Montreal tech billionaire charged with several sex offences

Robert Miller was charged Thursday with several sexual assault charges after Montreal police reopened an investigation into the tech billionaire.

Court records show that the 80-year-old is facing 21 charges involving 10 complainants for offences that allegedly took place between 1994 and 2006. The charges include sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and sexual interference, as well as several offences related to procuring and prostitution.

Some of the alleged victims were minors at the time of the incidents. The names of all of the victims are protected by a publication ban and cannot be revealed.

Montreal police's Insp. David Shane announced at a news conference Thursday that the former head of Future Electronics Inc. was arrested in the afternoon at his home in Westmount and was released with conditions on a promise to appear in court on July 3.

"We'd like to underline the courage of the victims in this long ordeal," Shane said, adding that victims in the Miller case — or any sexual assault case — can call 514-280-8522 to file a report.

In February 2023, CBC/Radio Canada released a documentary that alleged Miller paid teenage girls for sex for more than a decade. The report alleged the tech executive, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, arranged for his associates to bring the minor girls to his Montreal hotel room, as well as his home in Westmount, to perform sexual acts between 1994 to 2006.

He has denied the allegations, and stepped down as the chairman and CEO of his company the day after the allegations surfaced. 

In the days that followed, Montreal police publicly acknowledged that they had investigated Miller between 2008 and 2009 and then handed over the results of the probe to prosecutors. No charges were laid at the time.

On Thursday, police said that, at the time, the elements weren't there to secure a conviction, but did not go into specific details. Shane told reporters that new information had come to light in the past year that led investigators to reopen the investigation.

"We made a public call for … any victim or any witness to come forward because we were willing to reopen the case," he said at the news conference. "Based on some new information, some new people came forward who were able to further the case and be able to submit all of it to the Crown prosecutor."

He said the investigation is ongoing and that investigators are not ruling out arresting other suspects.

Miller is also a defendant in a proposed class-action lawsuit from women who alleged that they were paid for sex many years ago. Miller has also denied the allegations in the civil case, which is ongoing.

CTV News reached out to his lawyer in the civil case for a response to the criminal charges but have not yet heard back.