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A sacked Transport for NSW official has admitted to receiving large bundles of cash from a contractor who flew to Sydney from Queensland five times to pay kickbacks for the work being sent his way at inflated rates.
In his fifth day in the witness box at an anti-corruption inquiry, Ibrahim Helmy also admitted that he received about $8000 in cash from another contractor in August last year – just weeks before police swooped – and gave half to a workmate while trading his own share for cryptocurrency.
Now-sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy carries an envelope in his pocket containing cash he had received on August 29 last year from a contractor near his Merrylands home.Credit: ICAC
He was grilled about a meeting he had at a McDonald’s in Liverpool on August 9 last year with a husband and wife from contractor Direct Traffic about resuming a kickback arrangement which had soured in 2021.
The meeting took place a month before police raided Helmy’s Merrylands home and seized $12,317 in cash, gold bullion bars and nuggets, 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.
A covert recording of the meeting with Direct Traffic director Mechelina “Louisa” Van Der Ende-Plakke and husband Adam Spilsted was played to the anti-corruption inquiry on Thursday.
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Several weeks after the McDonald’s meeting, Helmy admitted to receiving an envelope containing a bundle of cash from Spilsted, who had driven to his Merrylands home to hand over the money. The hearing was played a six-minute video of the pair sitting in Spilsted’s ute and the envelope being exchanged on August 28 last year.
“I jumped in his car with him, and then he gave it to me,” Helmy told the hearing.
Questioned about the large size of the envelope, Helmy maintained that it contained about $8000, despite the inquiry previously hearing that it totalled about $20,000.
He confirmed to the hearing that he gave about $4000 to fellow Transport for NSW officer Mukesh Patel, who is alleged to have had some involvement in corrupt dealings with contractors, including Direct Traffic.
Helmy said the remaining $4000 for himself was traded for cryptocurrency. Earlier, he confirmed to the inquiry that he had wanted backpay for what he believed Direct Traffic owed him from their previous dealings, which had stopped in 2021 after Van Der Ende-Plakke raised concerns.
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 contracts by Transport for NSW in return for kickbacks.
He is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks from the contractors in return for them being awarded the work on the state’s roads.
Before he was suspended in September last year and later sacked, Helmy was responsible for Transport for NSW’s traffic control panel, which involved him managing relationships between contractors and engineers, and dealing with payment claims.
During the hearing on Thursday, ICAC chief commissioner John Hatzistergos repeatedly told Helmy to answer questions and listen to those put to him by counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC.
Much of the hearing focused on his dealings with Queensland company Lack Group Traffic, which began on March 24, 2023, when director Deik Lack flew from Coolangatta to Sydney to meet him.
Lack Group Traffic director Deik Lack appears In July before the ICAC inquiry into kickbacks.
In a text exchange after Lack had driven to meet him in Merrylands in March 2023, Helmy texted his close friend and associate Adam Taki, saying: “We’ll make some money this year then come up with a plan lol. I met some dude today with an [Audi] R8 and he thought he was so cool haha.
“I reallyyy hate that car. And his one was soft top so even worse. And he called it the beast. I pretended it was really good so he can give me money.”
Helmy confirmed to the inquiry that the arrangement involved him assisting Lack Group to get more work from Transport for NSW and the company paying him for his help.
However, he was vague when asked on Thursday what the terms of the agreement were or how payments to him were to be calculated. “I don’t recall having an agreement. Maybe it was just general,” he told the hearing.
Ranken pointed out to him that his improper dealings with Lack Group coincided with the company’s work orders from Transport for NSW growing to 239 in 2023 from 89 a year earlier.
Moments after telling the inquiry that his first payment from Lack Group was about $13,000 or $14,000, he confirmed that it could be as much as $17,150 when the figure was put to him by Ranken. The money was paid to him when Lack flew again to Sydney from Coolangatta on June 9, 2023.
He admitted meeting Lack six times, and receiving money on each occasion apart from the first.
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After he was shown records he kept on his phone, Helmy confirmed that he also received $11,500 from Lack on July 14, 2023, and $14,450 on August 17, 2023. However, he disputed that he would have received sums as high as those recorded on his own phone of $130,000 on November 24, 2023, and $163,500 on May 16 last year.
Under heavy questioning, Helmy accepted that he was the person who took steps to take work away from Direct Traffic, and had discussed with Lack the most strategic way to do it.
He also confirmed that his dealings with Lack Group were substantially more beneficial to him financially in a shorter space of time than his previous arrangements with Direct Traffic.
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