Former ICAC fugitive faces multiple criminal offences
The alleged mastermind of a multimillion-dollar scheme has been charged with multiple criminal offences after he went on the run from police for months and failed to appear before an anti-corruption inquiry.
Now-sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy, who was at the centre of a $343 million kickback scandal engulfing the state agency, failed to appear in May before an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry, which prompted the commission to issue a warrant for his arrest and later charge him for breach of bail conditions set by the ICAC.
A family member had told the commission that Helmy “took the rubbish out on a Sunday night and did not return”. But after four months on the run from police, he was discovered hiding in a cupboard in a red-brick Lakemba unit on September 26 and arrested.
The 39-year-old has also been charged with three counts of failing to comply with conditions of his release between May and September 2025. He owned more than one mobile phone, failed to live at his Merrylands home, and failed to report to Merrylands Police Station three days a week, court documents reveal.
Some of his other bail conditions required him to surrender his passport and restricted him from leaving NSW or going within 500 metres of any international departure point in Australia without permission from the ICAC.
Helmy is also banned from owning any encrypted devices or communicating on encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegraph, or Signal, and must also hand over passwords to any internet-connected devices to ICAC investigators on demand.
The ICAC recently concluded a public inquiry into 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 exchange for kickbacks. Helmy is accused of receiving $11.5 million in kickbacks – including cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – from the contractors in return for their being awarded work on the state’s roads.
Less than two weeks after being arrested, Helmy appeared for the first time in the witness box on October 7 last year, and fronted the inquiry 18 more times after.
Detectives and ICAC officers conducted raids in September 2024, uncovering $12,317 in cash, gold bullion bars and items, including a cash counter, that were seized from Helmy’s Merrylands home, as well as computers on which he saved spreadsheets recording his dealings with contractors. The NSW Crime Commission also seized $413,000 worth of cryptocurrency held by Helmy, and $8 million in a crypto account in his sister’s name.
Helmy worked at Transport for NSW for 15 years before he was terminated in February 2025. Five other Transport for NSW officials are accused of having roles in the kickback scandal.
The public inquiry into the alleged kickbacks is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern. It is the fourth ICAC probe in the past six years into procurement practices at Transport for NSW, which spends almost half the government’s capital budget each year – more than $22 billion.
Helmy will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on January 27, where his bail conditions are expected to continue.
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