A federal appeals panel has once again refused to let former Wall Street trader Howard Rubin out of jail while he awaits trial on sex trafficking charges, ruling that he still poses a danger to the community more than a year before his case goes before a jury. Rubin, accused of raping multiple women over a decade at his Manhattan penthouse, will remain locked up at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center as his defense team continues fighting the terms of his confinement.
The Second Circuit panel rejected Rubin's latest bid for release, finding that the district court did not apply the wrong legal standard when it evaluated his proposed release conditions, according to Courthouse News Service. Rubin had offered a $75 million bail package in hopes of securing his freedom, but the panel found he still poses a danger to the community and left him behind bars. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan has set Rubin's trial for September 13, 2027, giving both sides more than a year to prepare for a case built on allegations spanning a decade.
A Decade of Alleged Recruitment
Federal prosecutors say Rubin and his personal assistant and co-defendant, Jennifer Powers, recruited ten women between 2009 and 2019 to engage in sex acts with Rubin, targeting Playboy models through social media, modeling pages and high-end prostitution networks. Prosecutors allege Rubin used a soundproof, locked sex dungeon at his penthouse furnished with BDSM equipment, including straps, restraints and electroshock devices, and that he disregarded safe words that had been provided to some of the women. One victim has said Rubin caused her breast implant to flip upside down, requiring surgery.
Powers, who served as Rubin's personal assistant, is accused in the indictment of minimizing Rubin's behavior when women reported abuse and of sending photographs of victims' injuries. Rubin now faces 16 criminal counts, including sex trafficking, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, and bank fraud. Investigators and prosecutors have estimated that between 2009 and 2019, Rubin and Powers spent more than $1 million of Rubin's wealth to operate the alleged network, funding travel, luxury lodging, BDSM equipment and payments to victims, per Business Insider.
A Fraud Charge Tied to a Texas Home
The bank fraud count in the indictment alleges Rubin made explicit misrepresentations to a lending institution about his pending civil litigation while helping secure a mortgage for Powers' home in Texas. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York alleges Rubin used falsified loan disclosures to reward and retain his assistant. Powers was arrested in September 2025 at her home in Southlake, Texas, where she had been working as a substitute teacher for the Carroll Independent School District; school officials confirmed she was terminated immediately after federal authorities took her into custody, according to CBS News.
Bribery Allegation Cited in Bail Fight
During the June bail appeal hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that Rubin's wife sent an $800 Zelle payment in September 2025 in an attempted bribe to move Rubin to a quieter floor inside the Metropolitan Detention Center, an incident the Courthouse News report notes prosecutors cited as proof that Rubin's family would help him bypass custody protocols if released. That disclosure has weighed heavily in judges' repeated refusals to grant Rubin's release, alongside the panel's separate finding that he poses a danger to the community.
Rubin also sent a threatening letter to one victim before the 2022 civil trial, doing so after consulting with counsel, the same report states. Attorney Michael Gilbert, of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, said he had no personal involvement in that letter, and Judge Cogan determined Rubin could continue to retain Gilbert despite the potential conflict. Rubin has acknowledged the potential conflicts tied to his representation involving the letter. Rubin has also retained Marc Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater, an attorney who has represented Sean Combs and Luigi Mangione, as additional defense counsel. Both Gilbert and Agnifilo declined to comment on Rubin's continued detention.
A Civil Verdict That Preceded Criminal Charges
Rubin's legal troubles did not start with the criminal indictment. A federal jury awarded him liable in a 2022 civil trial under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, ordering him to pay victims $3.85 million; per FindLaw, each of six female plaintiffs received $500,000 in compensatory damages along with punitive awards ranging from $120,000 to $250,000 per victim, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the full award in November 2025. In February 2025, Judge Cogan ordered Rubin to pay an additional $4,815,033.25 in attorneys' fees and $15,114.90 in costs to the victims' legal team, citing fee-shifting provisions under federal trafficking law, according to court records reviewed by Justia.
From Wall Street Legend to Federal Defendant
Rubin's fortune traces back to the 1980s, when he traded mortgage-backed securities at Salomon Brothers and was featured in Michael Lewis's finance classic Liar's Poker, according to The Real Deal. He was dismissed from Merrill Lynch in April 1987 after unauthorized trades in interest-only mortgage securities produced a $250 million loss, then among the largest single-trader losses on Wall Street; he later settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing. Rubin went on to lead mortgage-backed securities trading at Bear Stearns from 1987 to 1999 and later managed a mortgage securities portfolio at Soros Fund Management until 2015, per The Independent.
If convicted on the federal sex trafficking charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1591, Rubin and Powers each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of life imprisonment, The Real Deal reports. For now, Rubin remains detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn as his legal team prepares for a trial that will test whether prosecutors can prove his conduct crossed from consensual BDSM encounters into criminal forced labor and sex trafficking.
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