A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a class action against Montreal billionaire Robert Miller over allegations he paid minors for sex.
In November, lawyer Jeff Orenstein with the Consumer Law Group told the court that 51 women had already come forward to participate in the class action.
Additionally, he said that the actual number of victims could be as high as 100 as many of the women said they had allegedly recruited others to have sex with Miller.
In her ruling, judge Catherine Piché stressed it is too early to draw conclusions about the outcome of the suit.
“I would point out here that at the authorization stage, the authorizing judge does not consider the merits of the dispute and must take the facts as read,” Piché wrote.
The judge also rejected the objection raised by Miller’s lawyer, Karim Renno, to the admission of evidence from the anonymous plaintiff.
The class action also targets Miller’s former company Future Electronics and several of his collaborators.
Miller was arrested in May 2024 on 21 criminal charges involving 10 victims, many of them minors. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Miller has advanced Parkinson’s disease, and his health is deteriorating, according to his lawyer.
With files from the Canadian Press.