General Discussion

"after recruiting them to fly to New York to engage in sadomasochistic sex acts with Rubin in exchange for money"

The article in full makes it more clear however.

"Once they were in New York, the women were encouraged to use drugs or alcohol to prepare for their sexual encounters, and they sometimes engaged in conduct beyond the scope of their consent, prosecutors said."



Although this: "Rubin and Powers required the women to sign nondisclosure agreements and pledge that they were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they signed the agreements, prosecutors said" may complicate things for the prosecution because the presence of such documents suggests that they were consenting (at least, to a point), but that would depend on how they are worded versus what actually happened especially if the accused encouraged the women to use drugs and/or alcohol, in contrast with what they signed

As an aside, I'd intuit that such agreements are de rigeur in the porn industry when depicting BDSM acts because without a strong consent form, someone would putting themself on tape engaged in sex (and punishment) acts with people who are often in varying stages of being tied up (if I understand things correctly), which would obviously be a huge legal liability in the absence of such agreements.

I admit I vacillate back and forth on whether these sorts of productions should be outright illegal, or if people should have the freedom to make them and put them out as long as everyone consents. It's a bit of a tricky philosophical question.