FUGITIVE financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, has denied that former TRX City Sdn Bhd company secretary Goh Gaik Kim is his aunt. 

In a statement issued by public relations firm Wells Haslem Mayhew Strategic Public Affairs, Low denied allegations raised by lawyers during the SRC International proceedings that he was related to Goh.

“Such claims are demonstrably false,” co-CEO Benjamin Haslem said in a statement today.  

“There is no family relationship between Mr Low or any of his family members with the above-mentioned Goh Gaik Kim. It is disappointing that counsel has endeavoured to falsely implicate Mr Low’s family. 

“It is also disappointing that the media has reported such allegations as true, quoting unnamed sources rather than checking directly,” the statement said, urging the media to update their articles, and “cease the false implication of his family”.

During cross-examination at Najib Razak’s SRC International trial last Tuesday, defence counsel Harvinderjit Singh asked a witness whether he was aware that one of 1MDB’s company secretaries, Goh Gaik Kim, is the sister of Low’s mother, Goh Gaik Ewe.

Former SRC International chairman Ismee Ismail had told the court that he was not aware of the relationship between Gaik Kim and Gaik Ewe back then.

TRX City’s management confirmed that she is still its secretary, but claimed to have no knowledge of her being Low’s aunt, The Edge reported today.

TRX City is a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), known as 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd. It is currently owned by the Minister of Finance Inc.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know if she is Jho Low’s aunt,” the senior management personnel was quoted as saying.

The Edge said Gaik Kim had been the company secretary of TRX City since the end of March 2011, and had also been appointed company secretary of TRX City’s then parent company, 1MDB.

The Edge said she was likely no longer part of 1MDB in early April 2016, when she was replaced by Chen Kai Hong as company secretary. – June 17, 2019.