By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-20 21:02:50 | Updated at 2024-11-24 01:08:35
3 days ago
A Canadian billionaire has been ordered to surrender two of his mansions at the request of four women who allege he sexually abused them as minors.
Robert Miller, 81, is to have his two Montreal homes seized after Justice Serge Gaudet handed down a ruling against him on Friday.
The plaintiffs have argued that the two homes, valued at $2 million Canadian each, were listed under companies in an attempt by Miller to conceal his wealth.
According to Justice Gaudet, the Future Electronics founder, who is also known as 'Canada's Jeffrey Epstein', has no bank account in his own name.
He said in court minutes seen by The Canadian Press that: 'It is troubling to note that Miller, a billionaire, has no bank account in his name.'
Gaudet also noted that there had been 'persistent and significant use' of other names to conceal his assets.
The four women are seeking millions from Miller, alleging that they had been recruited as high school students to have sex with him for money.
Miller, who is in end-stage Parkinson's disease, has denied all the allegations against him.
Robert Miller, 80, is accused of paying at least 47 teen girls as young as 11 for sex and convincing them to recruit their friends and classmates to be new victims
As well as the four women who have filed suits, he is facing multiple legal actions which saw him arrested in May on 21 sex-related counts involving 10 complainants.
Miller also faces a separate proposed class-action lawsuit that alleges he gave money and gifts to minors in exchange for sex between 1996 and 2006.
That class-action suit has not yet been authorized.
One of the four in the case that led to the property seizure has alleged that in 1999, when she was 14, she was recruited to visit a man that she says was Miller.
Alongside a high school friend, the two girls say they went to a hotel room where an employee of Miller's met them before sending them to meet Miller, who used the name Bob.
Court documents seen by The Canadian Press say that he then offered each of them $1,000 for sex. They say he refused to wear a condom due to a latex allergy.
The woman alleges she met Miller over 30 times, being paid each time and that the meetings ended when she reached adulthood.
According to a sworn statement, she became dependent on the money and began to struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.
After Miller was first publicly accused in 2023, he immediately stepped down as the boss of Future Electronics 'to focus on his very serious health issues'.
Gaudet also noted that there had been 'persistent and significant use' of other names to conceal his assets. One of his homes is seen here
The plaintiffs have argued that the two homes, valued at $2 million Canadian each, were listed under companies in an attempt by Miller to conceal his wealth. One of them is seen here
The company said he 'adamantly and vehemently denies the malicious allegations made against him, and confirms they are false and wholly unsubstantiated and that they arose as a result of a bitter divorce'.
'They are now being repeated for financial gain. A police investigation was conducted into these allegations and the authorities determined that they were unfounded,' it said.
One of the women who accused him said she was lured in by a newspaper modelling ad in 1996 when she was 17 and went to a hotel.
She was told she was 'chosen' and was soon speaking on the phone with Miller and they had sex seven to 10 times for the next three years.
'Each time, the applicant would see defendant Robert G Miller for the purposes of engaging in sexual relations, he would give her an envelope with between $1,000-$2,000 in cash; one time it was $3,000,' her lawsuit read.
The arrangement ended when Miller showed her a negative HIV test that had a different name to his 'Bob Adams' persona.
'This led the applicant to become quite concerned and she looked around the hotel room and found a cupboard full of watches,' the lawsuit alleged.
Julie Dagenais (left), the only woman connected to the allegations to reveal her identity, claimed she narrowly avoided becoming another victim when her parents found out
Miller has frequently been referred to as Canada's Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein is seen here in his 2017 mugshot for the New York State Sex Offender Registry
Realizing she was just one of many girls being exploited, she 'felt bad about herself and her self-worth, shameful, guilty, she was depressed'.
Julie Dagenais, the only woman connected to the allegations to reveal her identity, claimed she narrowly avoided becoming another victim when her parents found out.
She said an older co-worker at her minimum wage Sears job told her about being paid thousands for sex with a rich businessman.
'She told me: "I told Bob about you, I showed him pictures of you and he says he is going to try to make room in his schedule to meet with you",' she told Radio-Canada.
Dagenais claimed she met Miller and he gave her four boxes of expensive shoes and implied it was an advance payment for sex.
'He was saying, 'the next time we see each other, we're going to go further'... He saw that I was very nice, and very vulnerable,' she said.
Another judge in Quebec hearing the class action case denied a request to freeze his assets last year.
Gaudet has said that new facts have come to light since then, which led him to believe there is a 'structure that aims to hide the defendant’s assets'.
