Content of the article

A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered two homes owned by Westmount billionaire Robert Miller to be forfeited as part of lawsuits by four women who claim he paid to have sex with them when they were underage.

In a decision handed down Friday in Montreal court, Judge Serge Gaudet said he was “disturbed to learn that the defendant, Miller, a billionaire, does not have a bank account in his name and that elsewhere, there has been persistent use . by (other people) to hide assets in Miller’s name.”

Content of the article

Miller, the founder of Future Electronics, a Pointe-Claire-based company that has since been sold to a Taiwanese company, was included on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people in 2016. The magazine estimated that he was worth 2.7 billion dollars. at the time. This placed him in a tie as the richest person in Quebec.

Miller sold his company shortly after an article aired on Radio-Canada’s Enquête in early 2023, citing women who claimed to have had sex with Miller in exchange for money or gifts when they were underage.

In April this year, WT Microelectronics Co., Ltd., the Taiwanese company that acquired Future Electronics, issued a statement saying that it had “successfully completed the acquisition of Future Electronics Inc. for an enterprise value of USD 3.8 billion”.

The proceeding involving liens on two homes totaling more than $4 million is unusual because lawsuits filed by the women, whose names are protected by a publication ban, are pending. Lawyers representing the women who sought the bonds out of concern that the properties would be sold or transferred before their civil cases were concluded.

Content of the article

Content of the article

The four women are represented by lawyers Jean-Philippe Caron, Gabriel Bois and Janique Soucy, all from the law firm CaLex Légal.

The judge also said his decision was made in light of evidence that emerged after a ruling last year by Judge Eleni Yiannakis in a class-action lawsuit. In that case, the judge rejected a request that Miller’s assets be either frozen or required to deposit $200 million to ensure the funds would be available if the class action lawsuit is successful.

According to La Presse, some of the new evidence includes a statement made in court in March by Sam Abrams, a former director of Future Electronics, where he said that: “Mr. Miller does not have a bank account. None.”

Abrams also said he maintained a bank account for Miller for decades without the billionaire’s name attached to it.

Statements of claim filed by the women describe Abrams, who is also named in the lawsuits, as a vice president at Future Electronics for more than 50 years. He is described as Miller’s “right-hand man”.

The statement of claim filed by one of the women describes an alleged scenario similar to what the women claimed in the report broadcast by Radio-Canada last year.

Content of the article

“The Miller network was a complex and organized network whose primary objective was to recruit underage girls to satisfy the sexual urges of Robert Miller, without regard to the illegality of such a sex exploitation network in our legal system and without regard to account of the fundamental rights of the victims, including the plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.

“Robert Miller hid behind various actors, particularly involving certain key employees of Future Electronics, to recruit his victims.”

In her statement, one of the women says she had problems with her family and was placed in Quebec’s youth protection system at the age of 13.

She claims a high school friend introduced her to Miller when she was 14. She claims she was “filtered” through the “Miller network” before meeting him. She claims they had sex at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and that he claimed he couldn’t use a condom because he was allergic to latex.

“In any event, following this first full sexual relationship with Robert Miller, the plaintiff, shaken and unable to comprehend the magnitude of the situation, left Queen Elizabeth with an envelope containing $1,000 and CDs provided by Robert Miller,” it is shown in the claim.

The allegations contained in the lawsuits have not been proven in court.

At the beginning of this year, Miller was arrested by Montreal police on charges of sexual exploitation involving 10 victims, some of whom were minors at the time. The offenses allegedly occurred between 1994 and 2016. The charges Miller faces include sexual assault, public procurement, sexual exploitation, sexual interference and sexual relations with a minor.

The two criminal cases return to court in December.

[email protected]

Content of the article

Content of the article