ICAC fugitive admits to doing dodgy deals since he was a graduate in 2012

The alleged mastermind of a multimillion-dollar kickback scandal, who had been on the run from police for four months, has admitted that he started engaging in improper arrangements with road contractors as far back as 2012 when he was part of a government agency’s graduate program.

After he was escorted in handcuffs into a public hearing on Tuesday, sacked Transport for NSW official Ibrahim Helmy, 38, conceded that he had received cash and other benefits from contractors, including cryptocurrency.

Under questioning, Helmy said on one occasion during the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing that he did not request payment or benefits from contractors, saying, “I wasn’t asking to be paid – it just happened.”

However, a short time later he conceded that he first sought or received payment from a contractor known as Complete Linemarking in 2012 while he was part of a graduate program for what was then the Road and Traffic Authority.

He admitted that he inflated an invoice for work by Complete Linemarking on roads including the M4 motorway in Sydney by almost $36,000.

The ICAC 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 – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – from the contractors in return for them being awarded work on the state’s roads.

Earlier on Tuesday, the inquiry heard that Helmy was found hiding in a cupboard in an apartment in south-western Sydney where he had been living for a number of months when he was eventually arrested by cybercrime detectives and taken into custody almost two weeks ago.

He had failed to answer a summons to appear before the ICAC on May 12, and a warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued. The former public servant was originally told of the summons by his lawyer in early April.

Helmy, who was born in the US, told the hearing on Tuesday that he had watched a livestream in July of the first day of the anti-corruption inquiry which detailed accusations about his activities at the state’s transport agency.

Under questioning from counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Helmy admitted that he watched him deliver his opening address on the first day of the public hearings via a livestream on July 14 from the Lakemba unit, and heard him say that he had failed to answer the summons to appear before the ICAC in May.

He also admitted hearing during the opening address that a warrant had been issued for his apprehension.

However, he said he did not recall Ranken urging him during the livestream to come forward of his own volition but added that he “had planned to”.

Just over two months later, Helmy was arrested by police at the Lakemba unit, and found hiding in a cupboard.

Questioned about where police found him, Helmy said he was “getting something from the cupboard” at the time. Helmy has been in custody since he was arrested almost two weeks ago, and was escorted in handcuffs by Corrective Services officers into the ICAC building on Tuesday.

The inquiry heard on Tuesday that he had continued to receive a full salary after he was suspended in September last year from Transport for NSW following raids on his home, and was paid out $40,000 for leave he was owed when he was terminated three months later.

Helmy said he was terminated from his role as a category specialist in Transport for NSW’s regional maintenance delivery unit for “inappropriate messaging on Teams”, a communications system used by the agency. He withdrew the $40,000 he was paid when he was fired after 15 years at the government agency, and most of that had since gone to paying legal fees.

In September last year, the NSW Crime Commission seized gold bullion bars and nuggets and $12,317 in cash from Helmy’s 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.

The public inquiry into the kickbacks is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern, and is the fourth into corruption in procurement processes at Transport for NSW since 2019.

Following a change to the inquiry’s schedule of witnesses, Helmy will not return to the witness box until Thursday. Hearings are due to continue until the end of the month as other witnesses are called.

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