Transport official boasts of ‘juicy meeting’ and pocketing ‘cash in brown paper bag’

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A sacked transport official at the centre of a kickback scandal boasted in WhatsApp messages about the first bribe he was to be handed by one of the road contractors he had improper dealings with, telling his alleged accomplice at the department that it would be “cash in a brown paper bag”.

In his 12th day in the Independent Commission Against Corruption witness box, Ibrahim Helmy was grilled about receiving more than $600,000 in cash bribes from family business Capital Lines & Signs, which gained about $36 million worth of work from Transport for NSW between 2020 and this year.

Sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy appears at the ICAC inquiry.

Under intense questioning, Helmy confirmed to the inquiry that he traded large amounts of the cash he had pocketed from the Queanbeyan company for meme coins, bypassing cryptocurrency exchanges by arranging via the Telegram messaging app to meet people who traded in them.

The inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages in April 2020 between Helmy and his alleged co-conspirator at the government agency, Peter Le, in which they discussed how to change a date on a tender for work by Capital Lines & Signs, which had been inflated by about $220,000, so that it would not arouse suspicion.

Helmy admitted that he had downloaded an application onto a Transport for NSW computer which allowed him to change dates on contractors’ submissions, telling the hearing: “I probably watched a YouTube video. It would tell you where to download.”

In WhatsApp messages on April 28, 2020, the pair marked the start of their improper dealings with Capital Lines & Signs when Helmy told Le that it was their “first successful negotiation” with the company.

Le responded: “First of many.”

Former Transport for NSW procurements officer Peter Le appears at the ICAC inquiry in August.

Helmy kept records in spreadsheets on his computer of work carried out by the contractors he had had improper dealings with, as well as the amounts he was owed. In one spreadsheet relating to Capital Lines & Signs, eight occasions were recorded on which he was “paid” a total of more than $600,000.

Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Helmy had trouble explaining his own spreadsheet, the formulas he had used and what he had recorded in it but confirmed that Capital Lines & Signs director Andrew Stewart never paid the full amount he believed he was owed under their arrangements.

Helmy had his first clandestine meeting with Stewart on May 19, 2020, when the contractor drove to his Merrylands house.

After that meeting, Helmy checked in with Le, telling him it was a “nice juicy meeting … and he likes me very much”.

Le responded: “Can he do cash?”

Helmy added: “Ohh yea cash in a brown paper bag he says lol.”

Four months later, Helmy received the first payment of $40,000 in cash from Stewart, which was for work the company carried out at inflated rates on the Lachlan Valley Way road near Yass.

Capital Lines & Signs director Andrew Stewart appears before the ICAC in July.

The ICAC is investigating allegations Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with nine companies that were paid at least $343 million in contracts by Transport for NSW. He is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash and gold bullion – from the contractors in return for their being awarded the work on the state’s roads.

On Tuesday, Helmy frequently failed to recall meeting Stewart to receive cash until he was shown WhatsApp exchanges he had with Le.

In a WhatsApp message on December 17, 2020, Helmy told Le that he would be meeting Stewart the following week, adding: “So you’re gona [sic] be richer again.”

The inquiry heard that Helmy ended up meeting Stewart near Bowral on Christmas Eve 2020 to receive $44,000 from him but that he later told Le he received only $30,000. It was the second of eight cash payments that Helmy is alleged to have received from Stewart totalling $604,000 between 2020 and early last year.

Pressed on what he did with the $604,000 he had received, Helmy confirmed that he arranged to meet people via the messaging app Telegram to exchange cash for a form of cryptocurrency known as meme coins. “I bought different new coins. There was a cat coin. They call them meme coins,” he told the hearing. “There was a Metaverse coin.”

Stewart has previously told the inquiry that Helmy pressed him to pay in cryptocurrency, and that the-then Transport official also wanted him to buy him a yellow Mercedes-Benz CLA45-S class car and put it in his sister’s name.

After four months on the run from police, Helmy was discovered by detectives hiding in a cupboard in a unit in south-western Sydney on September 26. He remains in custody apart from his appearances at the ICAC inquiry.

He will return to the witness box on Wednesday.

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