‘For a bigger profit, I guess’: Why accused kickback mastermind inflated invoices

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The alleged mastermind of a multimillion-dollar kickback scandal has admitted he deliberately manipulated invoices for work on the state’s roads to split the artificially inflated profits with contractors, in one instance by more than $234,000, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.

In his sixth day in the witness box, now-sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy, 38, was grilled about his improper dealings with Queensland company Lack Group Traffic, which resulted in them being awarded contracts worth $50 million in the two years to June 2025.

Former Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy appears at the ICAC hearing.

In one instance, Helmy told the inquiry he inflated Lack Group’s rates by $234,000 by using technology that would replace the original figure of $691,000 on the quote with a new price of $925,000, while making it appear as if nothing had been altered.

Helmy told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday that he did this “for a bigger profit, I guess”, and said he would receive benefits from Lack Group’s director Deik Lack in exchange for his help.

The inquiry previously heard on Thursday that Helmy had met Lack six times and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash on five of those occasions. Lack Group was awarded 239 work orders in 2023, up from 89 the previous year.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations that Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies that were paid at least $343 million in Transport for NSW contracts in return for kickbacks.

He is accused of receiving $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – from the contractors in return for them being awarded work on the state’s roads.

The inquiry also heard on Friday the ways in which Helmy and Peter Le, his alleged right-hand man at Transport for NSW, skirted procurement systems by falsely labelling many of Lack Group’s work as routine maintenance instead of complex roadwork projects to avoid submitting a tender, which typically involves more scrutiny.

The pair avoided drawing suspicion from colleagues by interspersing work orders issued to Lack Group with ones from other companies to hide the fact they were providing favourable treatment to a single contractor.

In a text exchange with Le on February 22, 2024, Helmy instructed him: “Don’t do all of them at the same time lol. Like do 3 Lack, then another company. Then the following day, do 3 Lack and someone else.

“Thank you for all the Lack TERs [tender evaluation reports] and POs [purchase orders]. You shallll be rewarded shortlyyyyy.”

Lack Group Traffic director Deik Lack appears In July before the ICAC inquiry into kickbacks.

In a separate text exchange with Le in July 2024, Helmy said: “Just wana confuse them with all the requests.”

Helmy accepted the proposition made by ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, that he had no real external supervision of the work orders issued, and that he and Le strategically spaced out the purchase orders issued to prevent suspicions raised about their favourable treatment towards Lack.

When another colleague did raise concerns that same month about wanting work orders issued with the appropriate procedure, Le expressed his frustration to Helmy in a text exchange, and said: “Does she want a f---en PO for every work order again? She f---en annoys the shit out of me.”

Helmy responded: “Bitchesssss I hate them all”.

Le reassured Helmy they could “probably find loopholes” to get around it.

Before he was suspended in September last year and later sacked, Helmy was responsible for Transport for NSW’s traffic control panel, which involved managing relationships between contractors and engineers, and dealing with payment claims.

After four months on the run, the US-born Helmy was discovered by detectives hiding in a cupboard in a unit block in Lakemba in south-western Sydney on September 26, and taken into custody, where he remains apart from his appearances at the ICAC inquiry.

Before the public inquiry, ICAC investigators seized gold bullion bars and nuggets and $12,317 in cash from his Merrylands home, as well as a Maserati, $413,000 worth of cryptocurrency held by him, and the equivalent of $8 million in cryptocurrency in a Binance account in the name of his sister.

Helmy is due to return to the witness box on Monday.

With Matt O’Sullivan