A now-sacked Transport for NSW manager who is on the run after allegedly pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks regularly gave step-by-step instructions about how to transfer cryptocurrency from a road contractor’s account to one he was the beneficiary of, an inquiry has heard.
WhatsApp messages, emails and phone records in 2021 show communications between Protection Barriers director Meshel Chellew and then-Transport for NSW manager Ibrahim Helmy about how she could set up a cryptocurrency account and later transfer funds of up to $150,000 at a time to another crypto account from the company.
Protection Barriers director Meshell Chellew (right) appears before ICAC on Wednesday.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
In one exchange between the pair in 2021, a WhatsApp message from Helmy confirming that a transfer had come through read: “I am richer haha.”
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with companies, including Protection Barriers, that were paid at least $343 million in contracts. Helmy, 38, failed to appear before the ICAC in May and police have a warrant out for his arrest.
Under questioning on Wednesday, Chellew confirmed Helmy would regularly instruct her while on the phone about a cryptocurrency transfer, providing by email details which she then cut and pasted into Protection Barriers’ cryptocurrency account to enable transfers.
“He is sending me a step-by-step guide. I can’t follow what he said on the phone sometimes. He would send me a screenshot,” she told the inquiry.
“He is always on the phone. I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at.”
Cash seized as part of the investigation into Ibrahim Helmy.Credit: ICAC
Their first conversation was on March 13, 2021, after her husband, Jason Chellew, told her that Helmy would call to instruct her about how to set up an account for Protection Barriers. “He just says, ‘a guy will call you’,” she said. “[Jason] said we are going to set up an account for [cryptocurrency exchange] Independent Reserve and I didn’t even know what it was.”
Meshel Chellew told the inquiry that she did not know the cryptocurrency transfers were being made to an account Helmy was the beneficiary of. “I didn’t even think,” she said.
She confirmed that she became aware only after she had an argument with her husband. He told her they would lose work with Transport for NSW if she did not transfer the cryptocurrency. She did not recall the date of the argument.
Protection Barriers founder Jason Chellew appeared before ICAC on Monday and Tuesday.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
Helmy is alleged to have received $8.97 million in cryptocurrency payments from Jason Chellew between 2021 and 2024, as well as $227,000 in cash between 2020 and 2021 and $60,000 in gold bullion in 2023.
Meshel Chellew came under repeated questioning on Wednesday from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, about when she became aware that Helmy was the beneficiary of the cryptocurrency transfers from Protection Barriers, and whether she was aware that references to “IH” on the company’s bank statements in 2020 were related to the Transport for NSW manager.
“It could be, or it could not be,” she said, when shown multiple cash withdrawals on Protection Barriers’ bank statements in 2020 which referenced “IH”.
Under heavy questioning towards the end of her appearance, Ranken told Chellew that she knew more than she had earlier told the inquiry about Protection Barriers paying benefits, including cash in 2020, to Helmy in order to ensure more work from Transport for NSW.
“Not at the start but eventually yes,” she replied.
By 2021, Transport for NSW contracts comprised the vast bulk of Protection Barriers’ work, whereas before then it was from private contractors.
Meshel Chellew was also grilled about whether her and her husband’s lifestyle had improved significantly over the following few years, which culminated in the couple buying two luxury Bentleys in 2024 each worth about $500,000.
“We always had a new vehicle almost every year,” she said, playing down the suggestions that their lifestyles had improved.
The couple’s Bentleys were seized during raids by the NSW Crime Commission last September, along with $735,000 in cryptocurrency, a 2023 Lexus car worth about $160,000 and multiple properties in NSW and Queensland worth $15 million.
The Crime Commission also seized gold bullion bars and nuggets and $12,317 in cash from Helmy’s home last September, 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.
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