A Southlake woman, Jennifer Powers, is facing federal charges in connection with a sex trafficking and transport scheme tied to retired New York financier Howard Rubin. Powers and Rubin were indicted Friday in the Eastern District of New York, accused of recruiting women for commercial sex acts and arranging travel to a Manhattan penthouse turned “sex dungeon.”
According to court filings, between 2009 and 2019 Rubin and Powers allegedly recruited multiple women to travel to New York City, initially using luxury hotels and later a converted penthouse apartment outfitted with BDSM equipment, including a device used to shock women. The indictment further asserts Powers oversaw logistics—arranging flights and transfers—while Rubin is accused of physically abusing women beyond the scope of their consent and silencing complaints via nondisclosure agreements.
Rubin was arrested in Fairfield, Connecticut and appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, while Powers was arrested in Texas and is slated to make an initial appearance in the Northern District of Texas before being arraigned in New York. Rubin also faces a bank fraud count tied to misrepresentations made in securing a mortgage for Powers’s Texas residence.
If convicted, Powers and Rubin each face a possible life sentence under the sex trafficking statute, though the count also carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years. The case is being prosecuted by the Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.
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