Former employees of Robert Miller demand exclusion from lawsuit

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A Quebec Superior Court judge will consider the issue before deciding whether to resolve a class-action lawsuit against Montreal electronics billionaire Robert Miller, accused of paying minors for sex.

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On Friday, Judge Catherine Piche heard testimony from lawyers Sam Joseph Abrams, Raymond Poulet and Helmut Lippmann, former employees of Future Electronics, which Miller founded and recently sold.

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According to the class action lawsuit, Miller, 81, a company he owned and three of his former employees were involved in an alleged scheme to recruit young girls in Montreal to have sex with him in exchange for money and gifts in the 1990s and 2000s. years.

A Radio-Canada and CBC investigative report published in February 2023 said Miller allegedly posed as an American businessman named Bob Adams who frequently traveled to Montreal, with meetings said to have taken place at hotels in the city and at a private home in Montreal. Westmount.

Lawyers for former employees of Miller and Future Electronics told the court Friday that their clients should not join the lawsuit because they were not involved in any of the sex allegations made by the plaintiffs.

It is alleged that three former employees helped to establish contacts with the girls in various ways. Their lawyers said all three had no direct contact with the girls and that the evidence presented did not indicate their guilt.

They also raised the issue of ensuring that all defendants have equal rights with regard to punitive damages, even though Miller and the company have completely different financial capabilities than the three older men.

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Miller, who was also chairman and CEO of Future Electronics, sold the company this year after stepping down in February 2023. A lawyer for the electronics giant said the company was named in the class action lawsuit because it named former employees. The company is not named in the lawsuit, Jean-Pierre Sheppard said.

“Miller is not Future and Future is not Miller, and if foul play did occur and illegal acts did occur, Miller was the beneficiary, not Future,” Sheppard told the judge Friday.

“There is no allegation that Future Electronics paid one girl directly, and once the money left Future and went into Miller’s accounts, he did whatever he wanted with it,” Sheppard added.

On Thursday, Miller’s lawyer said the plaintiffs should be forced to file individual lawsuits and that the former electronics CEO wanted to know the names of his accusers.

But attorney Jeff Orenstein said Friday it would have something of a chilling effect. So far, 51 alleged victims have contacted his law firm, and he said the actual number of alleged victims could be as high as 100.

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It will be difficult for some alleged victims to file individual lawsuits, Orenstein said, adding that they don’t want to be forced to give Miller their real names.

The court heard five other individual claims involving similar facts involving Miller before the Quebec Superior Court, one of which was dismissed and is being appealed.

Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and argued that the women should sue him individually rather than together in a class-action suit.

He was also criminally charged in May with 21 counts including sexual assault, sexual interference and soliciting a person to engage in prostitution between 1994 and 2016. The case returns to court next month.

The billionaire, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has not appeared in court in any of the proceedings.

After a three-day hearing, Pichet will take the case for review and later decide whether to allow the class action.

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