MONTREAL — A Quebec judge began hearing arguments on Wednesday for a class-action lawsuit application against Montreal billionaire Robert Miller over allegations he paid minors for sex.
The proposed lawsuit identifies the class as anyone under the age of 18 who was paid for sex by Miller, the founder of global electronics distributor Future Electronics, or who was a victim of sexual exploitation by him or by any other group determined by the court.
Lawyer Jeff Orenstein told the court that 51 women have come forward to his firm, but he says the actual number of victims could be as high as 100 because many of the women said they had allegedly recruited others to have sex with the billionaire.
"When you get into the weeds of reading all the declarations, you find that there's always, there's people that they brought, other people, they didn't come there alone and we don't have everybody and we know that," Orenstein said.
The modus operandi was allegedly always the same: the lawsuit claims high school students were recruited to have sex with Miller in exchange for money and gifts as part of what it says was a network to sexually abuse girls and young women.
One of the plaintiffs alleges she was 11 years old when the encounters began. The lawsuit describes sexual acts that took place from the late 1970s until 2016.
Miller, 81, was the subject of a report in February 2023 by Radio-Canada and the CBC that said he allegedly gave cash and gifts to minors in exchange for sex between 1994 and 2006. In the aftermath of the report, Miller stepped down as CEO of Future Electronics and sold the company.
He was arrested in May 2024 on 21 criminal charges involving 10 alleged victims, many of them minors. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Miller has denied the allegations in the criminal case and in the class-action lawsuit application, which is before the Quebec Superior Court for authorization.
The class-action has been amended a number of times since it was filed in February 2023 and doesn't specify how much the plaintiffs are seeking in damages.
Miller's lawyer, Karim Renno, told reporters outside the courtroom on Wednesday that Miller denies having sex with minors.
"Mr. Miller's position is that he never had sexual relations with anyone that was under 18," Renno said. "That's the conclusion the police came to in 2009, before they reopened their investigation in 2023."
Miller was initially investigated by Montreal police in 2008 and 2009 but the allegations were deemed unfounded by the Crown. The case was reopened in the aftermath of the Radio-Canada report.
Renno told reporters he will argue that a class-action for sexual assault is not the proper way to proceed. The lawyer cited the class action against Gilbert Rozon, founder of Just for Laughs, who was accused of sex assault, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2020.
Renno said it's unfair to his client that the plaintiffs are anonymous. "It's not by keeping the anonymity of the people who accuse that we're going to be able to get to the bottom of it."
Orenstein dismissed that argument on Wednesday, saying class actions involving sexual abuse cases exist to give victims justice.
"The fact that they can be anonymous until then and get justice, that's actually why sexual assault cases are well-designed for class actions," Orenstein said.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Catherine Piché will hear from lawyers representing Miller, Future Electronics, and three former employees who were executives at the firm and were part of the alleged scheme to recruit women to have sex with the billionaire. Hearings are to continue Thursday and Friday, after which Piché will decide whether to greenlight the lawsuit.
Miller has advanced Parkinson's disease and his health is failing, Renno said. "We hope that he will be able to stay alive long enough to be able to defend himself, but that's not something that is guaranteed."
Orenstein said even if Miller dies, his estate would be pursued.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press