This time, it’s there. Montreal police arrested billionaire Robert Miller on Thursday for sex crimes committed against ten women and teenagers. The octogenarian is targeted by a plethora of charges for actions committed between 1994 and 2016. The youngest victim would have been under 14 years old. Other arrests could follow.
“You will understand that this long-term investigation is not over. It will continue and other developments are possible. Today we would like to highlight the courage of the victims in this long ordeal,” declared Inspector David Shane of the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM).
According to arrest warrants obtained by The Press, Robert Miller is targeted by 21 counts. It is about sexual assault, sexual exploitation in a context of authority and obtaining sexual services from a minor. Eight of the alleged victims were under the age of 18. The identities of all women are protected by publication bans.
In a second case, Robert Miller is accused of having sexually assaulted a woman in 2016 in Montreal. Additionally, no charges cover the period between 2005 and 2016.
Mr. Miller and his criminal lawyers had an appointment in Westmount with investigators from the sexual exploitation section so that they could execute the arrest warrants against him. He was later released and will appear in court at a later date.
A report that made things happen
The SPVM had already conducted an investigation into Robert Miller 15 years ago. At least five girls had agreed to make sworn statements filmed at the police station, in which they incriminated Mr. Miller for paid sex with minors. But after studying the file, Crown prosecutors refused to lay charges.
Inspector Karine Paquette, from the Specialized Investigations Department of the SPVM, emphasized that she personally knows the police officers who worked on this case at the time. She reiterated that the investigation was conducted “expertly,” even though no charges resulted. A Radio-Canada report broadcast in February 2023, in which six women recounted having been recruited as teenagers to offer sexual services to Mr. Miller, however, made it possible to reopen the investigation and obtain new information, -she explained.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Inspector Karine Paquette, from the SPVM Specialized Investigations Department
Inspector Paquette affirms that her troops have “did not skimp on the means and time” devoted to this case since last year, and that they have worked hand in hand with the prosecutors of the Director of Criminal Prosecutions and criminal law (DPCP).
“It is possible that arrests or other charges will follow in the coming weeks, months,” she added.
Alongside the criminal investigation, around fifty women joined a request for class action against Robert Miller, because they say they were recruited as teenagers to offer him sexual services. Others have taken civil action individually.
“In addition to the ten victims for whom we have charges, yes, there are several other people who have been met. Since the investigation is ongoing, I cannot provide the number of people met or who have filed complaints. But please know that all the information collected was analyzed very seriously,” she added. She also invited any victim or witness to come forward, in connection with this case or any other case of sexual exploitation.
In a statement, Mr. Miller reiterated his innocence and asserted that the motivation behind the allegations against him was for financial gain.
“Mr. Miller deplores the fact that the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions has chosen to initiate proceedings against him, even though he knows that his state of health prevents him from defending himself. Mr. Miller suffers from a very advanced stage of degenerative Parkinson’s disease. He is in extremely fragile health. He is bedridden and cared for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” the statement said.
The police were informed that their suspect was ill, admitted Inspector Paquette.
“Indeed, we have learned that he is ill. For our part, for the investigation team, we have work to do, we have victims who had the courage to file a complaint, the courage to denounce what they experienced, despite the time that has passed. elapsed. So regardless of Mr. Miller’s state of health, we had a job to do and we did it,” she insisted at a press briefing.
Too late, according to a complainant
But this work was done very late, deplores a complainant who testified to the police in the 2009 investigation. “They are about 16 years too late. If they had done their job when it was time, they might have saved other victims. I feel like it won’t do any good. With his state of health, I don’t think he will go to prison. What will it end up being? I don’t know,” she said in a telephone interview with The Press.
When the SPVM investigation opened in 2009, Robert Miller, founder of the multinational Future Electronics, was already one of the richest men in Quebec. The investigators’ affidavits filed in court at the time and obtained by The Press last year clearly showed how complicated it can be for the police to track down a suspect who has almost unlimited means to defend himself and protect his interests.
Consult the file “On the trail of a billionaire”
According to the police, whose 2009 allegations were never tested in court, Mr. Miller had a personal guard of retired police officers who ensured his safety. Witnesses and victims were warned to keep quiet, others even said they were intimidated. Lawyers had claimed professional secrecy privilege to prevent access to certain documents even before the start of a police search. Lawyers had been paid by the billionaire to represent some of the alleged victims, and had advised them not to answer certain questions from the police.
Before the police came on the scene, André Savard and John Westlake, two private detectives, themselves former Montreal police officers, had conducted an investigation into Miller’s dating life, at the request of his former wife. They had documented the numerous visits of very young women to Mr. Miller. Some seemed to them to be under the control of pimps.
Westlake had said that an employee of Mr. Miller offered him $300,000 to stop his investigation, which the employee always denied. The private security firm Garda then continued the investigation by private detectives. All the conclusions of this process initiated by the ex-wife had been shared with the SPVM.
Joined by The Press Thursday, André Savard was delighted that so many years later, charges were finally brought in this affair which shocked him 15 years ago.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
André Savard, detective who investigated Robert Miller
It gives me a little confidence in the system. It’s good news. I’m happy for the victims. Let us hope that justice will continue in the same direction.
André Savard, now retired police officer
Mr. Savard, who is of the old school and spent most of his career with the Montreal police in the last century, never understood why Mr. Miller was not charged in 2009. He always supported that when he was a police officer, if he had been faced with such a case, he would have arrested the suspect.
He recognizes, however, that the work of investigators these days seems more difficult than in the past. “Today, it is certain that there seems to be an enduring freedom for people who commit criminal acts,” he laments.
The story so far
- On February 2, 2023, Radio-Canada broadcast a report on around ten women who say they had sex for money with Robert Miller, including six who claim they were minors at the time of the events.
- On February 3, 2023, Robert Miller resigned as president of Future Electronics, while denying the allegations against him. He remains the owner of the company.
- On February 22, 2023, a woman filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all the teenage girls who were allegedly recruited to provide sexual services to Mr. Miller. Other women then filed individual lawsuits.
- On September 14, 2023, Future Electronics was sold for 5.14 billion.
- On March 26, 2024, a woman’s civil suit against Robert Miller was dismissed because she waived any future recourse when she accepted an envelope containing $50,000, delivered by an associate of Mr. Miller.