Sacked Transport official recalls dealings with alleged mastermind of kickback scheme

A sacked transport department officer has admitted that he assisted the alleged mastermind of a multimillion-dollar kickbacks scheme, recalling how he put him in touch with a road contractor as far back as 2019.

In his first day before an anti-corruption inquiry, former Transport for NSW procurement officer Peter Le confirmed that he would communicate with his then-colleague Ibrahim Helmy in WhatsApp messages about their private dealings with family-owned contractors from which the pair received benefits.

Le confirmed that he first became involved in kickback arrangements with Helmy in 2019, and detailed to the inquiry how he gave him the contact details for Michael Kennedy, the director of family business Avijohn Contracting, to make an approach about entering into a deal.

“I told [Helmy] that I don’t want to be the one to contact Michael Kennedy. I thought [Kennedy] would say no and would then report it [to Transport for NSW],” Le told the inquiry.

Asked whether that was because he realised that it was improper, Le confirmed that he appreciated at the time that such conduct by Transport for NSW officials was illegal.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption 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.

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.

Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Le said he understood that Helmy was reliant on him to make their arrangements work, and that his colleague wanted money from contractors to be paid in cash.

Le joined Helmy’s procurement team in 2023 from another role at Transport for NSW, and he conceded that he effectively became an assistant for him.

He confirmed that when he joined Helmy’s team, he was already aware that Helmy had arrangements with contractor Kerway Asphalting. Shortly afterwards, Le said he learnt of Helmy’s dealings with Twin City Sealing and, later that year, of his arrangements with Lack Group.

The inquiry has previously heard that Le assisted Helmy in most of his alleged corrupt dealings. He is accused of collaborating with Helmy by allowing him to send emails from his account, purporting to be Le, and by saving tender documents to Transport for NSW’s document management system in a manner that was improper.

Le was terminated from his role at Transport for NSW in January after about eight years. He also worked at Roads and Maritime Services depot at St Marys between 2007 and 2014, where he first met Helmy in 2013.

Earlier on Thursday, Helmy’s former intimate partner Katya Wang, who also worked at Transport for NSW, conceded that she had an active interest in his illegal schemes and his meetings with contractors to collect cash.

During the hearing, she was shown numerous exchanges of phone messages that she had had with Helmy.

During one in June 2020, Helmy messaged her to say: “I’m always scamming strangers. I don’t wanna scam you too lol.”

Questioned about the message, Wang, 31, conceded that it related to road contractors Helmy dealt with in his role as a procurement officer at Transport for NSW.

She was also shown a message Helmy sent to her that same month which had attached to it an image of a spreadsheet that contained a figure of more than $200,000. Wang confirmed that the figure referred to the amount that Helmy inflated contractors’ work orders over a two-month period.

She has told the inquiry that she was last in contact with Helmy on September 9 last year, a day before officers from the ICAC and NSW Crime Commission raided his home and seized large amounts of cash and gold.

However, she said she did not become aware that an investigation was under way until a media report in October last year about raids on road contractor Protection Barriers. Wang was a Transport for NSW program governance and reporting officer until July this year when she left the agency.

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