October 7, 2025 • 53 mins
Former Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin is 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 is 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'
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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):
Horrible Howie, that's Howard Ruben, millionaire money manager, accused of
luring then attacking women in his specially made sound proof
dungeon in his.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Multimillion dollar penthouse.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
According to police, Wow, luring women into a sound proof dungeon,
even tying them up, cuffing them to across across the
Holy Cross that Cross, torturing them with an electric cattle prod.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
What can I.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Get on that jury? Can I get on that jury?
See Grace, this is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Former financier Howard Rubin, once a powerful figure in the
world of finance, is now facing explosive charges for allegedly
running a sex trafficking operation spanning more than a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Howard Ruben, multi millionaire financier, A money manager.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's what he's called a money manager.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He manages other people's money, much like Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein,
who apparently brought in, you know, a couple of million dollars,
but somehow was transferring out five hundred million dollars to
overseas accounts, including Russian banks that were on the US
(01:47):
watch list. What is it with these money managers. And
how does this guy, not Epstein, but Ruben allegedly loure women,
educated women into his sex dungeon that he personally had
sound proofed. Okay, right there, right there, I need a shrink.
(02:11):
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
a doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Right there, a soundproof dungeon.
I mean, when an artisan a worker gets to call
from a dude that wants a sound proof dungeon and
(02:34):
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?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
A freak who has sexual sadism disorder in other words,
somebody who can only get sexually aroused when the victim
is humiliated, frightened, or terrified. And Nancy, maybe this is
why he's a financial planner.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Maybe he needed to make a lot of money so
he could build that dungeon and buy all of that equipment.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, let's just take it from the top.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
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. Ten Jane Doees listed as
victims in the indictment, but prosecutors say there are dozens
(03:28):
more and are calling for tips.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Joining me an all star panel to make sense of
what we know right now, Straight out to Megan Palin,
senior 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.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I don't know where they have that knowledge, but that said,
this guy, I wouldn't call him just a money.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Manager, would you, because he's he's millions and.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
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 just start at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Who is this guy, Howard Ruben.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
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. And he moved
around in troppy philanthropic circles. He was well known for donating.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Wait her, put her up, Megan Palin, you just said
he quote moved around in philanthropic circles.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You mean he was a benefactor.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Holy Cross, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I feel about that and other apparatus and then electrocuting
them in their genitals with an electric cattle prad. Let's say,
that's what gets my attention, not his fate philanthropy, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And absolutely it's what he was known for.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
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 (05:52):
But this is sort of very way wait wait, wait again.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm sorry to interrupt, but Meghan, did you say that
this was this was like an open secret.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Everyone knew what was.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
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 (06:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Of Ruben Law. No relation.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I assume Danny Rubin is joining us out of La Danny,
before you put on your defense hat and start arguing
with me, can I just talk about the duality here,
The duality of going to these you know, ten thousand
dollars a plate, philanthropic events dinners where rich people walk
(06:48):
around sniffing of each other.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And it's a scene.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's a scene like a nightclub scene or you know,
just any scene.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The same people.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Go over and over and over, and I'm glad they do,
because they do wonderful things for the needy. But the
facade that he has created of this bit of factor,
while all the time the word is he's torturing women
and a sex dungeon after luring them.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There just that.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Duality, you know, you tell that to a jury, it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Putting a nun up for the defense. Of course they're
going to a believer.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
I mean, I think that the duality is important. I
agree with you. On the one hands, 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
(07:50):
a lot more to get into before we can start
casting judgment on whether.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Did or didn't Reben.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
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 presumed innocent I would
(08:20):
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 and overcomes that presumption
with evidence proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You always seem to kind of leave off.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
The left last half of that sentence regarding presumption of innocence.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Reuben is presumed innocent.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He is innocent tonight unless and until the state pierces
the presumption of innocence with evidence beyond reasonable doubt. Would
you agree that that is the judicial charge.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
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 day than this, if it does
(09:28):
ever go to trial, we'll start to hear more and
more about the evidence.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Danny Rubin another question to you, and again, this is
neither defens or state oriented. It's like a horrible deja vous.
It's happening all over again.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We just saw this with Sean Combs, we saw it
with r.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Kelly, We saw it with Epstein over and over and over.
Where As you just heard Megan Palin with the New
York Post stay that there was a civil suit the
same things in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Where's the government? Where are they?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Why has it taken them seven years to bring this
case to a criminal trial.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I have a problem with that. What have they been doing?
Speaker 8 (10:16):
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.
I think that Howard testified in that case, both at
his deposition and then 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. I mean, we all know that didn't
(10:37):
go 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,
(10:58):
we'll see how well this case is.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Guys, this guy with every advantage still charged with major,
major offenses, sex offenses and more.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Who is this guy? Listen?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
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
(11:34):
continued even when a woman fell unconscious. Ruben allegedly paid
the women several thousand dollars afterwards, including for injuries that
required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Okay, that sounds really painful. A flipped breast implant. It
goes so much further than that. Lynn Shaw joining me,
founder and director of Lynn's Warriors, dedicated to the eradication
of sex fploitation 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
(12:09):
these multi millionaires mingle at, for instance, charity functions 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 did He we
pointed out, this is R Near with NXVM. There is Epstein,
(12:34):
there is R. Kelly, There's Jared Fogel. I mean, I
could just list them off the top of my head,
on and on and on, rich or famous.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
People that get away with this. And as in.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Your backyard, Landshaw, what you may have brust amos with
this guy.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I am living in the devil's playground. This building is
around the corner for me, and it has tighter security
than Fork Knox. He was arrested directly across the street.
Epstein was a neighbor. I ask you, where has everybody been?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Who was complicit with this? This Jennifer Powers and this
Howard Rubert 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
(13:33):
these women. And yes, in New York, they just seem
to float because you know, what happens in 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
(13:54):
warning other women, do not, 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
(14:17):
of these cases. I mean, who's next. I expect tomorrow
another case to pop up in my neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
My case has been going on for a years.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Speaking of the perfect facade, and this guy's philanthropic worked
his charity work, and how many dollars he gave away
to the needy, how many fancy gallas he went to?
What were the FEDS and the local authorities LA law enforcement?
My people blinded by his money and his local famele
(14:46):
I'm not blinded.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Here is part of his facade.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
Rubin becomes a Wall Street commodity while he trades bonds
at Solomon Brothers. Rubin profiled in Michael Lewis's book 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.
(15:15):
After three children and thirty six years of marriage, Henry
divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Howard Rubin and his former assistant Jennifer Powers have allegedly
been drafficking and transporting at least half a dozen women
across state lines for a decade. Most of these women
were former playboy models.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
These women educated beautiful, many of them models, And he
would I act 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,
(15:57):
even thousands of dollars, 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. It ruined
their careers. That is when they would be lured.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Into his soundproof sex dungeon.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
One thing that is perplexing me is a woman named
Jennifer Powers. Jennifer Powers his personal yes, her personal assistant.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
How does she fit into this Listen.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Ruben tak 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 Ruben 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.
(16:53):
Powers oversaw the victim's payments, distributing funds from Ruben and
amounts up to ten thousand dollars per session and end
be a.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Non disclosure agreement. You've heard of those.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's where you get someone to sign away, usually in
exchange for something the ability to ever discuss what they
have witnessed. Okay, who is Jennifer Powers? The Devil's Menion?
According to prosecutors Meghan Palin joining us from the New
York Post, Meghan, who is Powers?
Speaker 7 (17:25):
I was started out as Reuben's personal assistant in twenty eleven, and,
according to the indictment, quickly became basically his aide for
this alleged sex trafficking scheme.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
This guy Howard Rubin.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
It's just amazing to me too, Danny Rubin, no relation.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I hope he had everything going for him.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
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 tonight that
yet another one of their NBA grats has gone onto greatness.
He had everything going for him. How did he degenerate
(18:11):
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 in juvenile court. This
guy was pristine. He had a choice not to do this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Reuben.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, everyone's actions are their own. But
first and foremost, let.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Me just wait, that's what you've got to say.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Everyone's actions are their own. Please, Ruben, 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.
(19:02):
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 flipped. That didn't just happen. I mean, how do
you go from having it all to this?
Speaker 8 (19:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
There are two ways they look at this. The first
is is he.
Speaker 8 (19:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Ear 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 (19:45):
He had the sense to call and hey.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Hey, can you soundproof my sex dungeon so I can
torture flight attendants?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Really, and you're saying there's a minimum? What are you saying?
Speaker 8 (19:58):
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 a.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Mental illness to hurt that antisocial? Okay, what that's not
a mental illness? Anti social? Is your illness antisocial? Like
that's misleading people to think that is a mental illness, rube,
and it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's cool.
Speaker 8 (20:26):
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 not 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 1 (20:46):
That are you suggesting motive. You said that.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think that's why it's it's really not. State doesn't
have to prove you do law. You're right, you can't
just throw that out there and pretend and think I'm
not going to hear it thing.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's going to be mitigative.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
I think that if if there is an issue of
mental health, of mental health me come up later at sentencing.
But I think the question is, 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 adnormal behavior. If what's
in the complaint is.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
True crime stories with Nancy Grace, please, I would away
throw those law books he's got behind him. See all
those law books behind you, Raybon, I bet you can't
find one law book one case that was actually affirmed
(21:43):
on peel that says anti social 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
one of those books behind you? It showed me one
case that was affirmed where that actually worked. Yes, I
know we've got.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
The twinkie defense.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
We've got the pre minstal defense, We've got the temporary
insanity defense.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
All of those aren't legit.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
They've actually worked in court, but not normal or anti
social behavior has not worked as a mental defect.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
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, something 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
(22:41):
understand what he was doing was wrong at the time.
I don't necessarily think you'd get there with sufficient evidence.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Why do you think it was chamber?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It is a secret because he knew he had to
hide it, because he knows that beating women.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
In their breasts is wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Okay, you know what I have mined 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, Ruben might come up with a case
that actually says differently, But I don't think so. Evidence before, during,
(23:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I know I just killed somebody, or I just committed
a crime.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
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 fifteen percent of it
was true.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Well, he said that.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Ruben 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.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
He Now, Ruben did say anti social, which is a
fancy word for sociopath. So we could hold out in
the back of our minds, sociopaths relate to others through
cruelty and power illness. It is not a mental illness,
It's just a personality disorder.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Nancy.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Let's make clear Ruben could only get an erection.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
By beating women up. That's it torturing them in reality.
In the real world, he's a little man with a
huge compulsion.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
He goes to 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
(25:10):
victims down Nancy. He was very manipulative. Okay, he offered
them money, he would take them to these fancy.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Dinners, and he used the term BDSM 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.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
This was not that.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
This was a torture chamber dressed up as something different.
And one final thought, Nancy sociopassed, 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, when in fact, this
(25:58):
guy had a compulsion that was organizing his entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Bethany, please don't say defect anymore as it relates to
Howard Rubin, because Dan Danny Rubin will hear that and
he will run with it, claiming there's some kind of
mental defect. Yeah, I forgot Ruben. I forgot to throw
in about him graduating from Harvard. Good luck trying to
claim mental defect. You know you're bringing to mind Brian Coberger.
(26:27):
I hate to even 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 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,
(26:47):
as if that's somehow justified what he did or it
should be a mitigating factor in sentencing. In the end,
it worked out pretty well for him because he had
a really weak prosecutor that kind.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Of let him off the hook.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But Bethany, please, I'll say defect again because Ruben of
the Danny variety.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Will run with it like a dog and a Bone.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Dan Murphy former NYPD detective sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force,
former chief security officer, US bank Or and star of
gold Shields podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Also author Dan.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
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, but nobody
in LA law enforcement did anything. Why was he giving
too much to the police fund?
Speaker 10 (27:47):
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 file 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
(28:09):
time to tie this up. On 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
corroborative 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
(28:30):
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 3 (28:40):
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 rubin, apparently spending over one
million dollars to fund the enterprise.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
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 (29:08):
Who is this woman?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You just heard Dan Murphy from gold Shields podcast, former
NYPD detective sergeant that Dan Murphy talking about 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 this
(29:31):
out right now. The fat's actually asking for victims to
come forward, much as they did in the Sean Combs case.
But I'm going to get to Jennifer Powers, because I
find it very odd that she went along lockstep with
all of these crimes.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
According to police listen.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
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 it 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, Reuben Bank rules, private educations, and even a
(30:12):
mortgage for a home in the wealthy south Lake suburb
for Powers.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Holy moly.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, wait, he paid for a lavish wedding convertible Lincoln
Continental Vintage, pays for a children's private school, and the
mortgage for their home and a ritzy suburb.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
In South Lake. Okay, you know what. It took criminal.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Investigators 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.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
What's the cleanup listen?
Speaker 9 (31:02):
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.
(31:23):
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 (31:35):
Right row, what happened, Megan Palin? I mean if the
local authorities LA law enforcement won't lift a finger, the
tax men will.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Right, Okay, what is this all about?
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Look, they've been leaving 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
(32:12):
from this partnership.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Guys, this would not be the first time the tax
man did the dirty work for law enforcement. I'm sorry
to say that right to your face. Dan Murphy, former
NYPD detect a 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 of the
(32:39):
mob him. And you've probably heard of Wesley Snipes, the
famous actor MC hammer, remember the Hammer.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
It goes on, Willie.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Nelson, Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, all of them, all of
them got into a tangle with the tax man, Danny Rubin.
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.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Your living room window, just staring at you.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh yeah, and I'm not talking about hey, hey, you
have to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Pay us back. They will put you in jail and
you will rot in there.
Speaker 8 (33:25):
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
(33:46):
brought down al Capone. When elliot ness couldn't bring down
al Capone and they couldn't find anything on them, the
irs did and they got a taxivasion and put them
in Algatratz. So it is a very stupid person who
does not respect the irs.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Man, I'm telling you, like I said, that grim reaper
looking in your kitchen window, you try to make some
coffee there they are staring at you.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Don't do it, you know. I want to get to
the phenomena.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And I've seen it before Danny Ruben, and I'm sure
you have two where you have a thug in this
case Ruben Howard Ruben aka Horrible Howie. But then why
would someone go along with his crimes?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I'm talking about powers.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
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 risk all of that just for money?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Hell no? Why?
Speaker 8 (34:45):
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 hobnoming
with people who are 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 can
(35:10):
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 in
(35:31):
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.
And as you get more and more accustomed to it,
it can be warping to your personality.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Now to Bethety Marshall is living high on the hog,
having all the luxury trips, the beautiful home, they vantage
convertible car, the private schools.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
All that is it like an addiction.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
I think the money is only a small part of it.
I think in every organization.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
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 other women. So I would believe that,
I would guess that Jennifer Powers has in her very
(36:28):
personality or her character the capacity for great cruelty towards
other people. Otherwise she wouldn't do this.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
She seems very bright and like she could have made
money otherways, get a job, you know, for God's sake.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
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 men
act in concert with a man to abuse other people,
(37:03):
it is always Nancy because they are taking some pleasure
and satisfaction from it, beyond the monetary gain. That's just
icing on the cake. But they are sayists themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Guys, it's not just doing his bidding.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
When you see their text messages back and forth between
each other.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's sick.
Speaker 9 (37:27):
Listen 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 (37:48):
Glynn Shaw, 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.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
This is a.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Guy in your neighborhood that attends all of these glitzy
galas raising money. Yeah him for the Naedy, a multi
millionaire Harvard grad and his hints person the wields abub
to his satan. They're laughing about shocking ladies genitals with
(38:25):
a shocking device after forcing her binding her to across.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
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 with doctor Bethany.
(38:55):
She really nailed it. There's something wrong with this woman,
and my goodness, cann'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 that dynamic of power, wealth,
(39:17):
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. And you know what, I'm just
going to throw this in. A friend of mine in
(39:38):
real estate say, 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 2 (39:55):
The majority of the victims are women. To say they
sell are joining me crime stories investigative reporter. In other
text messages, Sidney Sumner, isn't it true that this hinch
person Powers? Jennifer Powers speaks freely even in writing, in
(40:16):
text messages and recorded conversations.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
For instance, I.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Don't care 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
(40:42):
valume so she can endure more pain.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Repeat, We've got to make her cry.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
That's part of the state's evidence, is it not, Sidney Sumner.
Speaker 11 (40:53):
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
(41:18):
talking about it casually over text, laughing about the victim's pain.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Danny Rubin, the defense has a big problem when these
text messages come out with the laughing face emoji beside
their plans.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Have you read this indictment?
Speaker 2 (41:35):
According to the state, the defendant, Howard Ruben, would conduct
sex sessions like say felonies multiple times a week, sometimes
on consecutive days, one after the next, after the next.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Where was the wife?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Did she not notice anything weird was happening? It goes
on and on and on. But when you have your
client dan me using work email to plan a crime,
they're basically, uh, let me just say creak without a paddle.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They wrote it down nanny on the work email.
Speaker 8 (42:16):
Yeah, that's uh, 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. Of course, you can revoke consent at
(42:39):
any time. Many of the women and the complaints 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.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Consent consman crime stories with Nancy Grace Dan Murphy. These women,
many of them, consented to a date. They did not
(43:16):
know that they were going to be handcuffed to across
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.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
They would be passed out, they would be drugged. It's
just how can you consent to that? How can you
consent to a crime? You can't?
Speaker 10 (43:45):
And in 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
(44:05):
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
(44:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
If you're nervous in.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
This hotel, embarrassing, it's just that I don't feel comfortable.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I mean, you don't have a favor with me.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Greeze.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
I'm not going to do any device where my children
please come in on everything.
Speaker 8 (44:52):
I'm a famous guy.
Speaker 11 (44:54):
Very comfortable is coming now and one minute and if
you want to leave when the guy comes in.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
My jack, Yes, today you touched my priest.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
Thanks, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
That was another all time a hole. 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
(45:27):
Megan 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.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Second thoughts when it was over or it went too far.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Bottom line, that they essentially consented to the acts. Apparently,
finally LA law enforcement we got came out of their
trance started investigating this case, and it's style changeous. They
apparently disagree with that theory of consent.
Speaker 7 (46:10):
Well, I mean, it's it's pretty obvious that things change
once they got there, because even after the case, once
they left this sex dungeon, there's text messages that have
come out that showed that these women were texting Jennifer
Powers explaining that their injuries were so severe to various degrees,
and she was responding telling them to ice them to
(46:32):
deal with them in other such ways. These were all
sort of like it appears to be part of the
management of 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 wife had been. This penthouse was not
his residential property. It was least eighteen thousand dollars a month,
(46:56):
specifically for these sexual paigs that he was having there.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Megan, I'm curious you're describing how powers the hitch person,
the secretary, as you said, managed the victims. What were
there injuries that we know of?
Speaker 7 (47:16):
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.
(47:39):
The full extent of the injuries we haven't heard yet.
I guess that's all going to come out at some stage,
but they were severed from the details that we have
heard so far, particularly the breast implant two.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Doctor Anthony Marshall, I know you just heard our friend
Meghan Palin from the New York Post to beat a
lady in her breast so violently it flips the implant.
Just how does anyone derive pleasure.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Out of that?
Speaker 4 (48:11):
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
(48:33):
in normal ways with normal women out in the world.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Of their own.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
But there is some theory that when that aggression and sexuality.
Speaker 5 (48:58):
Is processed through the same heart 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.
Speaker 4 (49:16):
So these two things are kind of fused and confused.
Aggression arousal, those two things go together in this disorder.
And also it's a compulsion.
Speaker 5 (49:26):
People with compulsions, as I said earlier, they organize their
entire life around the compulsion.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
So everything you look at that he did, even getting
married and having children.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
That might have just been a way to cover up
his sexual deviancy so he could pass as normal in society.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Danny Rubin, veterans trial law, you're out of LA. I
got a question for you. It's a personal question.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
When you're representing people such as Howard Rubin and you're
sitting there beside them, do you ever get totally disgusted,
totally schethed out and just want to, like, right now,
even talking about this, I just want to get it,
run out of the studio, screaming as if I'd seen
(50:10):
a monster.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It's just how do you do it? How do you quell.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
How do you deal with that?
Speaker 8 (50:31):
I look at all the facts, the first and foremost.
I don't judge clients as to what happened. That's that's
obviously if you If you have to do that, and
you do that, you have no business 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,
(50:52):
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
a client is accused of this, I look at it
just like that. He is accused. He is not guilty.
(51:16):
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 (51:29):
Okay, Rubin, I'm convinced whenever I'm accused of torturing people
in my sex dungeon, I will definitely hire you, all right.
I don't know what that says about you, but okay,
I'm sold. Guys, if you know or think you know
anything regarding this case, the la attached to this case.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Are asking for victims to come forward.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Now how they can do that after the ditty debacle
in court, I don't know, but I do know that
Reuben will never be put away. He will never be
convicted if victims do not come forward. That is Lynn
Shaw's problem right now with Lynn's warriors after the Shawn
Combs verdict, women.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Are afraid to speak out, and do you blame them
for those brave enough?
Speaker 2 (52:19):
The tip line is two one two three eight four
thirty eight hundred repeat two one, two three eight four.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Thirty eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
If he has not stopped, according to police, it will
happen again. We stop to remember an American hero, Senior
Trooper Craig Ganines, Florida Highway Patrol, killed in the line
of duty after twenty seven years in l e, leaving
behind his grieving wife, Rebecca, and three children. American hero
(52:51):
Senior Trooper Craig Ganges Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Horrible Howie, that's Howard Ruben, millionaire money manager, accused of
luring then attacking women in his specially made sound proof
dungeon in his.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Multimillion dollar penthouse.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
According to police, Wow, luring women into a sound proof dungeon,
even tying them up, cuffing them to across across the
Holy Cross that Cross, torturing them with an electric cattle prod.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
What can I.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Get on that jury? Can I get on that jury?
See Grace, this is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Former financier Howard Rubin, once a powerful figure in the
world of finance, is now facing explosive charges for allegedly
running a sex trafficking operation spanning more than a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Howard Ruben, multi millionaire financier, A money manager.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's what he's called a money manager.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
He manages other people's money, much like Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein,
who apparently brought in, you know, a couple of million dollars,
but somehow was transferring out five hundred million dollars to
overseas accounts, including Russian banks that were on the US
(01:47):
watch list. What is it with these money managers. And
how does this guy, not Epstein, but Ruben allegedly loure women,
educated women into his sex dungeon that he personally had
sound proofed. Okay, right there, right there, I need a shrink.
(02:11):
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
a doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Right there, a soundproof dungeon.
I mean, when an artisan a worker gets to call
from a dude that wants a sound proof dungeon and
(02:34):
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?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
A freak who has sexual sadism disorder in other words,
somebody who can only get sexually aroused when the victim
is humiliated, frightened, or terrified. And Nancy, maybe this is
why he's a financial planner.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Maybe he needed to make a lot of money so
he could build that dungeon and buy all of that equipment.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, let's just take it from the top.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
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. Ten Jane Doees listed as
victims in the indictment, but prosecutors say there are dozens
(03:28):
more and are calling for tips.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Joining me an all star panel to make sense of
what we know right now, Straight out to Megan Palin,
senior 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.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I don't know where they have that knowledge, but that said,
this guy, I wouldn't call him just a money.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Manager, would you, because he's he's millions and.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
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 just start at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Who is this guy, Howard Ruben.
Speaker 7 (04:18):
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. And he moved
around in troppy philanthropic circles. He was well known for donating.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Wait her, put her up, Megan Palin, you just said
he quote moved around in philanthropic circles.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You mean he was a benefactor.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Holy Cross, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I feel about that and other apparatus and then electrocuting
them in their genitals with an electric cattle prad. Let's say,
that's what gets my attention, not his fate philanthropy, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And absolutely it's what he was known for.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
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 (05:52):
But this is sort of very way wait wait, wait again.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I'm sorry to interrupt, but Meghan, did you say that
this was this was like an open secret.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Everyone knew what was.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
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 (06:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Of Ruben Law. No relation.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I assume Danny Rubin is joining us out of La Danny,
before you put on your defense hat and start arguing
with me, can I just talk about the duality here,
The duality of going to these you know, ten thousand
dollars a plate, philanthropic events dinners where rich people walk
(06:48):
around sniffing of each other.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And it's a scene.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's a scene like a nightclub scene or you know,
just any scene.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The same people.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Go over and over and over, and I'm glad they do,
because they do wonderful things for the needy. But the
facade that he has created of this bit of factor,
while all the time the word is he's torturing women
and a sex dungeon after luring them.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There just that.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Duality, you know, you tell that to a jury, it's like.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Putting a nun up for the defense. Of course they're
going to a believer.
Speaker 8 (07:27):
I mean, I think that the duality is important. I
agree with you. On the one hands, 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
(07:50):
a lot more to get into before we can start
casting judgment on whether.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Did or didn't Reben.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
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 presumed innocent I would
(08:20):
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 and overcomes that presumption
with evidence proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You always seem to kind of leave off.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
The left last half of that sentence regarding presumption of innocence.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Reuben is presumed innocent.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He is innocent tonight unless and until the state pierces
the presumption of innocence with evidence beyond reasonable doubt. Would
you agree that that is the judicial charge.
Speaker 8 (09:06):
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 day than this, if it does
(09:28):
ever go to trial, we'll start to hear more and
more about the evidence.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Danny Rubin another question to you, and again, this is
neither defens or state oriented. It's like a horrible deja vous.
It's happening all over again.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We just saw this with Sean Combs, we saw it
with r.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Kelly, We saw it with Epstein over and over and over.
Where As you just heard Megan Palin with the New
York Post stay that there was a civil suit the
same things in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Where's the government? Where are they?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Why has it taken them seven years to bring this
case to a criminal trial.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I have a problem with that. What have they been doing?
Speaker 8 (10:16):
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.
I think that Howard testified in that case, both at
his deposition and then 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. I mean, we all know that didn't
(10:37):
go 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,
(10:58):
we'll see how well this case is.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Guys, this guy with every advantage still charged with major,
major offenses, sex offenses and more.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Who is this guy? Listen?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
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
(11:34):
continued even when a woman fell unconscious. Ruben allegedly paid
the women several thousand dollars afterwards, including for injuries that
required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Okay, that sounds really painful. A flipped breast implant. It
goes so much further than that. Lynn Shaw joining me,
founder and director of Lynn's Warriors, dedicated to the eradication
of sex fploitation 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
(12:09):
these multi millionaires mingle at, for instance, charity functions 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 did He we
pointed out, this is R Near with NXVM. There is Epstein,
(12:34):
there is R. Kelly, There's Jared Fogel. I mean, I
could just list them off the top of my head,
on and on and on, rich or famous.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
People that get away with this. And as in.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Your backyard, Landshaw, what you may have brust amos with
this guy.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
I am living in the devil's playground. This building is
around the corner for me, and it has tighter security
than Fork Knox. He was arrested directly across the street.
Epstein was a neighbor. I ask you, where has everybody been?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Who was complicit with this? This Jennifer Powers and this
Howard Rubert 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
(13:33):
these women. And yes, in New York, they just seem
to float because you know, what happens in 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
(13:54):
warning other women, do not, 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
(14:17):
of these cases. I mean, who's next. I expect tomorrow
another case to pop up in my neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
My case has been going on for a years.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Speaking of the perfect facade, and this guy's philanthropic worked
his charity work, and how many dollars he gave away
to the needy, how many fancy gallas he went to?
What were the FEDS and the local authorities LA law enforcement?
My people blinded by his money and his local famele
(14:46):
I'm not blinded.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Here is part of his facade.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
Rubin becomes a Wall Street commodity while he trades bonds
at Solomon Brothers. Rubin profiled in Michael Lewis's book 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.
(15:15):
After three children and thirty six years of marriage, Henry
divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Howard Rubin and his former assistant Jennifer Powers have allegedly
been drafficking and transporting at least half a dozen women
across state lines for a decade. Most of these women
were former playboy models.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
These women educated beautiful, many of them models, And he
would I act 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,
(15:57):
even thousands of dollars, 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. It ruined
their careers. That is when they would be lured.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Into his soundproof sex dungeon.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
One thing that is perplexing me is a woman named
Jennifer Powers. Jennifer Powers his personal yes, her personal assistant.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
How does she fit into this Listen.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Ruben tak 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 Ruben 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.
(16:53):
Powers oversaw the victim's payments, distributing funds from Ruben and
amounts up to ten thousand dollars per session and end
be a.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Non disclosure agreement. You've heard of those.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's where you get someone to sign away, usually in
exchange for something the ability to ever discuss what they
have witnessed. Okay, who is Jennifer Powers? The Devil's Menion?
According to prosecutors Meghan Palin joining us from the New
York Post, Meghan, who is Powers?
Speaker 7 (17:25):
I was started out as Reuben's personal assistant in twenty eleven, and,
according to the indictment, quickly became basically his aide for
this alleged sex trafficking scheme.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
This guy Howard Rubin.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
It's just amazing to me too, Danny Rubin, no relation.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I hope he had everything going for him.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
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 tonight that
yet another one of their NBA grats has gone onto greatness.
He had everything going for him. How did he degenerate
(18:11):
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 in juvenile court. This
guy was pristine. He had a choice not to do this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Reuben.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, everyone's actions are their own. But
first and foremost, let.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Me just wait, that's what you've got to say.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Everyone's actions are their own. Please, Ruben, 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.
(19:02):
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 flipped. That didn't just happen. I mean, how do
you go from having it all to this?
Speaker 8 (19:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
There are two ways they look at this. The first
is is he.
Speaker 8 (19:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Ear 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 (19:45):
He had the sense to call and hey.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Hey, can you soundproof my sex dungeon so I can
torture flight attendants?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Really, and you're saying there's a minimum? What are you saying?
Speaker 8 (19:58):
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 a.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Mental illness to hurt that antisocial? Okay, what that's not
a mental illness? Anti social? Is your illness antisocial? Like
that's misleading people to think that is a mental illness, rube,
and it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's cool.
Speaker 8 (20:26):
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 not 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 1 (20:46):
That are you suggesting motive. You said that.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think that's why it's it's really not. State doesn't
have to prove you do law. You're right, you can't
just throw that out there and pretend and think I'm
not going to hear it thing.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's going to be mitigative.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
I think that if if there is an issue of
mental health, of mental health me come up later at sentencing.
But I think the question is, 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 adnormal behavior. If what's
in the complaint is.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
True crime stories with Nancy Grace, please, I would away
throw those law books he's got behind him. See all
those law books behind you, Raybon, I bet you can't
find one law book one case that was actually affirmed
(21:43):
on peel that says anti social 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
one of those books behind you? It showed me one
case that was affirmed where that actually worked. Yes, I
know we've got.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
The twinkie defense.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
We've got the pre minstal defense, We've got the temporary
insanity defense.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
All of those aren't legit.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
They've actually worked in court, but not normal or anti
social behavior has not worked as a mental defect.
Speaker 8 (22:19):
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, something 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
(22:41):
understand what he was doing was wrong at the time.
I don't necessarily think you'd get there with sufficient evidence.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Why do you think it was chamber?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It is a secret because he knew he had to
hide it, because he knows that beating women.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
In their breasts is wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Okay, you know what I have mined 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, Ruben might come up with a case
that actually says differently, But I don't think so. Evidence before, during,
(23:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I know I just killed somebody, or I just committed
a crime.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
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 fifteen percent of it
was true.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Well, he said that.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Ruben 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.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
He Now, Ruben did say anti social, which is a
fancy word for sociopath. So we could hold out in
the back of our minds, sociopaths relate to others through
cruelty and power illness. It is not a mental illness,
It's just a personality disorder.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Nancy.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Let's make clear Ruben could only get an erection.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
By beating women up. That's it torturing them in reality.
In the real world, he's a little man with a
huge compulsion.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
He goes to 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
(25:10):
victims down Nancy. He was very manipulative. Okay, he offered
them money, he would take them to these fancy.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Dinners, and he used the term BDSM 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.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
This was not that.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
This was a torture chamber dressed up as something different.
And one final thought, Nancy sociopassed, 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, when in fact, this
(25:58):
guy had a compulsion that was organizing his entire life.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Bethany, please don't say defect anymore as it relates to
Howard Rubin, because Dan Danny Rubin will hear that and
he will run with it, claiming there's some kind of
mental defect. Yeah, I forgot Ruben. I forgot to throw
in about him graduating from Harvard. Good luck trying to
claim mental defect. You know you're bringing to mind Brian Coberger.
(26:27):
I hate to even 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 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,
(26:47):
as if that's somehow justified what he did or it
should be a mitigating factor in sentencing. In the end,
it worked out pretty well for him because he had
a really weak prosecutor that kind.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Of let him off the hook.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But Bethany, please, I'll say defect again because Ruben of
the Danny variety.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Will run with it like a dog and a Bone.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Dan Murphy former NYPD detective sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force,
former chief security officer, US bank Or and star of
gold Shields podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Also author Dan.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
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, but nobody
in LA law enforcement did anything. Why was he giving
too much to the police fund?
Speaker 10 (27:47):
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 file 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
(28:09):
time to tie this up. On 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
corroborative 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
(28:30):
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 3 (28:40):
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 rubin, apparently spending over one
million dollars to fund the enterprise.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
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 (29:08):
Who is this woman?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You just heard Dan Murphy from gold Shields podcast, former
NYPD detective sergeant that Dan Murphy talking about 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 this
(29:31):
out right now. The fat's actually asking for victims to
come forward, much as they did in the Sean Combs case.
But I'm going to get to Jennifer Powers, because I
find it very odd that she went along lockstep with
all of these crimes.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
According to police listen.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
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 it 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, Reuben Bank rules, private educations, and even a
(30:12):
mortgage for a home in the wealthy south Lake suburb
for Powers.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Holy moly.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, wait, he paid for a lavish wedding convertible Lincoln
Continental Vintage, pays for a children's private school, and the
mortgage for their home and a ritzy suburb.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
In South Lake. Okay, you know what. It took criminal.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Investigators 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.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
What's the cleanup listen?
Speaker 9 (31:02):
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.
(31:23):
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 (31:35):
Right row, what happened, Megan Palin? I mean if the
local authorities LA law enforcement won't lift a finger, the
tax men will.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Right, Okay, what is this all about?
Speaker 7 (31:48):
Look, they've been leaving 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
(32:12):
from this partnership.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Guys, this would not be the first time the tax
man did the dirty work for law enforcement. I'm sorry
to say that right to your face. Dan Murphy, former
NYPD detect a 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 of the
(32:39):
mob him. And you've probably heard of Wesley Snipes, the
famous actor MC hammer, remember the Hammer.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
It goes on, Willie.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Nelson, Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, all of them, all of
them got into a tangle with the tax man, Danny Rubin.
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.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Your living room window, just staring at you.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Oh yeah, and I'm not talking about hey, hey, you
have to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Pay us back. They will put you in jail and
you will rot in there.
Speaker 8 (33:25):
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
(33:46):
brought down al Capone. When elliot ness couldn't bring down
al Capone and they couldn't find anything on them, the
irs did and they got a taxivasion and put them
in Algatratz. So it is a very stupid person who
does not respect the irs.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Man, I'm telling you, like I said, that grim reaper
looking in your kitchen window, you try to make some
coffee there they are staring at you.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Don't do it, you know. I want to get to
the phenomena.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And I've seen it before Danny Ruben, and I'm sure
you have two where you have a thug in this
case Ruben Howard Ruben aka Horrible Howie. But then why
would someone go along with his crimes?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
I'm talking about powers.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
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 risk all of that just for money?
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Hell no? Why?
Speaker 8 (34:45):
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 hobnoming
with people who are 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 can
(35:10):
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 in
(35:31):
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.
And as you get more and more accustomed to it,
it can be warping to your personality.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Now to Bethety Marshall is living high on the hog,
having all the luxury trips, the beautiful home, they vantage
convertible car, the private schools.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
All that is it like an addiction.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
I think the money is only a small part of it.
I think in every organization.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
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 other women. So I would believe that,
I would guess that Jennifer Powers has in her very
(36:28):
personality or her character the capacity for great cruelty towards
other people. Otherwise she wouldn't do this.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
She seems very bright and like she could have made
money otherways, get a job, you know, for God's sake.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
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 men
act in concert with a man to abuse other people,
(37:03):
it is always Nancy because they are taking some pleasure
and satisfaction from it, beyond the monetary gain. That's just
icing on the cake. But they are sayists themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Guys, it's not just doing his bidding.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
When you see their text messages back and forth between
each other.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's sick.
Speaker 9 (37:27):
Listen 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 (37:48):
Glynn Shaw, 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.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
This is a.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Guy in your neighborhood that attends all of these glitzy
galas raising money. Yeah him for the Naedy, a multi
millionaire Harvard grad and his hints person the wields abub
to his satan. They're laughing about shocking ladies genitals with
(38:25):
a shocking device after forcing her binding her to across.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
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 with doctor Bethany.
(38:55):
She really nailed it. There's something wrong with this woman,
and my goodness, cann'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 that dynamic of power, wealth,
(39:17):
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. And you know what, I'm just
going to throw this in. A friend of mine in
(39:38):
real estate say, 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 2 (39:55):
The majority of the victims are women. To say they
sell are joining me crime stories investigative reporter. In other
text messages, Sidney Sumner, isn't it true that this hinch
person Powers? Jennifer Powers speaks freely even in writing, in
(40:16):
text messages and recorded conversations.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
For instance, I.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Don't care 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
(40:42):
valume so she can endure more pain.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Repeat, We've got to make her cry.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
That's part of the state's evidence, is it not, Sidney Sumner.
Speaker 11 (40:53):
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
(41:18):
talking about it casually over text, laughing about the victim's pain.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Danny Rubin, the defense has a big problem when these
text messages come out with the laughing face emoji beside
their plans.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Have you read this indictment?
Speaker 2 (41:35):
According to the state, the defendant, Howard Ruben, would conduct
sex sessions like say felonies multiple times a week, sometimes
on consecutive days, one after the next, after the next.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Where was the wife?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Did she not notice anything weird was happening? It goes
on and on and on. But when you have your
client dan me using work email to plan a crime,
they're basically, uh, let me just say creak without a paddle.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They wrote it down nanny on the work email.
Speaker 8 (42:16):
Yeah, that's uh, 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. Of course, you can revoke consent at
(42:39):
any time. Many of the women and the complaints 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.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Consent consman crime stories with Nancy Grace Dan Murphy. These women,
many of them, consented to a date. They did not
(43:16):
know that they were going to be handcuffed to across
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.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
They would be passed out, they would be drugged. It's
just how can you consent to that? How can you
consent to a crime? You can't?
Speaker 10 (43:45):
And in 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
(44:05):
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
(44:25):
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.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
If you're nervous in.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
This hotel, embarrassing, it's just that I don't feel comfortable.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I mean, you don't have a favor with me.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Greeze.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
I'm not going to do any device where my children
please come in on everything.
Speaker 8 (44:52):
I'm a famous guy.
Speaker 11 (44:54):
Very comfortable is coming now and one minute and if
you want to leave when the guy comes in.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
My jack, Yes, today you touched my priest.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
Thanks, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
That was another all time a hole. 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
(45:27):
Megan 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.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Second thoughts when it was over or it went too far.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Bottom line, that they essentially consented to the acts. Apparently,
finally LA law enforcement we got came out of their
trance started investigating this case, and it's style changeous. They
apparently disagree with that theory of consent.
Speaker 7 (46:10):
Well, I mean, it's it's pretty obvious that things change
once they got there, because even after the case, once
they left this sex dungeon, there's text messages that have
come out that showed that these women were texting Jennifer
Powers explaining that their injuries were so severe to various degrees,
and she was responding telling them to ice them to
(46:32):
deal with them in other such ways. These were all
sort of like it appears to be part of the
management of 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 wife had been. This penthouse was not
his residential property. It was least eighteen thousand dollars a month,
(46:56):
specifically for these sexual paigs that he was having there.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Megan, I'm curious you're describing how powers the hitch person,
the secretary, as you said, managed the victims. What were
there injuries that we know of?
Speaker 7 (47:16):
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.
(47:39):
The full extent of the injuries we haven't heard yet.
I guess that's all going to come out at some stage,
but they were severed from the details that we have
heard so far, particularly the breast implant two.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Doctor Anthony Marshall, I know you just heard our friend
Meghan Palin from the New York Post to beat a
lady in her breast so violently it flips the implant.
Just how does anyone derive pleasure.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
Out of that?
Speaker 4 (48:11):
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
(48:33):
in normal ways with normal women out in the world.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Of their own.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
But there is some theory that when that aggression and sexuality.
Speaker 5 (48:58):
Is processed through the same heart 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.
Speaker 4 (49:16):
So these two things are kind of fused and confused.
Aggression arousal, those two things go together in this disorder.
And also it's a compulsion.
Speaker 5 (49:26):
People with compulsions, as I said earlier, they organize their
entire life around the compulsion.
Speaker 4 (49:33):
So everything you look at that he did, even getting
married and having children.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
That might have just been a way to cover up
his sexual deviancy so he could pass as normal in society.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Danny Rubin, veterans trial law, you're out of LA. I
got a question for you. It's a personal question.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
When you're representing people such as Howard Rubin and you're
sitting there beside them, do you ever get totally disgusted,
totally schethed out and just want to, like, right now,
even talking about this, I just want to get it,
run out of the studio, screaming as if I'd seen
(50:10):
a monster.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It's just how do you do it? How do you quell.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
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.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
How do you deal with that?
Speaker 8 (50:31):
I look at all the facts, the first and foremost.
I don't judge clients as to what happened. That's that's
obviously if you If you have to do that, and
you do that, you have no business 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,
(50:52):
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
a client is accused of this, I look at it
just like that. He is accused. He is not guilty.
(51:16):
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 (51:29):
Okay, Rubin, I'm convinced whenever I'm accused of torturing people
in my sex dungeon, I will definitely hire you, all right.
I don't know what that says about you, but okay,
I'm sold. Guys, if you know or think you know
anything regarding this case, the la attached to this case.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Are asking for victims to come forward.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Now how they can do that after the ditty debacle
in court, I don't know, but I do know that
Reuben will never be put away. He will never be
convicted if victims do not come forward. That is Lynn
Shaw's problem right now with Lynn's warriors after the Shawn
Combs verdict, women.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Are afraid to speak out, and do you blame them
for those brave enough?
Speaker 2 (52:19):
The tip line is two one two three eight four
thirty eight hundred repeat two one, two three eight four.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
Thirty eight hundred.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
If he has not stopped, according to police, it will
happen again. We stop to remember an American hero, Senior
Trooper Craig Ganines, Florida Highway Patrol, killed in the line
of duty after twenty seven years in l e, leaving
behind his grieving wife, Rebecca, and three children. American hero
(52:51):
Senior Trooper Craig Ganges Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend.
Host
Nancy Grace
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