A woman who says she was recruited from the age of 14 to satisfy the sexual urges of Montreal billionaire Robert Miller has just filed a new $11.4 million lawsuit against the businessman. The plaintiff claims she was under his influence for a decade, dropped out of high school and developed drug problems after meeting him.
Published at 7:55 p.m.
The story so far
On February 2, Radio-Canada aired a report on about 10 women who said they had sex for money with the billionaire, including six who claimed they were underage at the time of the incident.
On February 3, Robert Miller resigned as president of Future Electronics but denied the allegations against him. He remains the owner of the company.
On February 22, a woman filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all of the teenage girls who were allegedly recruited to provide sexual services to Mr. Miller. Other women then filed individual lawsuits.
On September 14th, Future Electronics was sold for 5.14 billion.
The woman’s identity is protected by a Supreme Court order. She says she was recruited at a very young age by the Miller Network, which her lawyers describe as a scheme to recruit young girls for the purposes of youth prostitution.
The complainant emigrated to Montreal with her family at the age of 13. She grew up in a very humble and strict environment. At 14, she was hired at a massage parlor in Verdun, the Angel Spa. She claims that sexual services were offered there, but that she was initially unaware of them. A few years later, the bar’s managers were also arrested for pimping.
“Mr Wonderful”
There was a particular customer at the massage parlor who went by the nickname “Mister Wonderful,” the lawsuit says. According to the complainant it was Mr Miller.
“Whenever Robert Miller visited, the salon was open exclusively to him, the lights were completely closed, and he only entered the salon through the back door to ensure the confidentiality of the illegal activities,” describes the lawsuit, written by Robert Miller’s lawyers Jean- Philippe Caron, Gabriel Bois and Janique Soucy from the Calex Légal law firm.
The complainant claims that when she first met Mr. Miller, she gave him a normal massage with no sexual services. But the client often came back to her afterward and offered lots of money for sex, and she began complying when she was 14, she said. She assures that she told him that she was attending secondary school.
“It is evident that Robert Miller was completely indifferent to Plaintiff’s age,” the lawsuit states.
Invited to a house in Westmount
The woman claims Mr Miller then moved their meetings to a house on Olivier Street in Westmount owned by a numbered company. At the age of 15, she is said to have started visiting him there and having full-length sex for money, which, at his request, was to take place without a condom, she says.
The numbered company that owned the house has had several lawyers from large Montreal offices as directors and shareholders over the years, the lawsuit highlights: Mich Samuel Minzberg of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, then Mich Wilfrid Lefebvre of Norton Rose Fulbright, then Me Jules Charrette, from the same company. Robert Miller was not listed as the owner, but when he faced allegations of sexual abuse of minors in 2023, the numbered business was transferred to his name.
“It is very likely that Robert Miller was always the true beneficiary [l’entreprise à numéro] and that all previous directors and shareholders acted directly and/or indirectly on behalf of Robert Miller,” the lawsuit states. In it, the woman describes Mr. Miller as a suspicious man who knew he was being hunted by the police and who took all possible measures to avoid getting caught.
Me Jules Charrette has already told La Presse that he has no comment to make on the matter. I Minzberg and I Lefebvre had not yet responded at the time of writing these lines.
Depression and eating disorders
The plaintiff claims he stopped going to school and working so he could live off the billionaire’s money alone. She says she visited as a minor for four years, then about six years after she came of age. She says she began using drugs and had mental health issues “that were a direct result of the isolation, ongoing shame and despair caused by the Miller Network.”
“In addition to severe eating disorders and drug use, the plaintiff also suffered from depression,” the lawsuit states.
The woman is now seeking $11.4 million in damages from Robert Miller, his former company Future Electronics (which was just sold to a Taiwanese company) and Sam Abrams, a former employee of the company who allegedly worked on the “Miller Network “was involved.