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A Quebec Superior Court judge will deliberate before deciding whether to file a class-action lawsuit against Montreal electronics billionaire Robert Miller, who is accused of paying minors for sex.

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On Friday, Judge Catherine Piché heard from attorneys for Sam Joseph Abrams, Raymond Poulet and Helmut Lippmann – all former employees of Future Electronics, a company Miller founded and recently sold.

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According to the class action, 81-year-old Miller, the company he owned, and his three former employees were involved in an alleged scheme in the 1990s and 2000s to recruit young girls in Montreal to have sex with him in exchange for money and gifts.

A February 2023 investigative report from Radio-Canada and the CBC stated that Miller allegedly identified himself as an American businessman named Bob Adams who traveled regularly to Montreal, and that the meetings allegedly took place at hotels in the city and a private home in Montreal . Westberg.

Lawyers for Miller’s ex-employees and for Future Electronics told the court Friday that their clients should not be part of the lawsuit because they were not involved in the plaintiffs’ sexual allegations.

The three former employees are said to have contributed in various ways to facilitating contacts with the girls. Their lawyers said the three had no direct contact with the girls and that the evidence presented does not indicate they are guilty.

They also raised the issue of keeping all defendants on an equal footing for damages, even though Miller and the company have very different financial standing than the three older men.

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Miller, who was also chairman and CEO of Future Electronics, sold the company this year after stepping down in February 2023. A lawyer for the electronics giant said it was named in the class action filing because it names former employees. The company is not otherwise mentioned in the lawsuit, Jean-Pierre Sheppard said.

“Miller is not Future and Future is not Miller, and if the vile acts occurred and illegal acts occurred, Miller was the beneficiary, not Future,” Sheppard told the judge Friday.

“There is no allegation that Future Electronics paid one girl directly and once the money left Future and went into Miller’s accounts, he did with it as he pleased,” Sheppard added.

Miller’s attorney argued Thursday that the plaintiffs should be forced to file individual lawsuits and that the former electronics CEO wanted to know the names of his accusers.

But attorney Jeff Orenstein said Friday that would have a chilling effect. So far, 51 alleged victims have come forward to his law firm, and he cited the actual number of alleged victims can be up to 100.

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It will be overwhelming for some alleged victims to pursue individual legal action, Orenstein said, adding that they do not want to be forced to give Miller their real name.

The court has heard five other individual lawsuits in the Quebec Superior Court on similar facts involving Miller. One was rejected and an appeal is being filed.

Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and argued that the women should sue him individually rather than together in a class action.

He was also criminally charged in May with 21 charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference and enticing someone to engage in prostitution, between 1994 and 2016. That case will return to court next month.

The billionaire, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has not appeared in court in any proceedings.

After a three-day hearing, Piché will take the matter under consideration and decide at a later date whether to approve the class action.

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