facts, the documents,
look what they say, and I look at what the
testimony shows, and I want to determine what, if anything,
(52:11):
our defenses are, and then what the prosecution has to prove.
It's the prosecution's job to get in there and make
their case. And if they can make their case, my
job is exceedingly difficult. That's true, And again it's up
to them. When I sit next to a client and
the client is accused of this, I look at it
just like that. He is accused. He is not guilty.
(52:34):
He has not done these things until a jury of
our peers says that he has. And it is my
job to take a look at that evidence, to present
the evidence to the jury, and the jury can make
the decision based on the evidence that they have.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
The estranged wife of financier Howard Ruben quote, he would
never abandon his family. He has always placed him at
the center of his life, as they remain his greatest
source of strength, she writes to federal Judge Brian Coogan.
He would never abandon his family. Oh, well, where was
(53:07):
he all those nights he was torturing women in his
soundproof sex dungeon. He wasn't at home making tomato soup
and cheese sandwiches. He always placed him at the center
of his life. No, he didn't he spent hours and
hours and hours a week planning and arranging torture sessions.
Federal prosecutors accuse Reuben of alluring dozens That means at
(53:32):
least twenty four women to his sound proof sex dungeon,
where he tied them up, gagged them, beat them, and
electrocuted them. But now his wife insists he's really misunderstood.
(53:53):
He's just a family man. Okay, that's bs. Either love
is blind or money has blinded her.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
We wait as justice.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Good Bye
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
In the last hours, the wife of a money manager
sex trafficker suspect Howard Ruben insists her husband is quote
a family man who should be freed on bond. I'm
(00:28):
Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us. Yes, love is blind. I
guess former financier and depraved sex trafficker suspect millionaire Howard
Ruben is actually a loving grandfather and father who should
(00:50):
walk free on fifty million dollars bond. And he's got
it too, by the way, says his wife in new
court documents. If he's such a great fan, family man
and you love him so much, why are you estranged?
Why weren't you living together in holy matrimony? Mary Henry
(01:11):
writes a letter to the court demanding the judge spring
her bond trading husband Howard Ruben on a whopper bell
package so he can continue quote spending time with his
three young grandchildren translation torturing women and his sap dungeon.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Oh who said that? Oh? It was me?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Has she lost her mind? Or is he paying her
to write this letter? That's possible because this is what
we know. Poward Ruben, multi millionaire financier.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
A money manager.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's what he's called a money manager. He manages other
people's money, much like Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein, who apparently brought in,
you know, a couple of million dollars, but somehow I
was transferring out five hundred million dollars to overseas accounts,
(02:06):
including Russian banks that were on the US watch list.
What is it with these money managers? And how does
this guy, not Epstein, but Reuben allegedly lure women, educated
women into his sex dungeon that he personally had sound proofed. Okay,
(02:31):
right there, right there, I need a shrink. Right now,
let's go straight out to doctor Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining
us out of LA She's the author of deal Breaker.
You can see her now on Peacock and find her
at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Right there, a soundproof dungeon.
I mean, when an artisan a worker gets to call
(02:53):
from a dude that wants to sound proofed dungeon and
you go in there and you see it's a torture chamber,
doesn't that like wave a red flag of alarm? What
freak wants a sound proof torture dungeon, a freak who
has sexual sadism disorder.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
In other words, somebody who can only get sexually aroused
when the victim is humiliated, frightened, or terrified.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
And Nancy.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Maybe this is why he's a financial planner. Maybe he
needed to make a lot of money so he could
build that dungeon and buy all of that equipment.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, let's just take it from the top.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Listen to this Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin busted
by Feds at his Fairfield Connectic get home for decade
long sex trafficking with the help of assistant Jennifer Powers.
Howie Rubin accused of luring women into BDSM sex sessions,
then torturing and raping them. Ken Jane Doees listed as
victims in the indictment, but prosecutors say there are dozens
(03:51):
more and are calling for tips.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Joining me an all star panel to make sense of
what we know. Right now, Straight out to Megan Palin,
your journalist from the New York Post who has been
all over this. I mean really now, everybody here in
the studio is piping up that it only costs five
thousand dollars to soundproof a dungeon. I don't know where
(04:14):
they have that knowledge. But that said, this guy, I
wouldn't call him just a money manager with you because
he's he's worth millions and millions of dollars. I don't
mean one or two million dollars, I mean multi millions
of dollars. And this has been going on for a
long time. Why has it just been uncovered? But let's
(04:37):
just start at the beginning. Who is this guy?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Howard Ruben.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
He grew up in Massachusetts. He's got a chemical engineering degree.
He was very successful on Wall Street once he moved in,
originally as a bond trader and then kind of climbed
his way up through the ranks from there and ended
up becoming so successful at least financially.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And he moved around in.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
For trophy philanthropic circles. He was well known for donating.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Hug the way, put her up, Put her up, Megan Palin,
you just said he quote moved around in philanthropic circles.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You mean he was a benefactor.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
He gave a lot of money away, and everybody thinks, oh,
Howard Rubens, this great guy that cares about the needy
b s. According to police, Megan, he is strapping women
to the Holy Cross, you know, and I feel about
that and other apparatus, and then electrocuting them in their genitals.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
With an electric cattle prod.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Let's say that's what gets my attention, not his fate philanthropy,
of course.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
And absolutely it's what he was known for.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Prior to while he was obviously hiding or it was
a well kept secret in terms of publicly this extremely sadistic, dark,
horrid side of himself, which is now. I mean, the
claims first came out about ten years ago, so he
has been known for these things for some time now.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But this is sort of very way wait wait, wait again.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but Megan.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Did you say that this was this was like an
open secret.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Everyone knew what was happening ten years ago when their
first civil suit was filed in twenty seventeen. Yes, that's
when it all first sort of coming here, he started
coming undone.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Okay, first civil suit was over, was about ten years ago, Okay,
joining me right now is a renowned criminal defense attorney,
a veteran trial lawyer, founder of Reuben Law. No relation.
I assume Danny Ruben is joining us out of La Danny,
before you put on your defense hat and start arguing
with me, Ken, I just talked about the duality here,
(06:59):
the d of going to these you know, ten thousand
dollars a plate, philanthropic events dinners where rich people walk
around sniffing of each other, and it's a scene. It's
a scene like a nightclub scene, or you know, just
any scene. The same people go over and over and over,
(07:22):
and I'm glad they do, because they do wonderful things
for the needy. But the facade that he has created
of this benefactor while all the time the word is
he's torturing women and a sex dungeon after luring them.
There just that duality, you know, you tell that to
(07:43):
a jury, it's like putting a nun up for the defense.
Of course they're going to a believer.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
I mean, I think that the duality is important. I
agree with you. On the one hand, it might be
a mask to what's going on elsewhere. On the other
he might actually care about certain things that he's donating to.
But I do want to say that these things are
alleged right now, They're they're not a given, they're not proven,
and he's innocent soil proven guilty. I think we have
(08:13):
a lot more to get into before we can start
casting judgment on whether.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Did or didn't Reuben. Anybody watching crime stories knows about
the presumption of innocence, and as predicted, you only gave
the first portion of that charge to the jury, or
presumption of innocence, and I believe you will agree with
me that the actual charge is that the defendant is
(08:41):
presumed innocent. I would like to see him, please, that's
not him. The charge is to the jury that the
defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the state pierces
an overcome that presumption with evidence proving guilt beyond a
(09:05):
reasonable doubt. You always seem to kind of leave off
the left hat last half of that sentence regarding presumption
of innocence.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Ruben is presumed innocent.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
He is innocent tonight unless and until the state pierces
the presumption of innocence with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
Would you agree that that is the judicial charge.
Speaker 6 (09:29):
I agree that that's the charge. But all we have
right now is the public is the indictment, and whatever's
in the civil suit. I personally am looking forward to
what transpires in this case. I want to see what
the alleged witnesses have to say. A grand jury has
heard it. I would like to hear it. I think
the public should hear it. And I think as we
get closer to trial date than this, if it does
(09:51):
ever go to trial, we'll start to hear more and
more about the evidence.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Danny Rubin another question to you, and again, this is
neither defansw er state oriented. It's like a horrible deja vous.
It's happening all over again. We just saw this with
Sean Combs, we saw it with r. Kelly, we saw
it with Epstein over and over and over. Where As
(10:17):
you just heard Megan Palin with the New York Post
state that there was a civil suit alleging the same
things in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Where's the government? Where are they?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Why has it taken them seven years to bring this
case to a criminal trial.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I have a problem with that.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
What have they been doing?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
I think what they were waiting for was the trial
that took place I believe in twenty twenty two or
twenty twenty three. They wanted to see what testimony came out,
and I think that Howard testified in that case, both
at his deposition and that a trial. They want to
make sure that they have a slam dunk case, considering
they have an egg on their face from the Ditty case.
I know that when we all know that didn't go
(11:01):
the way that the Ausa's office wanted it to go.
Getting four years in change is not was not the
goal of the office. So I think now they're bringing
this case and they want to make sure they have
an ironclad I can't promise you they do. No one
really knows that yet. But again, as more evidence comes out,
(11:21):
we'll see how well cooked this case is.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Guys, this guy with every advantage still charged with major
major offenses, sex offenses and more.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Who is this guy?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Listen?
Speaker 7 (11:37):
Ruben is accused of luring victims, first in luxury Manhattan
hotels and later his eighteen thousand dollars per month penthouse
apartment equipped with a soundproof sex dungeon. Women were bound
on a bed or across and beaten and electrocuted while
they were provided with a safe word. The pleas of
those who weren't gagged went ignored, and the torture often
(11:57):
continued even when a woman fell on conscious. Ruben allegedly
paid the women several thousand dollars afterwards, including for injuries
that required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, that sounds really painful, a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It goes so much further than that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Lin Shaw joining me, founder and director of Lynn's Warriors,
dedicated to the eradication of sexploitation of women and sex trafficking.
And let me remind you it is a non profit.
She's certainly not doing it for the money. How is
it that these multimillionaires mingle at, for instance, charity functions
(12:39):
for ten twenty thousand dollars a plate for Pete's sake,
and nobody will call them on their bad behavior. And
we see it over and over again. There's Diddy, we
pointed out, this is are near with NXVM. There is Epstein,
there is are Kelly, there's year in Fogel. I mean,
(13:01):
I could just list him off the top of my head,
on and on and on rich or famous.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
People that get away with this.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And as in your backyard, Landshaw, what you may have
brust ams with this guy.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I am living in the devil's playground.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
This building is around the corner for me, and it
has tighter security than Fort Knox did. He was arrested
directly across the street. Epstein was a neighbor. I ask you,
where has everybody been? What is going on? Who was
complicit with this? This Jennifer Powers and this Howard Rubert
(13:38):
And I'm not giving him a cute nickname because I
am disgusted in the name of all of the victims.
How was this allowed to go on for so long?
How did for instance, door men and medical professionals and
other people. It wasn't just these two doing all this,
not ten you know, not see things with these women.
And yes, in New York they just seem to float
(13:59):
because you know what happens new York happens in other
places too. Money talks. That's all people care about money
or taking a picture with somebody of wealth and floating
around town and showing up at events. But you know what,
people knew. People knew because we started hearing a lot
of whispers two to three years ago about this, and
we also heard that women were warning other women, do not,
(14:20):
no matter how much money is thrown at you, do
not go and visit with this guy. As they put
it to me, do not get near this guy. So
I ask everybody again, we're on repeat. Let's talk about
the victims, let's talk about who's helping them, and let's
talk about why the justice system is taking so long
to do anything about all of these cases.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I mean, who's next.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
I expect tomorrow another case to pop up in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
My case has been going on for years, speaking of
the perfect facade and this guy's philanthrop it worked, his
charity work, and how many dollars he gave away to
the needy, how many fancy gallas.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He went to?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What were the fads and the local authority's LA law enforcement?
My people blinded by his money and his local famele
I'm not blinded.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Here is part of his facade.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
Rubin becomes a Wall Street commodity while he trades bonds
at Solomon Brothers. Ruben profiled in Michael Lewis's book Liar's
Poker for his contributions to the collateralized mortgage obligation market.
Ruben goes on to senior positions at Merrill Lynch, bear
Stearn's and Soros Fund Management. Mary's fellow financier Mary Henry,
and the couple is very active in the NYC philanthropy scene.
(15:39):
After three children and thirty six years of marriage, Henry
divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Howard Rubin and his former assistant Jennifer Powers have allegedly
been drafficking and transporting at least half a dozen women
across state lines.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
For a decade.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
Most of these women were former playboy models.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
These women educated beautiful, many of them models, and he
would ictl like he's taking them out on a date.
We've spoken to restaurant employees state Oh, here comes Ruben,
Here comes horrible Howie, who had always had these beautiful,
statuesque women with him. They would charge like hundreds and hundreds,
(16:21):
even thousands of dollars dinners, and then he would take
them up to his penthouse. I don't know where his
wife was during all of this. And we're showing you
this because many of them were modeled after this.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It ruined their careers.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That is when they would be lured into his soundproof
sex dungeon. One thing that is perplexing me is a
woman named Jennifer Powers. Jennifer Powers, his personal yes, her
personal assistant.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
How does she fit into this listen.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Ruben Dash, Jennifer Powers, his personal assistant, was recruiting baked.
Powers is arrested at her home in a Dallas Fort
Worth suburb, accused of running the day to day operations
of Rubens sex trafficking scheme and being paid handsomely. Powers
arranged the victims travel and coerce them into signing NDAs
that were later used to threaten legal consequences and public shame.
(17:16):
Powers oversaw the victim's payments, distributing funds from Ruben and
amounts up to ten thousand dollars per session.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And NDA non disclosure agreement. You've heard of those. That's
where you get someone to sign away you've see in
exchange for something the ability to ever discuss what they
have witnessed? Okay, who is Jennifer Powers? The Devil's minion?
According to prosecutors Meghan Palin joining us from the New
(17:45):
York Post, Meghan, who is Powers?
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I was started out as Reuben's personal assistant in twenty eleven, and,
according to the indictment, quickly became basically.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
His aid for this alleged trafficking scheme.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
This guy, Howard Rubin, It's just amazing to me. Too,
Danny Rubin, no relation. I hope he had everything going
for him. He graduates with a degree in engineering that's
not easy from Lafayette College, then goes on and gets
his NBA at Harvard. I'm sure Harvard is so proud
(18:23):
tonight they yet another one of their NBA grats has
on gone onto greatness. He had everything going for him.
How did he degenerate into this? You know, very often
we see criminal defendants that, let's just say, our dope dealers,
no education, rap sheet as long as your arm starting
(18:45):
in juvenile court. This guy was pristine. He had a
choice not to do this.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Ruben.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, everyone's actions are their own. But
first and foremot Just wait, that's what you've got to say.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Everyone's actions are their own. Please, Reuben, tell me something
I don't know. I'm talking about someone with so much advantage,
a silver spoon stuck down their mouth at birth. They've
got it all, yet they resort to a life of crime,
horrible crime. This isn't a t by teeth if by taking,
(19:26):
This is not a five dollars crack kit. This is
violent crime on women where he would beat them and
their face and their breast. That's how that breast implant
got slipped. That didn't just happen. I mean, how do
you go from having it all to this?
Speaker 6 (19:43):
Well, there are two ways they look at this. The
first is is he is he doing this of his
own volition? Is it actually his own conduct or is
it the product of mental health issue? As Megan talked
about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Please let me see him say this. Okay, you are
you do have a straight face. This is a Harvard
NBA worth millions and millions of dollars near forty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
He had the sense to call him, hey.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Hey, can you soundproof my sex dungeon so I can
torture flight attendants? Really, and you're saying there's a minimum?
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Seeing it's possible? I think that we can't rule it
out until someone takes a look at him and says, okay, well,
what's the issue. There's certainly a divide and certainly something
antisocial if what's said in the complaint is true, if
someone is actually working.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
A mental illness to hurt that antisocial Okay, what that's
not a mental illness? Anti social is But you're saying
mental illness and you're doing it antisocial, like that's misleading
people to think that is a mental illness rube and
it's not.
Speaker 6 (20:49):
It's cool. My point is that maybe I miss misspoke
by saying anti social. What I mean is that it's
not normal. Normal people aren't making sex dungeons. Normal people
aren't torturing other people just done. So the question is,
like you said before, why is it because you had
the privilege or because there's something else that's a little
bit deeper. Maybe it's both, but I think.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That are you suggesting motive You said that that's why
it's it's really not.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
State doesn't have to prove it. You do know you're right.
You can't just throw that out.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
There and pretend to think I'm not going to hear it.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
Oh. I just think it's going to be mitigative. I
think that if we if there is an issue of
mental health, of mental health, it may come up later
at sentencing, but I think the question is we and
I would owe it to a client, is to figure
out why this actually happened and at least get them assessed.
And like I said before, this is entirely adnorable behavior.
If what's in the complaint is true.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Crime, stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
In the Last Days, former financy year and depraved sex
traffic suspect. How is painted as a family man, a
loving father and grandfather who should be freed on bond
so he can spend time with his grandchildren. B s
(22:15):
technical legal response. And this is why I bet you
can't find one law book, one case that was actually
affirmed on peel that says antisocial behavior equals mental defect
or not normal as you put it, equals a mental
illness that's not going to happen. Can you point to
(22:37):
one of those books behind you and showed me one
case that was affirmed where that actually worked. Yes, I know,
we've got the twinkie defense, We've got the pre minsal defense,
we've got the temporary insanity defense. All of those aren't legit.
They've actually worked in court. But not normal or anti
social behavior has not worked as a mental defect.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
No, I completely agree with you. What I meant, what
I what I'm trying to say is that it's mitigated.
I think that if there is, let's say, a conviction
down the line, certainly that's going to factor into sentencing.
And I think that if you do have some sort
of mental health issue. The question is going to be
does it actually is it sufficient enough that he didn't
(23:23):
understand what he was doing was wrong at the time.
I don't necessarily think you'd get there with sufficient evidence.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Why do you think it was.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Chamber? It is a secret because he knew he had
to hide it, because he knows that beating women in their.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Breasts is wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Okay, you know what I have mind, this feel, I've
exhausted it. I'm gonna let Danny Rubin think about what
he just said. Doctor Bethany Marshall help me out. This
guy did so much to conceal his behavior, and as
I don't know, Ruby might come up with a case
that actually says differently, But I don't think so. Evidence before, during,
(24:05):
and after an event a crime can be shown to
a jury. Why what matters before and after the crime? Intent,
course of conduct, frame of mind, motive that shows for instance,
if you flee the scene, it shows, hey, I got
to get out of here. I know I just killed somebody,
(24:27):
or I just committed a crime. Keeping his sex dungeon
secretive to me would be evidence of knowledge of guilt.
But could you You got to hand it to Ruben
All right, he wins a lot of cases. And he
said all that with a straight face, and I would
say a good fifty percent of it was true.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Well, he said that Reuben had a site like a
mental health defect. He didn't. That would be schizophrenia, bipolar,
something like that. He wouldn't have got through Harvard with
a psychiatric disorder. Now, Rubin did say antisocial, which is
a fancy word for sociopath, So we could hold out
in the back of our minds, sociopaths relate to others
(25:10):
through cruelty and power illness. It is not a mental illness.
It's just a personality disorder. Nancy. Let's make clear Rubin
could only get an erection by beating women up. That's
it torturing them in reality. In the real world, he's
a little man with a huge compulsion. He goes to
(25:32):
these philanthropic events so he can mine for victims people
who are a sociopathic And I'm not sure I've never
seen him, but they want to associate with high network
individuals because they can get something from them. It makes
them feel powerful, it makes them feel big, and this
is what he wanted to feel with his victims down Nancy,
(25:53):
he was very manipulative. Okay, he offered them money, he
would take them to these fancy dinners and use the
term b DSM as if this was like a consensual
relationship with somebody tying another person up and then giving
them a safe word, and when that person says the
safe word, you know you release the ropes. This was
(26:15):
not that. This was a torture chamber dressed up as
something different. And one final thought, Nancy so Si passed,
where's something that we call the mask of sanity, meaning
they know that they're different from other people in society,
so they learn to move and act in a way
that appears normal so they can compensate for their defects,
(26:38):
when in fact, this guy had a compulsion that was
organizing his entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Bethany, please don't say defect anymore as it relates to
Howard Rubin, because Dan Danny Ruben will hear that and
he will run with it, claiming there's some kind of
mental defeate.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, I forgot Ruben.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I forgot to throw in about him graduate from Harvard.
Good luck trying to claim mental defect. You know you're
bringing to mind. Brian Coberger, I hadn't can say his
name and his attempt to claim he had some kind
of mental defect because he let's see, there were so
many things he tried. He tried that he was under
(27:19):
the spectrum ocd oh. At the end, it was sad
he was even claiming Danny. He was even claiming that
he had an eating disorder, as if that's somehow justified
what he did or it should be a mitigating factor
in sentencing.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
In the end, it worked out pretty well.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
For him because he had a really weak prosecutor that
kind of let him off the hook. But Bethany, please,
I'll say defect again because Ruben of the Danny variety
will run with it like a dog and a bone.
Dan Murphy former NYPD detective sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force,
(27:57):
former chief security Officer, anchor and star of Gold Seals podcast,
also author Dan Usually, I agree with you, but I'd
like to point out that this is right down the
street from you, and everybody else knew what was going on,
since there was a civil suit back in twenty seventeen,
(28:20):
but nobody in LA law enforcement did anything.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Was he giving too much to the police fund?
Speaker 10 (28:29):
I wish I knew, I wish I knew why no
one did anything. Maybe maybe no one had come forward
and filed a formal complaint other than the civil one.
And as oddly as that sounds, there's a bureaucratic process
to filing police reports, to getting investigation started. Perhaps that
was the case. Perhaps someone looked into it and they
decided they needed more. Sometimes these investigations take a long
(28:50):
time to tie this upone, this one up right, You're
going to want to make sure you have credible witnesses.
You're going to want to make sure that you have
corroberative evidence, and you're going to want to make sure
you have somebody somebody flipping and giving this person up.
I would look to have tape recorded conversations with him
where he discusses this sort of thing. I'd look to
collect texts and emails and anything else I could that
(29:11):
can corroborate the stories being told by these victims. And
maybe that was going on. I don't know, but I
can tell you that the people I worked with the
law enforcement, if we had learned about this, they would
have been a case assistant.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Jennifer Powers would handle the operations, logistics, recruiting and booking
the women's flights, managing payments, restocking his dungeon, and getting
the women to sign NDA's Ruben apparently spending over one
million dollars to fund the enterprise.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
At what point do you look up and say, why
am I restocking a torture chamber? I really didn't imagine
as a little girl that I would grow up restocking
a torture chamber.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Who is this woman?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You just heard Dan Murphy from gold Shields podcast, former
NYPD detective sergeant that Dan Murphy talking about out when
was the first police report filed? Because cops can't just
go forward when nobody has made a complaint, even though
there was a twenty seventeen civil lawsuit laying all of
(30:12):
this out right now, the fat actually asking for victims
to come forward, much as they did in the Sean
Combs case. But I want to get to Jennifer Powers
because I find it very odd that she went along
lockstep with all of these crimes.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
According to police listen.
Speaker 7 (30:32):
For more than ten years, Powers entire life funded by
financi your boss Howard Ruben down to her iTunes account.
Ruben's funding kicks in in twenty twelve, allowing Powers to
afford a nineteen sixty six convertible Lincoln Continental as a
wedding gift to her husband. The couple takes lavish vacations
in following years when their children are old enough to
attend school, Ruben Bank rules, private educations, and even a
(30:53):
mortgage for a home in the wealthy south Lake suburb
for Powers.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Holy moly.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Okay, wait, he paid for a lavish wedding convertible Link
and Continental Vintage, pays for a children's private school, and
the mortgage for their home and a ritzy suburb in
South Lake. Okay, you know what. It took criminal investigators
(31:25):
a long time to finally try and bring this guy down.
The guess who is about three inches up their tail pipe.
When criminal prosecutions fail, the taxman does the cleanup Listen.
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Despite Powers working part time as a substitute teacher in
carol isd and her DJ husband reporting just forty thousand
dollars in income since twenty eighteen, the family pays off
five hundred thousand dollars in credit card bills, lives in
a home valued at one point seven million dollars. The
children attend private school, and they take luxurious family vacations.
(32:05):
The IRS finds the Powers failed to report nearly nine
million dollars in income received from Howard Ruben, Jennifer Power's
former boss. The couple is charged with tax fraud, for
which neither have made a first appearance.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Right row, what happened to Megan Palin? I mean, if
the local authorities LA law enforcement won't lift a finger,
the tax men will, right, Okay, what is this all about?
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Look, they've been living a life of luxury by all
accounts for many years. Social media posts have emerged from
Jennifer Powers that show them on all of these luxury
holidays all around the world, and they had I think
it was nearly nine million dollars in total given to
them by Ruben. So for her, she's obviously benefited greatly
(32:54):
from this partnership.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Guys, this would not be the first time the tax
man and did the dirty work for law enforcement. I'm
sorry to say that right to your face. Dan Murphy,
former NYPD to take to sergeant Joint Terrorism Task Force.
It goes on and on and on. I mean, you've
heard of al Capone, right Murphy, al Capone, the head
(33:21):
of the mob him and you've probably heard of Wesley Snipes,
the famous actor MC hammer. Remember the hammer.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It goes on.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Willie Nelson, Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, all of them, all
of them got into a tangle with the taxman Danny Ruben.
When Ellie won't lift a finger and won't go forward,
the Irs will and you better run. Like you see
the grim Reaper outside your living room window, just staring
(33:55):
at you. Oh yeah, and I'm not talking about hey, hey,
you have to pay us back. They will put you
in jail and you will rot in there.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
That is one hundred percent right. And let me tell
you it is very clear that I am that anyone
should respect and fear the Irs. Everyone should should report
their taxes as they should. In fact, make sure you
do it right, make sure you do it often. They
are merciless. And many times, as you said before, they
(34:28):
brought down al Capone. When Elliott Ness couldn't bring down
al Capone and they couldn't find anything on them, the
Irs did and they got it for taxi vision and
put them in Algatratz. So it is a very stupid
person who does not respect the Irs.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Man, I'm telling you, like I said, grim Raper looking
in your kitchen window. You try to make some coffee
there they are staring at you. Don't do it, you know,
I want to get to the phenomena. And I've seen
it before Danny Rubin, and I'm sure you have two
where you have a thug in this case Ruben Howard
(35:01):
Ruben aka Horrible Howie. But why would someone go along
with his crimes? I'm talking about powers? Why would she
go along with it? I mean she has everything, she's got,
this husband, this home, these children, for Pete's sake, we
(35:21):
risked all of that just for money?
Speaker 10 (35:24):
Hell no?
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Why?
Speaker 6 (35:27):
I mean it's probably a number of things. Again, assuming
everything that complained is true, we're talking about it. Access
to not just money, but a lot of money. Nine
million dollars is a lot of money. And you're hobnaming
with people who are of very high social status and
very high wealth individuals. I mean, you don't just get
that access from anyone, and being part of that world
(35:51):
can change you. Being part of that world gets you
access to things you wouldn't normally get and sometimes if
you're asked to do something distasteful, maybe it's one of
the it's that access which keeps you coming back, and
eventually you become dependent on it. You start going on
let's say, vacations or private school or whatever, and you
start to get those golden handcuffs where now you're roped
(36:12):
in sometimes and as you do things over time, potentially
it doesn't seem as bad as it was yesterday or
the day before, and tomorrow is going to be a
little better. As you get more and more accustomed to it,
it can be wharping to your personality.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Doctor Bethany Marshall is living high on the hog, having
all the luxury trips, the beautiful home, they ventage, convertible car,
the private skills, all that. Is it like an addiction?
Speaker 3 (36:41):
No, I think the money is only a small part
of it. I think in every organization, usually these kinds
of criminal enterprises, there is a woman somewhere who is
willing to abuse other women. Look, we saw it with
Gilan Maxwell, with the Jeffrey Epstein case. What about the
FLDS cult where there were women within that organization suppressing
(37:04):
other women. So I would believe that I would guess
that Jennifer Powers has in her very personality or her
character the capacity for great cruelty towards other people. Otherwise
she wouldn't do this. She seems very bright, and like
she could have made money otherways, get a job, you know,
(37:24):
for God's sake, but she must feel and take some
secret satisfaction in women being punished, tortured, electrocuted and then
texting this guy Ruben back and forth about it. So
when women act in concert with a man to abuse
(37:44):
other people, it is always nancy because they are taking
some pleasure and satisfaction from it, beyond the monetary game.
That's just icing on the cake. But they are sayis themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Guys, it's not just dumb doing his bidding.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
When you see their text messages back and forth between
each other.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's sick.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Listen.
Speaker 9 (38:09):
In text messages, Ruben shares horrifying details of his exploits
with Powers and casual conversation, Powers asks for details. When
Ruben says he used the cross in his last session,
I can only imagine what you did to her on
that cross. Did you shock her? Ruben responds with a
complaint that his cattle prod isn't as strong as it
used to be.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Lynshaw, this is the type of conversation that I would
expect from a pimp talking to another pimp about how
some of the Johns torture the women or the girls.
This is a guy in your neighborhood that attends all
of these glitzy gallas raising money. Yeah, him for the needy,
(38:55):
a multi millionaire Harvard grad and his hints person the
reals abub to his satan. They're laughing about shocking ladies
genitals with a shot device after forcing her, binding her
to across.
Speaker 8 (39:14):
Listen to what we're talking about, Jennifer Powers, do you
know how disappointing and horrific she is a woman doing
this to other women, all of the cases I can
think of. I'm sitting here trying to think in my
mind there's now a woman involved. They're doing all the
dirty work, and this woman is laughing about all of
this and taking joy. And I agree a thousand percent
(39:36):
with doctor Bethany. She really nailed it. There's something wrong
with this woman. And my goodness, couldn't she even think
of her children and clean it up and get out
of this or not do it at all. But here's
the thing, this is why we have women who don't
want to come forward. Girls who don't want to come forward.
They see another woman does this, and they're seeing again
(39:56):
that dynamic of power wealth, and they're seeing it wasted
on this and this is why we can't get them
to come into court to testify. It's falling apart. This
is another case, another example, and again a woman doing
this to another woman. I can't imagine. This is just
not exploitation. This is morally corrupt. This is evil, evil happening.
(40:17):
And you know what, I'm just going to throw this in.
A friend of mine in real estate said, there's a
big demand lately. She told me this about three months
ago for these sex dungeons and people's apartments here in
New York. How horrific is this that people are normalizing
and becoming habituated to these terrorist acts horrific on women.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
The majority of the victims are women.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
To Sidney Sumner joining me Crime Stories Investigative Reporter in
other text messages, Sidney Sumner, isn't it true that this
hint person Powers? Jennifer Powers speaks freely, even in writing,
in text messages, recorded conversations. For instance, I don't care
(41:03):
if she screams next to a laughing face emoji, words
like this will be fun, exclamation, exclamation, another she hates submits,
she's so desperate, We've got to make her cry stating
that they will give the victim quote plenty of valuume
(41:24):
so she can endure more pain. Repeat, We've got to
make her cry. That's part of the state's evidence, is
it not, Sidney Sumner.
Speaker 11 (41:34):
Absolutely, and not only were these conversations over text message,
but on Ruben's work email discussing what was happening in
that sex dungeon. So these text messages evidence that Ruben
was just so brutal. He enjoyed the women's pain. It
was a horrible situation, and Ruben and Powers are just
(42:00):
talking about it casually over text, laughing about the victim's pain.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Danny Rubin, The defense has a big problem when these
text messages come out with the laughing face emoji beside
their plans. Have you read this indictment? According to the state,
the defendant, Howard Ruben would conduct sex sessions like say felonies,
(42:27):
multiple times a week, sometimes on consecutive days, one after
the next, after the next. Where was the wife did
she not notice anything weird was happening? It goes on
and on and on. But when you have your client
Danny using work email to plan a crime, they're basically, uh,
(42:50):
let me just say.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Creek without a paddle.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
They wrote it down Nanny on the work email.
Speaker 6 (42:57):
Yeah, that's that's not a great fact. I think what
they're going to want to focus on is whether or
not the acts were consented to. And I know, I
know how the complaint reads. I know that there's a
civil case. But just because some and part of it is,
they're going to want to introduce the NBA's they're going
to want introduce the fact that there's a presumption of consent.
(43:19):
Of course, you can revoke consent at any time. Many
of the women and the complaints said that they did.
But they're going to want to show that there was consented,
that it was not revoked, the consent was properly obtained,
and that this this after discussion about what it occurred,
is going to be tangential to.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
The consent crime stories with Nancy Grace. His estranged wife,
Mary Henry writes, quote, I understand far too well the
(43:57):
series charges before the court. I can speak from my
own experience when I say they do not represent the
Howie Ruben. I saw a caring father, a loving son
in law, a devoted grandfather known affectionately as Pops. Well
that's not what the women called him as they were
(44:18):
bound to a cross and tortured with an electric prod. Oh, sorry, misstatement.
They couldn't say anything because they were gagged. Women.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
These women, many of them, consented to a date.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
They did not know that they were going to be
handcuffed to a cross in a dungeon and be shocked
with a cattle prod all over their body to where
they were screaming if they could, because many of them
were gagged. According to court documents, they couldn't even scream.
They would be passed out, they would be drugged. And says,
(44:57):
how can you consent to that?
Speaker 1 (44:59):
How can you can sent.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
To a crime?
Speaker 10 (45:02):
You can't in a case like this, These people were
absolutely sold a bill of goods that turned out to
be completely and sadly incorrect. He's a manipulator, he's a liar.
He knows how to get people to do what he
wants them to do. He knows how to keep it secret,
he knows how to pay people off. He knows how
to do all the things we've seen now in the
Ditty case, the Epstein case, and who knows how many
(45:24):
more cases like this out there. Money talks as well
as persuasion, Manipulating people is something these people do very
very well, and in this case they did that, but
it fell apart, as they all do at some point,
it falls apart. Now in this case, these poor women,
they went up there thinking it was going to be
a date, maybe they were going to make a few
(45:44):
bucks whatever. They had no idea what they were going
getting themselves into. And that is a very very scary thing.
And I can imagine that the wealth and power of
this individual and his world scared them into silence for
a long time. You have a few maoris in this foot.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
I'm not imbursing you.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
It's just that I don't I don't feel comfortable.
Speaker 6 (46:04):
I don't have a fight with beautiful preeze.
Speaker 7 (46:06):
If I'm not going to do anything, I swear my
children please come in on everything.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
I'm a famous guy, very uncomfortable. He's coming now and
one minute.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
And if you want to leave when the guy comes.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
In my tree, I please.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'm sorry, I just come on. I'm used to that.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
That was another all time a whole that was Harvey Weinstein,
and he was threatening and coercing Ambra Mattaliana into sex acts,
unwanted sex acts, and the same techniques were used to
(46:45):
Meghan Palin joining us from the incredible New York Post. Meghan,
the defense there and the defense here is that these
women agreed to what was happening and then had second
thoughts when it was over or it went too far.
(47:06):
Bottom line, that they essentially consented to the acts. Apparently,
finally LA law enforcement came out of their trance and
started investigating this case and it's file charges. They apparently
disagree with that theory of consent.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious that things change once
they got there, because even after the case, once they'd
left this sex dungeon, there's text messages that have come
out that show that these women were texting Jennifer Powers
explained that their injuries were so severe to various degrees,
and she was responding telling them to ice them to
(47:50):
deal with them in other such ways. These were all
sort of like it appears to be part of the
management at the aftermath of things that they certainly weren't
expecting to get out of it. When they entered this apartment, which,
by the way, I know you mentioned earlier that you'd
wondered where his.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
Wife had been.
Speaker 5 (48:07):
This penthouse was not his residential property. It was least
eighteen thousand dollars a month, specifically for these sexual escapades
that he was having there.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Megan, I'm curious you're describing how powers the catch person,
the secretary, as you said, managed the victims. What were
there injuries that we know of?
Speaker 5 (48:34):
Well, I mean, the most severe one that we've heard
of so far was the breast implant that was flipped
upside down because she'd been beaten so hard by Reuben
with a closed fist that it had physically switched sides
within her body and then later required surgery. Others were
talking about bruising and pain to their bodies and whatnot.
(48:57):
The full extent of the injuries we haven't heard yet.
I guess it's all going to come out at some stage,
but they were severed from the details that we have
heard so far, particularly the breasting plan.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
To doctor Bethony Marshall, I know you just heard our
friend Megan Palin from the New York Post to be
a lady in her breasts so violently it flips the implant.
Just how does anyone derive pleasure out of that?
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Nancy? This is what we call a perversion, and specifically
this is sexual sadism, where watching the humiliation, the suffering,
and the fear of the victim causes the perpetrator to
become sexually aroused. Now, what's interesting is that men with
sexual sadism, they have a very hard time becoming aroused
(49:52):
in normal ways with normal women out in the world.
So if they were having lunch date or in a
business meeting or something where there where it's an equal
playing field with other women, this guy would have lost
interest in those women. He can't deal with real people
with thoughts, feelings, and emotions of their own. But there
is some theory that when that aggression and sexuality is
(50:17):
processed through the same part of the brain, and in
brain scans with these kinds of perpetrators, the amygdala lights up.
The aggression center of the brain, the part of the
brain that's responsible for sexual pleasure, also lights up. So
these two things are kind of fused and confused. Aggression arousal,
(50:40):
those two things go together in this disorder. And also
it's a compulsion. People with compulsions, as I said earlier,
they organize their entire life around the compulsion. So everything
you look at that he did, even getting married and
having children, that might have just been a way to
cover up his sexual deviancy so he could pass as
normal in society.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Danny Ruben veterans try a lawyer out of LA. I
got a question for you. It's a personal question. When
you're representing people such as Howard Ruben and you're sitting
there beside them, do you ever get totally disgusted, totally
schethed out and just want to, like, right now, even
(51:23):
talking about this, I just want to get it, run
out of the studio, screaming as if I'd seen a monster.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (51:32):
How do you quell those thoughts that aversion and keep
a straight face and keep doing it because that's your
duty as a defense lawyer, to the utmost of your
ability to save your client. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 6 (51:50):
I look at all the facts, the first and foremost.
I don't judge clients as to what happened. That's obviously
if you if you have to do that, and you
do that, you have no busines as being a defense attorney.
The fact is, I look at the facts, the documents,
look what they say, and I look at what the
testimony shows, and I want to determine what, if anything,
(52:11):
our defenses are, and then what the prosecution has to prove.
It's the prosecution's job to get in there and make
their case. And if they can make their case, my
job is exceedingly difficult. That's true, And again it's up
to them. When I sit next to a client and
the client is accused of this, I look at it
just like that. He is accused. He is not guilty.
(52:34):
He has not done these things until a jury of
our peers says that he has. And it is my
job to take a look at that evidence, to present
the evidence to the jury, and the jury can make
the decision based on the evidence that they have.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
The estranged wife of financier Howard Ruben quote, he would
never abandon his family. He has always placed him at
the center of his life, as they remain his greatest
source of strength, she writes to federal Judge Brian Coogan.
He would never abandon his family. Oh, well, where was
(53:07):
he all those nights he was torturing women in his
soundproof sex dungeon. He wasn't at home making tomato soup
and cheese sandwiches. He always placed him at the center
of his life. No, he didn't he spent hours and
hours and hours a week planning and arranging torture sessions.
Federal prosecutors accuse Reuben of alluring dozens That means at
(53:32):
least twenty four women to his sound proof sex dungeon,
where he tied them up, gagged them, beat them, and
electrocuted them. But now his wife insists he's really misunderstood.
(53:53):
He's just a family man. Okay, that's bs. Either love
is blind or money has blinded her.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
We wait as justice.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Good Bye
Host
Nancy Grace
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