Richmond Coun. Chak Au recused himself from a Nov. 25 city council meeting after saying he was a consultant for the Vancouver law firm representing a cosmetics store facing business licence cancellation.
Two weeks later, on Dec. 9, Au said he never worked for Remedios and Company.
In an interview with theBreaker.news, Au said Mayor Malcolm Brodie and city solicitor Tony Cappucinello-Iraci contacted him before the Nov. 25 business licence hearing for Nagoya Trading Ltd.’s Tokyo Beauty store at Aberdeen Centre.
Lawyer Anthony Remedios (left) and Richmond Coun. Chak Au at a September 2022 BC Liberal Party event (Remedios.Lawyer)
Au said they showed him a photograph of a corporate website that linked him to Remedios and Company.
“They felt that that could be a conflict of interest,” Au said. “Without the time to really find out what it was, and to be cautious, so I took the advice not to attend the meeting.”
While Brodie was convening the Nov. 25 meeting, Au declared: “I could have a perceived conflict of interest because I’m a consultant of Remedios and Company. I don’t want to be seen as having a conflict, so I will excuse myself from the meeting.”
Neither the firm’s founder Anthony Remedios nor Brodie responded for comment.
Au said he was unaware of the website’s background and he told a reporter that he did not remember its name.
theBreaker.news interviewed Au three days after attending Richmond city hall to inspect a copy of Au’s 2024 Statement of Disclosure. Under the income heading, Au said he receives income from: City of Richmond, Metro Vancouver, Fairchild Radio (as a guest commentator), private counselling practice and self-employed. There was no mention of Remedios and Company.
Remedios and Company specializes in Trans-Pacific investment and immigration. Its website says it acts for “multinationals, banks, mining companies, solar companies, pharmaceutical companies, financial firms, private investors from Asia, real estate developers, etc.” Founder Anthony Remedios is involved with several associations that promote trade with China, Macau and Vietnam.
In August 2017, Remedios was a guest at an Au-arranged lunch with then-Premier John Horgan, after Au ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the Richmond-South Centre riding. Remedios and Company made two donations to the NDP of $500 each in September 2017.
“We, as you mentioned, we attend events together,” Au said of his relationship with Remedios. “So I mean, it’s nothing special.”
Au, originally elected in 2011, is seeking the Conservative nomination to run in the 2025 federal election in Marpole-Richmond Centre.
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