Allegations pile up against the fallen businessman as several women are added to the proposed class action and a new alleged victim testifies to the abuse experienced when she was still a very young teenager, reports Enquête.
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Robert G. Miller
- Brigitte Noël ( View profile)Brigitte Noël
- Judith Plamondon (View profile)Judith Plamondon
A new alleged victim of Robert Miller is demanding $11.4 million from the businessman, the company Future Electronics and the company's former vice-president, Sam Joseph Abrams.
In a motion instituting proceedings filed Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse, the woman claims to be one of the many victims of the Montreal billionaire. Robert Miller would have been for decades at the head of a network of sexual exploitation of young girls who were minors or barely adults, according to information collected by Investigationand broadcast in February 2023.
The alleged victim immigrated at the age of 13 to Montreal, where she lived with her single-parent mother in a situation economic situation which she describes as precarious.
According to her testimony, in 2005, when she was barely 14 years old, she found a job as a receptionist in a body care salon in Verdun. Except that, quickly, she would have been trained as a masseuse.
It is in this capacity that the teenager would have met the billionaire for the first time , in 2005. According to the plaintiff, Miller waited for her completely naked in the massage room. Anxious to keep her job, she allegedly gave him a massage, at the end of which the man gave her an envelope of $500.
Robert Miller would have been an important client of the salon, argues the complainant, who claims that the businessman would have been called Mister Wonderful by the employees.
Note that this massage parlor was at the heart of a police operation (New window) in 2013, as part of an investigation related to human trafficking.
In the weeks following his first massage, Miller's visits to the salon increased, where he exclusively requested to see the plaintiff. She alleges that, from her second visit, the billionaire demanded sexual services from her, and also says that after each of these visits she received a tip of up to $1,000 as well as hockey bags filled with gifts for her and her colleagues.
The plaintiff claims to have been a victim for more than 10 years of what she calls the Miller network. She was only 15 years old when she allegedly had a first full sexual relationship with the businessman, at his residence at 375 Olivier Street, in Westmount. From 2005, she would have gone there regularly, always alone. After each meeting, he would have given her $2,000 in cash.
In her motion, the plaintiff argues that each meeting with the billionaire was robotic and meticulously planned and that the objective was to develop feelings of comfort, love and security in his alleged victims.
According to the plaintiff, Robert Miller took a great interest in her personal life, her studies, her dreams and her ambitions and knew that she was going to high school, thus leading all reasonable person to understand that she was a minor.
The complainant says that at the age of 15, she was experiencing a difficult situation at home and that she wanted to leave the family home. She alleges that Robert Miller took advantage of this vulnerable situation by encouraging her to leave her family and promising her financial support.
In 2009, during Robert Miller's acrimonious divorce, the plaintiff was allegedly contacted by him and his lawyers, who allegedly exerted pressure to prevent her from speaking to investigators interested in the case.
Robert Miller would then have taken measures to protect himself. All meetings had to go through his partner Sam Joseph Abrams, then executive vice-president of Future Electronics. The meetings would have taken place at 2100, rue Saint-Marc, an imposing apartment building in downtown Montreal.
2100, rue Saint-Marc, in downtown Montreal
During this period, the plaintiff began to suspect that Robert Miller was spying on her social media, a fear that still haunts her to this day.
At the age of 24, the plaintiff says she met a man who became her boyfriend; she then began what she describes as a new life far from the vicious circle of the Miller network.
Robert Miller would then have stopped helping her financially, which would have been a hard blow for the young woman. In her request, she declares that this about-face plunged her back into precariousness and made her aware of the years of negative impacts on her self-esteem.
She reports having seen Robert Miller again in 2016 and 2017, at the request of Sam Abrams. At that time, she reportedly met the businessman in a West Island warehouse, described as being perfectly fitted out for Robert Miller's needs, stocked with luxury clothes and handbags, and equipped with a bedroom and a bathroom stocked with women's toiletries.
She would then have asked Miller to help her in her career as an artist: The plaintiff wanted to obtain the support of the billionaire, after all these years of loyalty to him. The latter would have replied that she would not have money without sexual relations.
The young woman claims to have had to leave Montreal and to have refused any invitation to see the businessman again, anxious to start a new life far from the horrors she had known since the age of 14 at the hands of Robert Miller and his acolytes.
Seven women have also been added to the class action, which has not yet been authorized. Their testimonies cover a period up to 2016, while the allegations so far did not go beyond 2012.
The women are not identified by name.
According to affidavits filed in the class action file, most say they were recruited by friends or classmates. They claim they were minors when the billionaire allegedly paid them thousands of dollars for sexual services. Several specify that the businessman knew their age.
The alleged victims report that Robert Miller pretended to be an owner of radio stations in Chicago, or that he promised to help them become top models. They maintain that their meetings with him were facilitated by Sam Joseph Abrams, a senior executive at Future Electronics, and by matchmaker Raymond Poulet. Helmut Lippman, also high up at Future, would also have played a role.
The women claim to have had significant after-effects from their experiences with Robert Miller, including substance abuse problems, family conflicts and intimacy problems. One of them even mentions a suicide attempt.
Several women say they felt unable to denounce the billionaire before the report was broadcast of Investigation, because they did not know his true identity.
We now have 35 alleged victims who have signed affidavits recounting their personal stories of what happened between them and Mr. Miller while x27;they were minors, explains Jeff Orenstein, the victims' lawyer.
Me Orenstein adds that his office is currently taking steps to have Robert Miller testify as soon as possible, to preserve the evidence.
The Miller clan opposes the admissibility of these testimonies. On November 1, a judge will have to decide whether these affidavits are admitted into evidence. The firm that represents the victims, Consumer Law Group, also fights to preserve victims' anonymity.
Robert Miller, his company and his entourage are now the subject of four lawsuits: three individual lawsuits as well as the class action. Robert Miller and the other defendants deny all allegations.
At the time of writing these lines, the lawyers for the three defendants had not responded to Radio-Canada's questions.
A few hours after the broadcast of the Investigationreport in February 2023, Robert Miller has resigned as CEO of Future Electronics. Last September, Future announced the sale of the company to a Taiwanese firm for more than five billion dollars.
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