Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIAL: ESTRANGED WIFE OF ACCUSED MONEY MANAGER SEX-TRAFFICKING SUSPECT HOWARD RUBIN INSISTS " HE'S A FAMILY MAN. SET HIM FREE"

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

The estranged wife of former financier and accused depraved sex trafficker Howard Rubin says he should be allowed bond. Mary Henry, in a letter to the court, say Rubin is actually a loving grandfather who should should be allowed to spend time with his three young grandchildren until trial.   Former Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin busted by the feds at his Fairfield, Connecticut, home for a decade-long Manhattan sex-trafficking scheme. With the help of his assistant, Jennifer Powers, “Howie” Rubin is accused of luring women into BDSM sex sessions in exchange for cash, then exceeding their consent and torturing and raping his victims. Rubin accused of luring victims to BDSM sex sessions, first in luxury Manhattan hotels and later in his $18,000-per-month penthouse apartment, equipped with a soundproof “sex dungeon.” Women were bound on a bed or a cross, beaten, and electrocuted. The pleas of those who weren’t gagged went ignored, and the torture often continued even when a woman fell unconscious.  Rubin allegedly paid the women several thousand dollars afterward, including for injuries that required medical attention, like a flipped breast implant.   10 Jane Does are listed as victims in the indictment, but prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York say there are dozens more and are asking the public for tips. Rubin is charged with 2 counts of sex trafficking, 6 counts of transporting women to engage in prostitution, and bank fraud.   Howard Rubin’s name becomes a Wall Street commodity in the 1980s while trading bonds at Salomon Brothers. Rubin is profiled in Michael Lewis’ 1989 book Liar’s Poker for his contributions to the development of a collateralized mortgage obligation market.  Rubin goes on to hold senior positions at Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and Soros Fund Management.  Rubin's successful life doesn't stop him from getting married to fellow financier, Mary Henry. After three children and 36 years of marriage, Henry divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence in a civil suit.   Rubin tasked Jennifer Powers, his “personal assistant,” with recruiting victims. Powers is arrested at her home in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, accused of running the “day-to-day” operations of Rubin’s sex-trafficking scheme and being paid handsomely. Powers arranged the victims’ travel and coerced them into signing NDAs. This evil empire these two created by victimizing so many is crumbling, and more victims are expected to speak out.  Joining Nancy Grace today: Danny Rubin - Criminal Defense Lawyer and Founder of Rubin Law, PC. website: rubinlawpc.com Dr. Bethany Marshall -  Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive Dan Murphy - Former NYPD Detective-Sergeant, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Former Chief Security Officer, US Bancorp, andCo-Host of "Gold Shields" Podcast; Author: “Workplace Safety: Establishing an Effective Violence Prevention Program” Lynn Shaw - Founder and Executive Director of Lynn's Warriors - An Organization Committed to Ending Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation,  Host of Lynn's Warriors on YouTube;  X: @lynns_warriors, YouTube: @LynnsWarriors Megan Palin - Senior Journalist, The New York Post; X: @megan_palin Sydney Sumner - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, the wife of a money manager, sex trafficker suspect, Howard Rubin, insists her husband is, quote, a family man who should be freed on bond. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Yes, love is blind, I guess. Former finance year and depraved sex trafficker suspect millionaire Howard Rubin is actually a loving grandfather and father who should walk free on 50 million dollars bond. And he's got it too, by the way.

says his wife in new court documents. If he's such a great family man and you love him so much, why are you estranged? Why weren't you living together in holy matrimony? Hmm? Mary Henry writes a letter to the court, demanding the judge spring her bond-trading husband, Howard Rubin, on a whopper bell package

so he can continue, quote, spending time with his three young grandchildren. Translation, torturing women in his soundproof dungeon. Oh, who said that? Oh, it was me. Has she lost her mind? Or is he paying her to write this letter? That's possible. Because this is what we know.

Howard Rubin, multi-millionaire financier, a money manager. That's what he's called. A money manager. He manages other people's money, much like Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, who apparently brought in, you know, a couple of million dollars, but somehow was transferring out $500 million to overseas accounts, including Russian banks that were on the U.S. watch list. What is it with these money managers?

And how does this guy, not Epstein, but Rubin, allegedly lure women, educated women, into his sex dungeon that he personally had soundproofed. Okay, right there, right there, I need a shrink right now. Let's go straight out to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining us out of L.A. She's the author of Deal Breaker. You can see her now on Peacock and find her at Dr. Bethany Marshall.com. Right there, a soundproof dungeon. I mean, when an artisan, a worker gets to call from a dude that wants a soundproof dungeon

and you go in there and you see it's a torture chamber, doesn't that like wave a red flag of alarm? What freak wants a soundproof torture dungeon? 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. Maybe he needed to make a lot of money so he could build that dungeon and buy all of that equipment. Okay, let's just take it from the top. Listen to this. Wall Street money manager Howard Rubin busted by feds at his Fairfield,

Connecticut 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 Does, listed as victims in the indictment, but prosecutors say there are dozens more and are calling for tips. 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 $5,000 to soundproof a dungeon. I don't know where they have that knowledge. But that said, this guy, I wouldn't call him just a money manager with you, because he's worth millions and millions of dollars.

I don't mean one or two million dollars. I mean multi millions of dollars. And this has been going on for a long time. Why has it just been uncovered? But let's just start at the beginning. Who is this guy? Howard Rubin, 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 philanthropic circles. He was well known for donating hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wait, put her up. Put her up. Megan Palin, you just said he, quote, moved around in philanthropic circles. you mean he was a benefactor, he gave a lot of money away, and everybody thinks, oh, Howard Rubens, this great guy that cares about the needy, B.S. According to police, Megan, he is strapping women to the Holy Cross, you know, I know how you feel about that, and other apparatus, and then electrocuting them in their genitals.

with an electric cattle prod. Now, see, that's what gets my attention, not his fake philanthropy. Of course, and absolutely. It's what he was known for 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 10 years ago, so he has been known for these things for some time now. But this is sort of a bit of his... Wait, wait, wait, wait. Again, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Megan, did you say that this was, this was like an open secret? Everyone knew what was happening. I was about 10 years ago. When their first civil suit was filed in 2017, yes, that's when it all first sort of coming, he started coming undone.

Okay, first civil suit was over, was about 10 years ago. Okay, joining me right now is a renowned criminal defense attorney, a veteran trial lawyer, founder of Rubin Law, no relation, 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, $10,000 a plate, philanthropic events, dinners where rich people walk around sniffing of each other and it's a sense.

It's a scene like a nightclub scene or, you know, just any scene, the same people 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 benefactor, while all the time the word is he's torturing women in a sex dungeon after luring them there. Just that duality, you know, you tell that to a jury. It's like putting a nun up for the defense. Of course they're going to believe her. I mean, I think that the duality is important. I agree with you.

On the one hand, it might be a mask to what's going on elsewhere. On the other, he might actually care about certain things that he's donating to. But I do want to say that these things are alleged right now. They're not a given. They're not proven. And he's innocent to have proven guilty. I think we have a lot more to get into before we can start casting judgment on whether our Rubin did or didn't.

Rubin, 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 on presumption of innocence. And I believe you will agree with me that the actual charge is that the defendant is presumed innocent, I would like to see him, please. That's not him. The charge is to the jury that the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the state pierces and overcomes that presumption with evidence proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You always seem to kind of like leave off the last half of that sentence regarding presumption. of innocence. Ruben is presumed innocent. He is innocent tonight unless and until the state

pierces the presumption of innocence with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Would you agree that that is the judicial charge? I agree that that's the charge. But all we have right now is the public is the indictment and whatever is in the civil suit. I personally am looking forward to what transpires in this case. I want to see what the the alleged witnesses have to say. A grand jury has heard it. I would like to hear it. I think the public should hear it.

And I think as we get closer to trial date in this, if it does ever go to trial, we'll start to hear more and more about the evidence. Danny Rubin, another question to you. And again, this is neither defense or state-oriented. It's like a horrible deja vu. It's happening all over again. We just saw this with Sean Combs.

We saw it with R. Kelly. We saw it with Epstein. over and over and over where as you just heard Megan Palin with the New York Post state that there was a civil suit alleging the same things in 2017 where's the government?

Where are they? Why has it taken them seven years to bring this case to a criminal trial? I have a problem with that. What have they been doing? I think what they were waiting for was the trial that took place, I believe, in 2022 or 2023.

They wanted to see what testimony came out. I think that Howard testified in that case, both at his deposition and that at trial. They want to make sure that they have a slam-dunk case, considering they have egg on their face from the ditty case. I know that, I mean, we all know that didn't go the way that the AUSA's office wanted it to go. Getting, you know, four years in change was not the goal of the office. So I think now they're bringing this case and they want to make sure they have it ironclad. I can't promise you they do.

No one really knows that yet. But again, as more evidence comes out, we'll see how well-cooked this case is. Guys, this guy with every advantage, still charge with major, major offenses, sex offenses, and more. Who is this guy? Listen. Rubin is accused of luring victims first in luxury Manhattan hotels and, later, his $18,000 per month penthouse apartment equipped with a soundproof sex dungeon. Women were bound on a bed or a cross, then 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 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. 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 women and sex exploitation of women and sex trafficking. And let me remind you, it is a non-profit. She's certainly not doing it for the money. How is it that these multimillionaires mingle at, for instance, charity functions. 10, $20,000 a plate for Pete's sake, and nobody will call them on their bad behavior. And we see it over and over again. There's Diddy, we pointed out, there's Reneer with NXVM, there is Epstein, 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 people that get away with this. And it's in your backyard, Lynn Shaw. What, you may have brushed elbows with this guy. I am living in the devil's playground. This building is around the corner for me, and it has tighter security than Fort Knox. Diddy was arrested directly across the street. Epstein was a neighbor. I ask you, where has everybody been?

What is going on? Who was complicit with this? This Jennifer Powers and this Howard Rubin. 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, doorman and medical professionals and other people, it wasn't just these two doing all this, not 10, you know, not see things with 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 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 of these cases. I mean, who's next? I expect tomorrow another case to pop up in my neighborhood. A case has been going on for years. Speaking of the

perfect facade and this guy's philanthropic work, his charity work and how many dollars he gave away to the needy, how many fancy gala he went to. What were the feds and the local authorities LA law enforcement? My people blinded by his money? and his local famel, I'm not blinded. Here is part of his facade. Rubin becomes a Wall Street commodity while he trades bonds at Solomon Brothers. Ruben profiled in Michael Lewis's book, Liar's Poker, for his contributions to the collateralized mortgage obligation market. Rubin goes on to senior positions at Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and Soros Fund Management.

Mary's fellow financier, Mary Henry, and the couple is very active in the NYC philanthropy. seen. After three children and 36 years of marriage, Henry divorces her husband when he is accused of sexual violence. Howard Rubin and his former assistant Jennifer Powers have allegedly been trafficking and transporting at least half a dozen women across state lines for a decade. Most of these women were former Playboy models. These women educated, beautiful, many of them models, and he would act like he's taking them out on a date. We've, spoken to restaurant employees that state, oh, here comes Rubin. Here comes horrible Howie. He would always have these beautiful, statuesque women with them. They would charge like

hundreds and hundreds, even thousands of dollars dinners. And then he would take them up to his penthouse. I don't know where his wife was during all of this. And we're showing you this because many of them were modeled after this that ruined their careers. That is when they would be lured into his soundproof sex dungeon. One thing that is perplexing me is a woman named Jennifer Powers. Jennifer Powers, his personal, yes, her personal assistant. How does she fit into this? Listen. Ruben 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 Ruben's sex trafficking scheme and being paid handsomely. Powers arranged the victims travel and coerced them

into signing NDAs that were later used to threaten legal consequences and public shame. Powers oversaw the victim's payments distributing funds from Rubin and amounts up to $10,000 per session. An NDA non-disclosure agreement, you've heard of those. 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 minion, according to prosecutors. Megan, Pailen joining us from the New York Post. Megan, who is Powers? Power started out as Rubin's personal assistant in 2011, and according to the indictment, quickly became basically his aid for this alleged sex trafficking scheme. This guy, Howard Rubin, it's just a

amazing to me to Danny Rubin, no relation, I hope. He had everything going for him. He graduates with a degree in engineering. That's not easy from Lafayette College. Then goes on and gets his MBA at Harvard. I'm sure Harvard is so proud tonight. Yet another one of their MBA grads has gone on to greatness. He had everything going for him. How did he degenerate into this? You know, very often we see criminal defendants that, let's just say, are 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, Rubin. Yeah. I mean, honestly, everyone's actions are their own. But first and foremost, let me just say there is no relation. Wait, that's what you've got to say. Everyone's actions

are their own, please, Rubin, 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 tea by teeth by taking. This is not a $5 crack kit. This is violent crime on women where he would beat them in 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? Well, there are two ways they look at this. The first is, 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 earlier, please let me see

him say this. Okay, you are, you do have a straight face. This is a Harvard MBA. worth millions and millions of dollars, near $40 million. He had the sense to call him, hey, hey, can you soundproof my sex dungeon so I can torture flight attendants? Really? And you're saying there's a minute. What are you saying? Seeing it's possible.

I think that we can't rule that 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 recruiting people to hurt that. Anti-social. Okay. What?

That's not a mental illness. Anti-social is, but you're saying mental illness and you're throwing in antisocial. Like that's misleading people to think that is a mental illness, Rubin. It's not. It's quirk. My point is that maybe I misspoke by saying antisocial. What I mean is that it's not normal. Normal people aren't making sex dungeons.

Normal people aren't torturing other people. It's just not done. so the question is like you said before why is it because he had the privilege or because there's something else that's a little bit deeper maybe it's both but i think that are you suggesting the state has to prove motive you said that question is why it's it's really not the state doesn't have to prove motive you do know i'm a trial lawyer right you can't just throw that out there and pretend and think i'm not going to hear it oh i just think it's going to be mitigative i think that if we if there is an issue of mental health of mental health it may come up later at send and sing But I think the question is, 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 abnormal behavior if what's in the complaint is true. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last days, former financier and depraved sex traffic suspect, Howard Rubber. is painted as a family man, a loving father and grandfather, who should be freed on bond

so he can spend time with his grandchildren. BS technical legal response, and this is why. I bet you can't find one law book, one case that was actually affirmed on pill that says antisocial behavior equals mental defect, or not normal, as you put it, equals a mental illness. That's not going to happen. Can you point to one of those books behind you and show me one case that was affirmed where that actually worked?

Yes, I know we've got the Twinkie defense. We've got the pre-menstrual defense. We've got the temporary insanity defense. All of those are legit. They've actually worked in court. But not normal or antisocial behavior has not worked as a mental defect. no i i completely agree with you um what i meant what i what i'm trying to say is that it's mitigated um i think that if there is that say a conviction down the line

it's something that's going to factor into sentencing um and i think that if you do have some sort of mental health issue the question is going to be does it actually uh is it sufficient enough that you didn't understand what he was doing was wrong at the time i don't necessarily think you'd get there without sufficient evidence why do you think it was It's a secret sex chamber. It's a secret because he knew he had to hide it because he knows that beating women in their breasts is wrong. Okay, you know what?

I have mined this feel. I've exhausted it. I'm going to let Danny Rubin think about what he just said. Dr. Bethany Marshall, help me out. This guy did so much to conceal his behavior. And as, I don't know, Rubin might come up with a lot. a case that actually says differently, but I don't think so. Evidence before, during, and after an event, a crime, can be shown to a jury.

Why? What matters before and after the crime? Intent. Course of conduct. Frame of mind, motive. That shows, for instance, if you flee the scene, it shows, hey, I got to get out of here. I know I just killed somebody or I just committed a crime. keeping his sex dungeon secretive to me would be evidence of knowledge of guilt.

But could you, you got to hand it to Rubin, all right? He wins a lot of cases. And he said all that with a straight face. And I would say a good 50% of it was true. Well, he said that Rubin had like a mental health defect. He didn't. That would be schizophrenia, bipolar, something like that. he wouldn't have got through Harvard with a psychiatric disorder.

Now, Rubin did say antisocial, which is a fancy word for sociopath. So we could hold that in the back of our minds. Sociopaths relate to others through cruelty and power. Still not a mental illness. It is not a mental illness. It's just a personality disorder. Nancy, let's be clear. Rubin could only get an erection by beating women up.

That's it. Torturing them. In reality, in the real world, he's, a little man with a huge compulsion. He goes to these philanthropic events so he can mine for victims. People who are sociopathic, and I'm not sure, I've never seen him, but they want to associate with high network individuals because they can get something from them. It makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel big. And this is what he wanted to feel with his victims. Now, Nancy, he was very manipulative, okay? He offered the money. He would take

them to these fancy 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. This was not that. This was a torture chamber dressed up as something different. And one final thought, Nancy, the sociopaths wear 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 guy had a compulsion that was organizing his entire life. Bethany, please don't say defect anymore as you 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, Rubin. 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 Coburg,

I hate he can say his name and his attempt to claim he had some kind of mental defect because he, let's see, there were so many things he tried, he tried that he was under the spectrum, OCD, oh, at the end. It was sad. He was even claiming Danny. He was even claiming that he had an eating disorder as if that 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 of let him off the hook. But Bethany, please don't say defect again because Rubin of the Danny variety will run with it like a dog and a bone. Dan Murphy, former NYPD Detective Sergeant Joint Terrorism Task Force, former Chief Security Officer, U.S. Bank Corps, and Star of Gold Shields podcast, also author. Dan, usually I agree with you, but I'd like to point out that this is right down the street from you. And everybody else knew what was going on since there was a civil suit back in 2017.

but nobody in L.E. law enforcement did anything. Why? Was he giving too much to the police fund? I wish I knew. I wish I knew why no one did anything. Maybe no one had come forward and filed a formal complaint other than the civil one. And as odd as that sounds, there's a bureaucratic process to filing police reports to getting investigation started. Perhaps that was the case. Perhaps someone looked into it and they decided they needed more. Sometimes these investigations take a long time. To tie this up, this one upright, 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 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 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 work with the law enforcement, if we had learned about this, there would have been a case. Assistant 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

NDAs. Ruben apparently spending over $1 million to pun the enterprise. 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. Who is this woman 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 2017 civil lawsuit laying all of this out.

Right now, the fed's actually asking for victims to come forward much as they did in the Sean Combs case. But I want to get to Jennifer Powers because I find it very odd that she went along lockstep with all of these crimes according to police. Listen. For more than 10 years, Powers' entire life funded by finance your boss Howard Rubin down to her iTunes account. Rubin's funding kicks in in 2012 allowing powers to afford a 1966 convertible Lincoln Continental. as a wedding gift to her husband. The couple takes lavish vacations in following years. When their children are old enough to attend school,

Ruben Bankrolls private educations and even a mortgage for a home in the wealthy South Lake suburb for powers. Holy moly. Okay, wait. He paid for a lavish wedding, a convertible Lincoln Continental, vintage, pays for a children's private school and the mortgage for their home. in a Ritzie suburb in South Lake.

Okay. You know what? It took criminal investigators a long time to finally try and bring this guy down. But guess who is about three inches up their tailpipe? When criminal prosecutions fell, the taxman does the cleanup? Listen. Despite Powers working part-time as a substitute teacher in Carroll ISD and her DJ husband reporting just $40,000 in income since 2018, the family pays off $500,000 in credit card bills, lives in a home valued at $1.7 million. The children attend private school and they take luxurious family vacations.

The IRS finds the Powers failed to report nearly $9 million in income received from Howard Rubin, Jennifer Powers, former boss. The couple is charged with tax fraud for which neither have made a first appearance. Rout row, what happened, Megan Palin? I mean, if the local authorities, Ellie law enforcement, won't lift a finger, the taxman will, right? Okay, what is this all about? Look, they've been living a life of luxury by all accounts for many years. Social media posts have emerged from Jennifer Powers that show them on all of these sort of luxury holidays all around the world and they had, I think it was nearly nine million dollars in total given to them by

Rubin. So for her, she was obviously benefited greatly from this partnership. Guys, this would not be the first time the taxman did the dirty work for law enforcement. I'm sorry to say that right to your face, Dan Murphy, former NYPD Detective 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 mob, him. Right. And you've probably heard of Wesley Snipes, the famous actor, M.C. Hammer, remember the Hammer? It goes on, Willie Nelson, Pete Rose, Martha Stewart, all of them, all of them got to

into a tangle with the taxman. 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 your living room window just staring at you. Oh yeah. And I'm not talking about, hey, you have to pay us back. They will put you in jail and you will rot in there. That is 100% right. And let me tell you, it is very clear that anyone should respect and fear the IRS. Everyone 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 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 over tax evasion

and put him in Alcatraz. So it is a very stupid person who does not respect the IRS. Man, I'm telling you, like I said, Grim Reaper, looking in your kitchen window. You try to make some coffee, there they are, staring at you. Don't do it. You know, I want to get to the phenomena, and I've seen it before, Danny Rubin, and I'm sure you have two, where you have a thug. In this case, Rubin, Howard Rubin, aka horrible Howie. But then why would someone go along with his crimes? I'm talking about powers.

Why would she go along with it? I mean, she has everything. She's got this husband, this home, these children for Pete's sake. What risk all of that just for money? Hell no. Why? I mean, it's probably a number of things. Again, assuming everything in the complaint is true.

We're talking about it access to not just money, but a lot of money. $9 million is a lot of money. And you're hobnomming with people who are of very high social status and very high wealth individuals. I mean, you don't just get that access from anyone. And being part of that world can change you. Being part of that world gets you access to things you wouldn't normally get. And sometimes if you're asked to do something distasteful, maybe it's 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. And 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's going to be a little better. And as you get more and more accustomed to it, it can be warping to your personality. Dr. Bethany Marshall is living high on the hog, having all the luxury trips, the beautiful home, the vintage convertible car, the private schools, all that. Is it like an addiction? No, I think the money is only a small part of it.

I think in every organization, usually these kinds of criminal enterprises, there is a woman somewhere who is willing to abuse other women. Look, we saw it with Gailin 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 personality or her character the capacity for great cruelty towards other people. Otherwise, she wouldn't do this. She seems very bright and like she could have made money other ways.

Get a job, you know, for God's sake. But she must feel and take some secret satisfaction in women being punished, tortured. electrocuted and then texting this guy, Rubin, back and forth about it. So when women act in concert with a man to abuse other people, it is always, Nancy, because they are taking some pleasure and satisfaction from it beyond the monetary gain. That's just the icing on the cake, but they are sadists themselves. Guys, it's not just doing his bidding. When you see their text messages back and forth between each other, it's sick.

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 p-uhn? responds with a complaint that his cattle prod isn't as strong as it used to be. Lynn 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.

This is a guy in your neighborhood that attends all of these glitzy gala's raising money, Yeah, him for the needy, a multi-millionaire Harvard grad and his hench person, the Bilsabub to his Satan, they're laughing about shocking ladies' genitals with a shock device after forcing her, binding her to a cross. 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 Dr. Bethany. She really nailed it. There's something wrong with this woman.

And my goodness, couldn't she even think of her children and clean it up and get out of this or not do it at all? But here's the thing. This is why we have women. who don't want to come forward, girls who don't want to come forward. They see another woman does this. And they're seeing, again, that dynamic of power, wealth. And they're seeing it wasted on this. And this is why we can't get them to come into court to testify.

It's falling apart. This is another case, another example. And again, a woman doing this to another woman. I can't imagine. This is just not exploitation. This is morally corrupt. This is evil. Evil happening.

And you know what? I'm just going to throw this in. a friend of mine in real estate said there's a big demand lately. She told me this about three months ago for these sex dungeons and people's apartments here in New York. How horrific is this, that people are normalizing and becoming habituated to these terrorist acts horrific. On women, the majority of the victims are women. To Sidney Sumner 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 and text messages

and recorded conversations. For instance, I don't care if she screams next to a laughing face emoji. Words like, this will be fun, exclamation, exclamation. Another, she hates the miss. She's so desperate. We've got to make her. cry, stating that they will give the victim, quote, plenty of valium so she can endure more pain. Repeat, we've got to make her cry.

That's part of the state's evidence. Is it not Sidney Sumner? Absolutely. And not only were these conversations over text message, but on Rubin'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 talking about it casually over text, laughing about the victim's pain. Danny Rubin, the defense has a big problem when these text messages come out with the laughing face emoji beside their plans. Have you read this indictment? According to the state, the defendant, Howard Rubin, would conduct sex sessions, I'd say felonies multiple times a week, sometimes on consecutive days. One after the next, after the next. Where was the wife? Did she not notice anything weird was happening? It goes on and on and on.

But when you have your client, Danny, using work email, to plan a crime they're basically let me just say creek without a paddle they wrote it down Danny on the work email yeah that's uh that's not a great fact

um I think what they're gonna 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 NDAs they're going to want to introduce the that there's a presumption of consent.

Of course, you can revoke consent at any time. Many of the women in the complaint said that they did, but they're going to want to show that there was consented, that it was not revoked, the consent was properly obtained, and that this after discussion about what it occurred is going to be tangential to that. Consent, consment.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. His estranged wife, Mary Henry, writes, quote, I understand far too well the series charges before the court. I can only speak from my own experience when I say they do not represent the Howie Rubin I saw, a caring father, a loving son-in-law, a devoted grandfather known affectionately as pops. Well, that's not what.

the women called him as they were bound to a cross and tortured with an electric prod. Oh, sorry, misstatement. They couldn't say anything because they were gagged, woman. These women, many of them, consented to a date. They did not know that they were going to be handcuffed to a cross in a dungeon and be shocked with a cattle prod all over their body to where they were screaming. if they could, because many of them were gagged according to court documents,

they couldn't even scream. They would be passed out. They would be drugged. It's just how can you consent to that? How can you consent to a crime? You can't. In a case like this, these people were absolutely sold a bill of goods

that turned out to be completely and sadly incorrect. He's a manipulator. He's a liar. He knows how to get people to do what he wants. them to do. He knows how to keep it secret. He knows how to pay people off. He knows how to do all the things we've seen now in the Diddy case, the Epstein case, and who knows how many 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 bucks, whatever. They had no idea what they were 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. I'm not embarrassing you. It's just that I don't feel comfortable. I mean, don't have a fight with me.

It's not nice. Please, I'm not going to do anything. I swear my children, please come in on everything. I'm a famous guy. I'm feeling very uncomfortable right now. He's coming now and one minute. And if you want to leave when the guy comes with my jacket, you know. I missed today.

You touch my priest. Please, I'm sorry. Just come on. I'm used to that. Come on. Are you used to that? Yes, come in. That was another all-time, a-hole.

That was Harvey Weinstein. And he was threatening and coercing Amber Battaliana into sex acts. wanted sex acts. And the same techniques were used to Megan Palin joining us from the incredible New York Post. Megan, the defense there and the defense here is that these women agreed to what was happening and then had second thoughts when it was over or it went too far. Bottom line that they essentially consented to the acts. Apparently

finally, LA law enforcement wake up came out of their trance and started investigating this case and it's filed charges. They apparently disagree with that theory of consent. Well, I mean, 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 show 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 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 leased for $18,000 a month, specifically for these sexual escapades that he was having there. Megan, I'm curious. You were describing how powers the hitchperson, the secretary, as you said, managed the victims. What were there injuries that we know of? 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 Rubin 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. To 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 severe from the details that we have heard so far, particularly the breast implant. to Dr. Bethany Marshall, I know you just heard our friend, Megan Palin from the New York Post. To beat a lady in her breasts so violently, it flips the implant. How does anyone derive pleasure out of that?

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 in normal ways with normal women out in the world. So if they were having lunch date or in a business meeting or something where it's an equal playing field with other women, this guy would have lost interest in those women.

He can't deal with real people, with thoughts, feelings, and emotions of their own. But there is some theory that when that aggression and sexuality is processed through the same part of the brain, and in brain scans with these kinds of perpetrators, the amygdala lights up, the aggression center of the brain. The part of the brain that's responsible for sexual pleasure also lights up. So these two things are kind of fused and confused. Aggression, arousal. Those two things go together in this disorder. And also, it's a compulsion.

People with compulsions, as I said earlier, they organize their entire life around the compulsion. So everything you look at that he did, even getting married and having children, that might have just been a way to cover up his sexual deviancy so he could pass as normal in society. Danny Rubin, a veteran trial lawyer out of L.A. I got a question for you.

It's a personal question. When you're representing people such as Howard Rubin and you're sitting there beside them, do you ever get totally disgusted, totally skeved out and just want to, like right now even talking about this? I just want to get up and run out of the studio, screaming as if I'd seen a monster. it's just how do you do it how do you quell those thoughts that aversion and keep a straight face and keep doing it because that's your duty as a defense lawyer to the utmost of your ability to save your client how do you deal with that I look at all the facts 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. I look at the documents, like what they say, and I look at what the testimony shows. And I want to determine what, if anything, 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. 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. The estranged wife of financier Howard Rubin, quote,

he would never abandon his family. He has always placed them at the center of his life, as they remain his greatest source of strength. She writes to federal judge Brian Coogan. He would never abandon his family. Oh, well, where was he all those nights he was torturing women in his soundproof sex dungeon? He wasn't at home making tomato soup and cheese sandwiches. He always placed him at the center of his life. No, he didn't. He spent hours and hours and hours a week planning and arranging torture sessions. Federal prosecutors accuse Reuben of luring dozens. That means at least 24 women to his soundproof sex dungeon, where he tied them up,

gagged them, beat them, and electrocuted them. But now his wife insists he's really misunderstood. He's just a family man. Okay, that's BS. Either love is blind or money has blinded her. We wait as justice. Goodbye, friend.