A GQ profile of once-high-flying NFL star Terrell Owens — who's now close to broke despite earning more than $80 million — has shined a national spotlight on his South Florida agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and financial advisor, Jeff Rubin. T.O. has lambasted Rosenhaus's management and sued over a Rubin investment.
But it seems Rubin's record is even sketchier than T.O.'s high-profile accusations. Not only did he spark a raft of lawsuits by allegedly snookering T.O. and other top-flight football players into investing in a bingo outfit, but also he's facing drug charges in Alabama connected to an August rape complaint.
Rubin's attorney, Anna Morales-Christiansen, says she is confident no sexual charges will be filed against him. As for the superstar clients, "they were absolutely not misled," Morales-Christiansen says. "They were well aware of the risks."
Rubin, a doughy 37-year-old University of Florida grad, has seen his fortunes fall almost as quickly as those of the celebrity clients now attacking him in the media and in court. National interest in the Fort Lauderdale-based advisor was sparked when Owens told GQ he's now depressed, lonely, and scraping to get by thanks to Rosenhaus and Rubin's mismanagement.
First, T.O. says, Rubin encouraged him to sink millions into ill-advised real estate just before the housing bubble burst. Then the advisor persuaded him to sink $2 million into a bingo enterprise near Dothan, Alabama, called Center Stage — a firm whose CEO happened to be Rubin. The investment was in violation of the NFL's gambling rules, and even worse, the company filed for bankruptcy in January.
Besides Owens, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Roscoe Parrish won a $15,000 judgment against Rubin last August for allegedly incorporating an entity called Miami Pro Group Management in Parrish's name without his consent and for failing to repay a $400,000 investment in Center Stage.
Owens and star running back Clinton Portis, meanwhile, have both sued Greenberg Traurig, the Miami-based law firm that allegedly facilitated their investments in Center Stage. (The firm declined to comment.) And boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has publicly demanded the return of his $4 million investment.
The plot thickened in September, when Rubin and fellow Center Stage honcho Mike Kneuer were booked on drug charges in Alabama. According to local news reports, cops searched the pair's hotel rooms after a Center Stage employee claimed she was raped. The officers reportedly found the date-rape drug GHB, Xanax, and marijuana.
Alabama's Houston County Sheriff's Office refused to furnish a police report to Riptide, but spokesman Antonio Gonzalez says the executives have been charged with only marijuana possession for now: "This is a case dealing with narcotics and other issues. We're not releasing anything until that investigation is complete."
Rubin's criminal codefendant, Kneuer, has denied any rape allegations through his Facebook page: "Jeff or myself did not do ANYTHING to this lying lowlife."
