Quebec Superior Court authorizes class action against billionaire Robert Miller

The Quebec Superior Court authorized a class action on Tuesday against Montreal billionaire Robert Miller, accused of paying minors for sex.

The class action application was filed by three co-plaintiffs “who claim to have been victims of a juvenile prostitution system organized for the sexual benefit” of Miller by employees of the company Future Electronics, according to the decision by Justice Catherine Piché.

Piché described Miller’s alleged actions as “extremely serious acts” against girls between the ages of 11 and 17, over a period spanning 1994 through 2006.

Miller also faces a number of other civil lawsuits filed by four individual complainants, while a fifth lawsuit was rejected and that decision is being appealed.

During the hearing held in November, lawyer Jeff Orenstein of the firm Consumer Law Group, representing the plaintiffs, had stated that 51 alleged victims had come forward to his firm and that the actual number could be as high as 100.

In addition to Miller, the class action targets three employees of the company Future Electronics, founded and recently sold by Miller: Sam Joseph Abrams, Raymond Poulet and Helmut Lippmann.

The 81-year-old founder of global electronics company Future Electronics has repeatedly denied the allegations and has argued that the women should sue him individually instead of together in a class action.

The billionaire, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, also faces 24 criminal charges including sexual assault, sexual interference and enticing a person to commit prostitution — charges he denies.

-With reporting from Sidhartha Banerjee

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews