Robert Miller class-action lawsuit appeal to heard in December

Lawyers representing alleged victims of Montreal billionaire Robert Miller will ask an appeal court to allow a class-action lawsuit to proceed at the end of the year.

Lawyer Jeff Orenstein is representing more than 50 women who have joined the class-action, alleging they were recruited to have sex with Miller in exchange for gifts.

Last January, Quebec Superior Court Justice Catherine Piché authorized the lawsuit, but Miller and other defendants, including the electronics company he founded — Future Electronics — had appealed her decision.

Their request to seek an appeal was granted.

They will now be before the Quebec Court of Appeal to plead their case on Dec. 11.

Separate civil case also before the court

The class-action is separate from another civil lawsuit against Miller in which a plaintiff is seeking $8 million after she alleged that, at age 17, she was the victim of a network of sexual exploitation of underage girls set up and operated by the billionaire and his associates.

The Quebec Superior Court had ruled that she could not pursue the lawsuit because she accepted $50,000 during a meeting with Miller’s lawyer. The plaintiff claimed the money was given as a gift, which the judge rejected.

However, by overturning that ruling last July, the Court of Appeal has given the woman the right to sue Miller.

The Montreal billionaire was also facing several separate criminal charges, but that case was dropped in June after a judge ruled that, because of his advanced stage of Parkinson’s disease, he was too ill to stand trial. He had been facing 24 sex-related charges involving 11 women, many of whom were minors at the time of the alleged offences.

On Thursday, a close associate of Miller, Teresita Fuentes, was also acquitted of pimping charges after the Crown told the court a day before that they did not have enough evidence to prosecute the case. Fuentes, who lived at the same address as Miller according to court records, was arrested by Montreal police in June 2024, who alleged she was part of his “entourage.”