Sacked Transport official admits giving $1 million to developer mate, arranging free concrete

A sacked Transport for NSW official gave $1 million to his close friend, a developer, while arranging for him to receive free concrete for construction projects from a contractor who was struggling to pay cash kickbacks for government work, an inquiry has heard.

In his eighth day in the Independent Commission Against Corruption witness box, former Transport official Ibrahim Helmy was grilled about arranging large amounts of concrete for friend Adam Taki from a contractor, with whom he had improper arrangements, in lieu of kickback payments in cash.

Helmy had previously maintained the concrete was for only one of Taki’s construction projects, but he conceded to the corruption inquiry on Wednesday that it was for three.

The hearing was also told Helmy commended Taki in a WhatsApp message for on-selling concrete that had been supplied for free by Kerway Asphalting for extra cash. The company owed Helmy money for the work it was receiving from Transport for NSW courtesy of his improper assistance.

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 Wednesday, the inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages between Helmy and Taki early last year about arranging concrete from Kerway director Wayne Harrison, whose company owned Sydney Mini-Crete in Seven Hills.

In a message to Taki on March 2 last year, Helmy said: “Yea the meeting with Wayne was not bad. I’m trying to award him a big job but also trying to get him to pay me a lot of money first lol.”

Helmy adds: “How much should I tell him to give us concrete for, like I’ll say part of the deal to give us like $500k worth of conc or something lol. If he is struggling to pay up … we just keep taking free conc.”

Under heavy questioning, Helmy accepted he was suggesting the contractor would pay him in the form of free concrete, which his friend would receive, instead of paying cash. Helmy recorded in a spreadsheet concrete that was arranged on six occasions between June 2023 and July last year.

The inquiry has previously heard that Helmy received a total of $686,000 in cash from Harrison during 14 meetings the pair had between 2019 and May last year.

Helmy, 38, also told the inquiry on Wednesday that he made about $3 million or $4 million from cryptocurrency after transferring about $250,000 from his “own salary”, and that he later gave Taki about $1 million to assist him in financing his construction projects.

“All up I gave him about a million,” Helmy said.

Asked whether Taki had repaid him the money, Helmy said it was made as a loan to his friend but conceded he did not ask for him to repay it. “I just know he needs some money for some future projects,” he said when asked what Taki required the money for.

Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Helmy accepted he was referring to receiving concrete from Harrison instead of cash for the improper help he was giving the contractor in winning work at inflated rates from Transport for NSW.

In another WhatsApp message sent to Taki on August 21 last year, Helmy said: “Bloody Wayne is goin Thailand and spending my money that he owes me.”

Despite being shown the message, Helmy contested the proposition that his prior evidence to the inquiry that it had never been the case that Harrison owed him money was incorrect.

He was also shown a message he sent Taki on August 16 last year in which Helmy told his friend that he was “doin some more goooord concrete on-selling on the side for extra casshhh”.

Helmy added: “And we can use that for random stuff when we need.”

Taki responded: “Oh mate we do it. We just build and build. And hire a nice hot girl at the marble place for us.”

Questioned about whether Taki was on-selling the free concrete for cash, Helmy disputed the proposition despite accepting that the words in the WhatsApp messages were his.

Helmy did accept that one of the ways he would favour a contractor in his role at Transport for NSW was by sending a request for quote to a limited number of contractors, and later misrepresent a tender evaluation report by saying that all contractors on a panel had been invited. The reason he did that was to deliberately reduce the number of other contractors who might tender for work.

He admitted that in one instance he provided tender documents from Fulton Hogan, which had been submitted to Transport for NSW, to his favoured contractor Kerway.

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.

The public inquiry into the kickbacks is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern. It is the fourth into corruption in procurement processes at Transport for NSW since 2019. Hearings were scheduled to finish at the end of next week but have now been extended until November 21.

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