A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered that legal liens be placed on two houses owned by billionaire Robert Miller in Westmount as part of lawsuits by four women who allege he paid to have sex with them while they were minors.
In a decision delivered at the Montreal courthouse on Friday, Justice Serge Gaudet said he finds it “troubling to learn that the defendant, Miller, a billionaire, does not have a bank account in his name and that elsewhere, there has been the persistent use of (other people) to hide assets in Miller’s name.”
Miller, the founder of Future Electronics, a company based in Pointe-Claire that has since been sold to a company in Taiwan, was included on Forbes magazine’s list of the wealthiest people in the world in 2016. The magazine estimated he was worth $2.7 billion at the time. This placed him in a tie as the wealthiest person in Quebec.
Miller sold his company shortly after a story aired on Radio-Canada’s Enquête, early in 2023, quoting women who alleged they had sex with Miller in exchange for money or gifts when they were minors.
In April this year, WT Microelectronics Co., Ltd., the Taiwan-based company that purchased Future Electronics, issued a statement saying it “successfully completed its acquisition of Future Electronics Inc. for an enterprise value of US$3.8 billion.”
The procedure involving the liens on two houses worth more than a total of $4 million is unusual in that the lawsuits filed by the women, whose names are protected by a publication ban, are pending. Lawyers representing the women asked for the liens out of concern the properties will be sold or transferred before their civil court cases end.
The four women are represented by lawyers Jean-Philippe Caron, Gabriel Bois and Janique Soucy, all with the CaLex Légal law firm.
The judge also said his decision was made in light of evidence that has come out since a decision made last year by Justice Eleni Yiannakis in a class action lawsuit. In that case, the judge denied a request that Miller’s assets either be frozen or that he be required to deposit $200 million to ensure funds will be available if the class action lawsuit is successful.
According to La Presse, part of the new evidence includes a statement made in court in March by Sam Abrams, a former executive with Future Electronics, where he said that: “Mr. Miller does not have a bank account. Not one.”
Abrams also reportedly said he kept a bank account for Miller for decades, without the billionaire’s name being attached to it.
The statements of claim filed by the women describe Abrams, who is also named in the lawsuits, as having been a vice-president with Future Electronics for more than 50 years. He is described as having been 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 aired by Radio-Canada last year.
“The Miller network was a complex and organized network whose main objective was the recruitment of underage girls in order to satisfy the sexual urges of Robert Miller, without regard to the illegality of such a sexual exploitation network in our legal system and without regard to the fundamental rights of victims, including the applicant,” the lawsuit states.
“Robert Miller hid behind different actors, notably with the participation of certain key employees of Future Electronics, in order to recruit his victims.”
In her claim, 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 to her to Miller when she was 14. She alleges she was “filtered” through “the Miller network” before she met him. She alleges they had intercourse at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and that he claimed he could not use a condom because he was allergic to latex.
“At any event, following this first full sexual relationship with Robert Miller, the plaintiff, shaken and not able to understand the scope of the situation, left the Queen Elizabeth with an envelope containing a sum of $1,000 and compact discs given by Robert Miller,” the claim states.
The allegations contained in the lawsuits have not been proven in court.
Earlier this year, Miller was arrested by the Montreal police on charges of sexual exploitation involving 10 victims, some of whom were minors at the time. The crimes are alleged to have taken place between 1994 and 2016. The charges Miller faces include sexual assault, procuring, sexual exploitation, sexual interference and sexual intercourse with a minor for consideration.
The two criminal cases return to court in December.