Quebec businessman Robert Miller faces new $9.5M lawsuit alleging sexual exploitation | CBC News
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A new lawsuit has been filed against Montreal billionaire Robert Miller by one of his alleged victims, claiming a total of $9.5 million in moral and punitive damages, Radio-Canada has learned.
The claim targets Miller, the company he founded, Future Electronics, and two other people who were allegedly involved in a system of sexual exploitation of minors devised by the businessman.
“The damages suffered by the plaintiff are unimaginable,” said her lawyer, Maryse Lapointe. “I have never seen a story like this here in Quebec.”
For the first time, a woman is accusing Miller and his associates of having set up a “network for recruiting young girls for sex work” intended for clients other than Miller. The ring was allegedly set up by Raymond Poulet, who described himself as Miller’s special adviser for several years.
“Certain young girls recruited by Poulet for Miller … also met other wealthy and influential men who gravitated in Miller’s and Poulet’s circles,” according to allegations contained in the lawsuit. The lawsuit does not identify the men.
Miller denies any involvement in a child exploitation ring. He is contesting all the charges. Neither he nor the other defendants have responded to the latest lawsuit that has just been filed.
‘Total control’
According to the lawsuit, the victim identified by the initials A.B., had answered a classified ad placed in 1994 or 1995 by the man who was acting as a matchmaker for Miller. She was underage and “very vulnerable” at the time, the lawsuit says.
Miller allegedly met A.B. in a luxury Montreal hotel and paid her $1,000 for a bath and nude photos of her. She did not know his identity, as he called himself “Bob,” and said he owned an American radio station. She allegedly had another sexual encounter with him a few months later, in the company of another underage girl.
A.B. then alleges that she was “forced to have sexual relations with many mature men whose identities she did not know, every week for several years, all orchestrated by Poulet, paid by Future, for the benefit of Miller.” During this period, she described being drugged in a hotel and waking up sore in Poulet’s flat in the La Cité complex in Montreal.
She claims to have suffered post-traumatic shock and that “Poulet exercised total control over her.”
A.B. became his spouse and gave birth to a child in 1998. She claims to have completely lost her relationship with her child after leaving Poulet, according to the lawsuit.
Contacted by Radio-Canada’s Enquête, Poulet replied that the dates mentioned in the lawsuit are wrong and that the information is inaccurate.
Spying and threats
The lawsuit also alleges that during the same period, the victim was forced to spy on her ex-partner Poulet at Miller’s request.
Poulet had wanted to blackmail his boss and was promptly visited by a person mandated by Future, who threatened to make him and the child he had had with A.B. disappear.
Miller and A.B. then agreed that she “would keep an eye on Poulet … in exchange for Miller ceasing his threats against her child.”
For her efforts, A.B. received $2,000 a month from Terry Corcoran and Robert Stevens, owners and employees of NCIS, a security company hired by Miller and Future.
“She’s a destitute teenager who got caught up in a system of sexual exploitation and was forced to monitor that system for the benefit of her abuser,” said Lapointe. “My client found herself reliving her trauma constantly and over several years.”
Miller and Future Electronics are also facing two other lawsuits related to the sexual exploitation of minors that he allegedly set up: a class action involving 29 alleged victims and another individual lawsuit. In the latter, the plaintiff is seeking $8 million in damages.
Montreal lawyer named in lawsuit
Last February, Enquête and CBC’s The Fifth Estate revealed that Miller had been under investigation by Montreal police in relation to allegations of sexual exploitation of minors.
The report also revealed that a lawyer provided by Miller had accompanied several alleged victims as they gave evidence to the police. This police investigation was closed in 2010 without any charges being laid.
The new lawsuit alleges Stephen Angers, a well-known Montreal criminal lawyer, prevented victims from telling investigators about their experiences within the network run by Miller.
Lapointe said he “was giving the girls instructions not to give the police any other information.”
Angers had not responded to Radio-Canada’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Allegations a Canadian billionaire paid teens for sex.
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