Phone messages reveal scheming between fugitive Transport manager and right-hand man

The alleged mastermind of a multimillion-dollar kickbacks scheme at NSW’s transport department deliberately tried to stop a road contractor from getting work for up to five years, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.

Mobile phone messages in late 2023 between Transport for NSW category specialist Ibrahim Helmy and his then-assistant reveal his disdain for family business Direct Traffic, and his efforts to stop it from becoming a member of a tender panel despite it being the cheapest.

Responding to a question from then-Transport for NSW officer Peter Le about whether Direct Traffic should be awarded “anything”, Helmy said in a phone message: “hahah naa fuk them bitches.”

After redoing calculations for evaluations of contractors, Le told Helmy in a message that Direct Traffic was still number one in the rankings.

Despite this, Helmy responded by saying: “Okkk they are bloody bitches.”

Under questioning on Friday, Le confirmed that he later sent an email on December 13, 2023, that related to the awarding of work to Helmy’s preferred contractor, Lack Group, as he had suggested.

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

Le admitted on Thursday that he first became involved in assisting Helmy in his kickback scheme in 2019, but has since confirmed that it started a year earlier.

On Friday, Le told the inquiry that one of Helmy’s goals was to hide how much work he was awarding to his favoured contractors by avoiding a process that would alert his direct manager at Transport for NSW. “He just didn’t want to go through his line managers,” Le said.

In messages between the pair on December 9, 2023, Helmy said there was “one specific company” that he did not want to be included on a new tender panel for traffic control work.

Earlier on Friday, Le repeatedly told the inquiry that he could not recall the name of the company that Helmy wanted to be excluded, nor whether Adam Spilsted was associated with it.

However, he was later shown a message Helmy sent to him on December 15, 2023, in which he said: “I just want Direct Traffic to think that I’m not involved in this contract set up.”

Le responded in a phone message: “f--- them hoes.”

ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, put it to Le that the messages showed that he was aware that the company Helmy wanted to be excluded was Direct Traffic, and that he was supportive of him taking action against it.

Le responded by saying that he did not remember Helmy telling him who the company was, and “didn’t absorb it” at the time. He added that he just did what Helmy said.

In another message five days later, Le told Helmy that he received a call from “Adam at Direct Traffic”, which Ranken suggested to him showed that, in fact, he did know that Spilsted was associated with the company.

Le told the inquiry that Helmy was trying to convince Spilsted to “agree to terms” so that Direct Traffic would receive more work from Transport for NSW, after it had said it was unwilling to pay Helmy money.

Last month, Spilsted told the inquiry that his company stopped receiving any new work orders or extensions to existing ones after his wife told Helmy in June 2021 that they wanted to cease dealings.

Le conceded that if a company was denied the chance to be included on a tender panel, it would deny them work from Transport for NSW for up to five years, causing them significant economic harm. “I didn’t think of it in that context [at the time]. I appreciate it now,” he told the inquiry.

He also later conceded to the inquiry that Helmy sought to stack a tender evaluation committee in early 2024, and was attempting to control it. By that stage, Le confirmed that he knew of Helmy’s arrangements with Lack Group, and that he wanted to exclude Direct Traffic from a new traffic control panel.

While Le said he did not receive money from Helmy relating to his arrangements with Lack Group, he did admit that he pocketed a “Christmas bonus” of $2500 in 2021 from his colleague for assisting him, followed by cash payments of $3000 at the end of 2022 and $3500 in 2023.

He also confirmed that he was involved in an arrangement with Helmy relating to the inflation of work orders for line marking dating back to 2018, and that his colleague paid him about $5000 in cash for his help.

Helmy, 38, is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – over 15 years from the contractors in return for them being awarded work. He failed to appear before the ICAC in May and, since then, has been on the run from police.

Le was stood down from his role at Transport for NSW late last year and was sacked in February.

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