Montreal billionaire can’t defend from anonymous accusers in sex lawsuit: lawyer

MONTREAL — Quebec electronics billionaire Robert Miller wants to defend himself against the women who claim he paid them for sex when they were underage, but he can’t do that if he doesn’t know their names, his lawyer said Thursday.

Karim Renno told a Quebec Superior Court hearing that the class action application against his client cannot go forward because it allows his accusers to remain anonymous.

Miller, 81, founder of global electronics firm Future Electronics, “has the right to contradict this testimony,” Renno told Justice Catherine Piché. She is hearing arguments over three days to decide whether to authorize the lawsuit, which alleges Miller exchanged money and gifts for sex with minors in the 1990s and 2000s.

To this day, Miller doesn’t know who is accusing him, the lawyer said. “This is the frustration of my client … is that of a person who is waiting for the day to defend himself.”

Renno said sexual misconduct class actions are not the right vehicle against people who were not in a position of authority in comparison to his or her victims.

“There is no case that has been authorized in Quebec in class action for sexual misconduct where the defendant wasn’t in a position of authority,” Renno said, noting in cases that have gone ahead, the defendant was often a priest or a coach with an easily identifiable class of victims.

The proposed lawsuit identifies the class as anyone under the age of 18 who was paid for sex by Miller, or who was a victim of sexual exploitation by him or by any other group determined by the court.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said 51 women have signed up to be members of the class, but the actual number could be as high as 100.

“The question is purely procedural: will we proceed with a class action or will these people have to move forward with individual actions,” Renno said.

An investigative report in February 2023 by Radio-Canada and the CBC said Miller allegedly gave cash and gifts to minors in exchange for sex between 1994 and 2006. Miller allegedly identified himself as an American businessman named Bob Adams who travelled frequently to Montreal, and the encounters are alleged to have taken place in Montreal hotels and a private home in Westmount, Que.

Renno noted that the allegations arose during a bitter divorce battle between Miller and his ex-wife, which included private investigators keeping tabs on him.

Montreal police investigated in 2008 and 2009 but the Crown declined to press charges. Fifteen years later, after the 2023 investigative report, police reopened the case and lawsuits began to be filed.

Miller was booked in May on 21 criminal charges involving 10 alleged victims, many of them minors.

The billionaire, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, has denied the allegations in the criminal case and in the class-action application. The criminal case is due back in court next month.

Miller sold Future Electronics this year, but the company is named in the class action, as are three of his former employees who were allegedly part of a network to recruit girls for him. The employees are Sam Joseph Abrams, Raymond Poulet and Helmut Lippmann. Lawyers for those men will present arguments on Friday.

Renno described the filing of the class action as chaotic; he said the lawsuit came about just weeks after the airing of the investigative report, noting it has been amended five times since it was first filed.

Miller’s defence lawyer noted that there are five other lawsuits dealing with similar facts involving Miller before Quebec Superior Court, one of which has been rejected and is being appealed.

“Mr. Miller is not before the court today saying, ‘the multiple women who accuse me do not have the right to have recourse before the court’, all he is saying is he has the right to defend himself, he has that right, inalienable, constitutional,” Renno said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2024.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press