A dying billionaire who has been described as the Canadian Jeffrey Epstein could be held to account for his actions if he is defrosted after his death.
Robert Miller, 80, has been accused of trafficking multiple underage women for decades, with his alleged crimes going back to the 1970s, but they fear that they could die before he is brought to trial.
While he is described as having reasonable mental capacity for a man his age, he is suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s disease and a heart condition.
But he is also a big donator to cryonics and has expressed a desire to undergo the process after his death.
Cryonics is an as yet unproven process that sees people frozen in time until the technology is available to defrost them and cure the ailments that caused their deaths in the first place.
Suspended Animation
When a person is declared legally dead and undergoes the cryonics process, they are no longer seen as “dead” in the traditional sense, but in what is known as “suspended animation”.
Their bodies are filled with medication to protect their cells in a process that is likened to organ donation. They are then stored in vats at a temperature of -196°C.
Around 500 people in the world have had the unique process after their death since 1967.
Miller is reported to have donated large sums of money to an institution called Alcor Life Extension Institution in Arizona, which charges $220,000 (£173,000) to preserve a whole body and $80,000 (£63,000) to preserve someone’s brain indefinitely.
Alcor writes on its website that “there are no known credible technical arguments that lead one to conclude that cryonics, carried out under good conditions today, would not work.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the billionaire has prepared to have this process done by creating “personal revival trusts” to ensure that he still has money in the event of his defrosting.
Pierre Guilbault, the former chief financial officer of Miller’s company, Future Electronics, which sold for £2.9 billion, said he is hoping to pass with “substantial funds” as a result.
The Accusations
The accusations, one of which goes back to 1977, only came to light in September of last year because of a joint investigation by Radio-Canada’s Enquête and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC).
Around 50 women claim to have been abused by Miller, with his first alleged victim, known as Carmen, claiming that he assaulted her when she was 12. He was a family friend, known as Bob, who was babysitting her at the time.
“I cried because he hurt me. I felt completely violated, without knowing what that word even meant,” she wrote.
Carmen alleges that the billionaire gave her $10,000 (£8,000) to keep the abuse, which went on for years, a secret.
He is also accused of trafficking multiple women between 1994 and 2006 to an Esptein-like prostitution ring that he ran with his employees.
The Times has seen affidavits that claim the women were paid for sex and intimate bathing experiences.
The women claim that they had no idea who Miller was when they were trafficked and believe they were targeted because they were in poverty and lured by the promise of a better life.
Miller denies all allegations against him and claims that his ex-wife, Margaret Antonier, is behind them, seeking “financial gain”.
Following the accusations, he resigned as the president of his company citing “very serious health issues” including erectile dysfunction.
The Legal Process
No one has ever successfully been revived from a state of cryonic preservation but lawyers for Millers’ accusers say it could be an option if he is not sued before his death.
Jeffrey Orenstein, a lawyer at the Consumer Law Group in Montreal who represents a group of women looking to bring a class action lawsuit against Miller, said that the possibility should be considered, but the case could be complicated if it goes to court at a time when the accusers are dead.
Orenstein, however, has said that every effort is being made to prosecute Miller before he passes away.
Alcor, meanwhile, reports that the odds of a person being successfully revived are much higher if they have a team on standby one to seven days before their death.
