PKR lawmaker Rafizi Ramli says he takes full responsibility for the error and apologises to Goh Siew Boey and CRT Insights. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — PKR lawmaker Rafizi Ramli owned up to wrongly identifying a woman he had previously linked to a firm which had purportedly engaged a US firm to lobby the Trump administration allegedly on behalf of Putrajaya.

The Pandan MP admitted that Florence Goh Siew Boey from IT firm CRT Insights Technologies Sdn Bhd is not the same Florence Goh that heads the US firm, Godfrey Group Ltd, he had previously named and said he was sorry.

He attributed the case of mistaken identification due to the similarities in two Johor Baru addresses registered under the name “Florence Goh” from his personal investigations on the alleged lobbying contract.

“The difference in the addresses was only one number which is '/1' compared to '/3' and that has caused the confusion, what more when we are tracking an individual that used a BVI company for this contract.

“Nevertheless, I take full responsibility on this error and apologise to Goh Siew Boey and CRT Insights Technologies Sdn Bhd for publishing their names. I had asked that they step forward and provide clarification, so I appreciate their clarification that they are not involved and I do not hesitate to apologise because they are not involved in this case,” he said in a statement.

Earlier today, Siew Boey demanded an open apology from Rafizi for wrongfully naming her and her company, saying that it has hurt both her reputation and her family.

She also said that Rafizi had mistaken her company's address in Johor with that of another company also helmed by a person with the same name, with her company located at Jalan Air Molek 2/1 while the other company was at Jalan Air Molek 2/3.

Following her press conference, Rafizi in his statement today said that his checks of the Companies Commission of Malaysia had found that the person who is the actual Florence Goh “truly exists” and is the director of a locally-registered firm.

Rafizi said this individual which is purportedly the actual “Florence Goh” has yet to step forward to provide clarification.

In his previous press statement, Rafizi had shown documents that appear to show Godfrey Group Ltd as an offshore firm formed in the British Virgin Islands but with a Johor Bahru mailing address.

Last week, the Malaysian government denied engaging a US firm to help lobby the administration of current United States president Donald Trump on its behalf.

“Contrary to recent media reports and a registration statement, neither the Prime Minister's Office or Government of Malaysia has instructed, appointed or contracted in any form with the Godfrey Group Ltd, the 45 Group or Healy Baumgardner-Nardone,” Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin, press secretary to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, said in a statement.

Baumgardner-Nardone is the head of the American firm The 45 Group who reportedly worked on the Trump presidential election campaign last year.

US-based news website The Daily Beast previously reported that the firm was paid RM1.07 million for lobbying purposes by a company called Godfrey Group Ltd.