A multimillion-dollar class action has just been filed against a Quebec billionaire, Robert G. Miller: it is alleged that the man exploited and paid teenage girls for sex.
The 79-year-old man is the subject of this action for damages, as well as his company Future Electronics Inc.
On February 2, Radio-Canada broadcast a long report on its program Investigation entitled The Miller System: Young Girls, Money, Hotelsan English version of which was broadcast by the show The Fifth Estate on CBC.
A dozen women told their stories to reporters and six of them reported having had sex with Robert Miller when they were minors, paid with thousands of dollars or expensive gifts, between 1994 and 2006. additional women testified in a follow-up report that aired a week later.
It is also alleged in the action that several employees of Future Electronics participated in illicit activities, including selecting young girls for their bosses, booking hotel rooms and arranging trips.
The businessman denied all these allegations. None of them have yet been proven in court.
The woman who proposes to be the group’s representative for the purposes of the class action alleges that she responded to a classified ad in 1996 for modeling when she was 17 years old. After a selection meeting, she was called to go to a hotel where Robert Miller was staying and she had sex with him.
Each time she met him thereafter, she received envelopes of money containing between $1,000 and $3,000.
When they last met, he gave her a watch and showed her a negative HIV test result: the woman realized he had a different name from the one he introduced himself with. Concerned, she began to search the room and found a cupboard full of watches, it is written in the procedure filed with the court.
This experience had severe psychological consequences on the young woman, it is alleged in the action. She felt shame, had depressive episodes, and took drugs and medication.
She says she never spoke about what happened with Robert Miller until a friend told her to listen to the program about the man broadcast by The Fifth Estate.
For the trauma she experienced, she is claiming 1 million in psychological damages and 1.5 million in punitive damages.
Like her, several of the women in whose name the action is brought did not know the true identity of the businessman. At least $1.5 million is claimed for each of the alleged victims.
Before it can move forward, the class action must be authorized by a judge. The trial can take place later.