‘Let’s count it’: The moment ICAC fugitive counts cash on camera revealed

Two Transport department officials who were co-conspirators in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme used the death of a workmate to misrepresent the fact that he had wanted a contractor they received cash benefits from to be awarded government work, an inquiry has heard.

The anti-corruption inquiry was also late on Friday played a video showing the alleged mastermind of the kickback scheme using a money machine to count $5000 in cash.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption was earlier shown text messages sent in 2020 between then-Transport for NSW officials Peter Le and Ibrahim Helmy in which they discussed how they could use the death of a project engineer to their advantage to smooth the way for work for their preferred contractor, Avijohn.

Days after their colleague’s death in August 2020, the pair had an exchange via text messages about work orders for Avijohn.

“I was considering signing them and saying that he signed it before dying haha,” Helmy said in a message on September 1, 2020.

“Like they can’t check or anything lol.”

In another, Le said: “I’ll let the new guy know it was already agreed”, before adding: “Cos I fudged the numbers anyway.”

Helmy responded: “Hahahah oh lovely penis. We’ll make use of him dead or alive.”

Helmy’s nickname for Le, who is married, was “Penis”, and their messages in 2019 and 2020 are strewn with references to the male organ and homosexuality.

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 in return for kickbacks. Le has confirmed to the inquiry that his involvement with Helmy in the kickback scheme began in 2018.

Under questioning from counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Le admitted that he had suggested to Helmy to make a fake email from their late colleague to approve an invoice, and then fake his signature.

He also confirmed that he and Helmy had used their colleague’s death to facilitate work orders, or attempted to do so, for Avijohn.

In his fifth day before the inquiry, Le was also grilled about Helmy and himself receiving cash payments in 2020 from Avijohn in return for the family business receiving more work from Transport for NSW.

Le confirmed that the pair met Avijohn director Michael Kennedy on May 6, 2020, in the car park of a Rashays restaurant in Carramar in Sydney’s west, where an envelope containing $10,000 in cash was placed in their car. The money was then split between them.

By June 2020, Le confirmed that by his calculations Kennedy owed them another $30,000 for the work Avijohn had received from Transport for NSW under their kickback arrangement.

In a text exchange between the pair on June 14, 2020, Helmy said: “It’s quite a tax return. Hahaha oh damn you’ve given Avi a lot of work since we last met lmao.”

Le also met Kennedy without Helmy being present at Rashays again on September 14, 2020, where he was handed another $10,000 in cash.

Under intense questioning, Le confirmed that he later lied to Helmy that he had met Kennedy, and invented a fictitious meeting about 10 days later with the Avijohn director.

He could not explain to the inquiry why he could not be honest with his “fellow co-conspirator” when asked if he planned to keep the $10,000 he had received from Kennedy for himself.

Le said he later gave Helmy his share of $5000.

The inquiry was also played a video on Friday that Helmy sent to Le in a text message on January 18, 2021.

It showed Helmy using a money counter to calculate $100 bills which he was feeding through the machine.

“How you doing mate? Let’s count it,” Helmy said in the video.

Le confirmed to the hearing that it was Helmy’s voice, and that he was counting $100 notes to the value of $5000.

Aside from the money from Avijohn, Le said Helmy would meet him once or twice a year to hand him his share of the payments from contractors.

Helmy, 38, is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks 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 Transport for NSW late last year and was sacked in February.

The public inquiry into the kickbacks is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern. Hearings were due to finish on Friday after six weeks but, because some witnesses have yet to be heard, will resume on October 7 for another four weeks.

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