‘Threats’ made over cryptocurrency transfers in ICAC inquiry into Transport for NSW
A woman who was put up as the front of one of the state’s biggest roadworks companies has made bombshell claims amid an ICAC inquiry into Transport for NSW.
NSW
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A woman who was put up as the front of one of the state’s biggest roadworks companies has told an inquiry they were “threatened” by an allegedly corrupt NSW government employee that they would lose multimillion-dollar contracts if they did not pay him his bribes.
Meshell Chellew was one half of Protection Barriers, the Grafton based company started by her husband Jason Chellew, which was paid more than $100 million in taxpayer funds to fix the state’s roads since 2019 as a result of allegedly corrupt deals with Transport for NSW.
The Filipino-born Mrs Chellew took to the stand at ICAC on Tuesday and Wednesday, to reveal more about Protection Barriers’ relationship with the TfNSW worker who allegedly masterminded the web of corruption - Ibrahim Helmy.
Days after Mr Chellew told the hearing Mr Helmy had made comments about “hitmen” on the dark web, Mrs Chellew said she recalled Protection Barriers had been issued “threats” if they did not pay the public servant his kickbacks.
Under questioning from Rob Ranken SC, Mrs Chellew told how she recalled her husband being “annoyed” about one time when she had forgotten to pay Mr Helmy.
“This guy keeps ringing me now, (saying) that he haven’t [sic] received anything from you,” Mrs Chellew said she was told by her husband Jason.
“I said, ‘All right. I can do it now’ and then he (Mr Chellew) kept going on and explaining it to me, why I have to do it… He (Mr Chellew) said, ‘because of this guy, he’s threatening him now’.”
When asked by Mr Ranken about what she took the threats to mean, she said she believed it would result in Protection Barriers losing work.
“We were going to lose jobs, I had to do my job to transfer this, or we would lose the jobs, and it would be my fault,” Mrs Chellew said.
ICAC heard on Monday, the first day of an expected six-week hearing under Operation Wyvern, that over his 15 years working at TfNSW Mr Helmy developed allegedly “corrupt relationships” with at least nine companies.
It is alleged he received $11.5 million in kickbacks in exchange for dishing out government contracts.
A large portion of Mr Helmy’s “kickbacks” allegedly came from Protection Barriers Pty Ltd, whose dealings began with cash envelopes and later increased to payments of some $9 million in cryptocurrency.
The taxpayer funds the Chellews received for Protection Barriers to do roadworks was allegedly enough to buy $15m in property, a $5.9m superyacht and a Bentley each, at a cost of $500,000 per car.
Mr Chellew told the hearing earlier this week he met with Mr Helmy in carparks at McDonald’s, Bunnings or petrol stations to exchange cash and gold bars in the early days.
But Mrs Chellew said on Wednesday that when she was later required to transfer increased sums of cryptocurrency, Mr Helmy would have to call her and coach her on how to do it over the phone.
Mrs Chellew was quizzed by Mr Ranken on “why she was not curious” as to why she was having to transfer funds.
“That’s my nature, when they ask me to do a job at work, I’ll just do it,” she said.
“I transfer that to that, that’s all I have to do, that’s my job… I don’t think (about it).
“Whatever time it is, if they told me to go on the computer I go on the computer.”
Mrs Chellew said that when she had to transfer cryptocurrency to Mr Helmy she would get an email and then a call from him, with the details of the transfer.
He would then run her through the process with her still on the phone to ensure the money came through.
“Every time I would need to transfer I would get a call, because he would need to go through with me,” Mrs Chellew said.
“He was always on the phone.”
The inquiry also heard from businessman Peco “Peter” Jankulovski, part owner of business Complete Linemarking, who told the commission that he had a meeting with Mr Helmy where the government employee told them he could “adjust invoices”.
Complete Linemarking was a new business and they had been placed on a contract panel for Transport for NSW in about 2012.
Mr Jankulovski said it was “just an incorrect decision” to agree to Mr Helmy’s suggestion to inflate invoices by increasing the quantities of materials used in the work.
He said they could not change the rates that they had already proposed to TfNSW.
Mr Helmy would use a personal email address to tell them what to quote in the invoice, Mr Jankulovski said, and advised them “what he [Helmy] wanted out of it”.
Mr Jankulovski said he could not recall the percentages of what Mr Helmy took off the top of the inflated invoices but that it was more than his company.
Mr Helmy would invoice Complete Linemarking with false documents purporting to be for supplies of services so the company could reconcile the kickbacks paid to Mr Helmy in their own books, with the government employee paid in cash.
Mr Jankulovski will continue giving evidence on Thursday.
Originally published as ‘Threats’ made over cryptocurrency transfers in ICAC inquiry into Transport for NSW
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