By Matt O'Sullivan
A former Transport for NSW official, who is alleged to have received $11.5 million in kickbacks from contractors for work on the state’s roads – including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency – is on the run, sparking an urgent appeal to help track him down.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations that Ibrahim Helmy, who worked for the government agency for about 14 years, was the mastermind behind corrupt relationships with companies that were paid at least $343 million in contracts.
Former Transport for NSW staffer Ibrahim Helmy, 38, is wanted for failing to appear before the ICAC.
Counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, detailed allegations about the awarding of the “staggering” $343 million in contracts to about nine companies, which are the subject of a multi-agency investigation, in return for financial benefits.
The inquiry heard that Helmy, who is at the centre of the investigations, failed to answer his summons to appear before ICAC in May and remains the subject of an arrest warrant.
Ranken said his family had not reported him missing, and a family member had told the ICAC that he “took the rubbish out on a Sunday night and did not return”.
“We believe he remains in the jurisdiction and that individuals have been collaborating to conceal his whereabouts. Active steps are being taken to locate him,” Ranken said.
The commission heard that Protection Barriers, one of the companies subject to the investigation, was awarded about $100 million of work by Transport for NSW between 2020 and 2024.
Protection Barriers founder Jason Chellew after his appearance at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
In his opening address, Ranken said records indicated that Protection Barriers’ income from work for Transport for NSW increased significantly from mid-2020 until September 2024, when Helmy was suspended from his job at the agency.
It is alleged that the Grafton company paid a total of $227,000 in cash to Helmy between 2020 and 2024, $60,000 worth of gold bullion nuggets in 2023, and cryptocurrency payments totalling about $8.97 million from 2021 to 2024.
Ranken said it was alleged that Helmy, 38, engaged in a wide range of corrupt practices in exchange for benefits, which included ensuring Protection Barriers was the preferred contractor and approving the payment of falsely inflated invoices.
He said the ICAC anticipated that there would be evidence that Helmy was assisted in his arrangement with Protection Barriers by two other Transport for NSW associates – Mukeshkumar Patel and David Liu – who allegedly received financial benefits.
Last September, officers from ICAC, the NSW Police and NSW Crime Commission conducted raids on properties around the state. Items seized from Helmy’s home included nine 100-gram gold bullion bars, five one-ounce gold bullion bars, three red bags containing 20 one-ounce gold bullion nuggets, and $12,317 in cash.
Ranken said evidence would show that the gold bullion seized from Helmy’s home was consistent in appearance with gold bullion nuggets Protection Barriers founder Jason Chellew allegedly provided to him in 2023.
In addition, the NSW Crime Commission seized $413,000 worth of cryptocurrency held by Helmy and the equivalent of $8 million in cryptocurrency in a Binance account in the name of his sister. It also seized a Maserati he purchased.
Cash and gold bullion were among the items seized from Ibrahim Helmy’s house.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
The Crime Commission also seized property and assets from Chellew and his wife Meshel and their related entities worth more than $41 million, including $735,000 in cryptocurrency, a 2023 Lexus car worth about $160,000, and two 2024 Bentleys each worth about $500,000.
In addition, they confiscated multiple properties owned by the Chellews in NSW and Queensland worth $15 million.
Under questioning on the first day of the public inquiry on Monday, Jason Chellew said he was asked by Helmy in about April or May 2020 to come to see him about getting more work, and the Transport for NSW staffer proposed “jobs for kickbacks”.
On the first occasion they met at a McDonald’s in Pennant Hills in 2020 whereby Chellew said he would have brought along cash but could not recall to the inquiry the amount.
Chellew said the amounts he handed to Helmy started as $10,000 or $20,000 bundles of cash before the amount of work from Transport for NSW “got crazy” during the COVID pandemic.
A photo of cash tendered to the ICAC inquiry into kickbacks for Transport for NSW staff.
He told the inquiry that, under the proposed arrangement from Helmy, the inflated rates on top of the work would be split 50:50 between them. Early on, Chellew said his concern was that if his company said “no” to Helmy’s proposal, they would not receive contracts.
Chellew said he started cryptocurrency payments to Helmy from about 2021, and there was an occasion when he provided gold in 2023, adding that he often struggled to keep making payments to Helmy because of the amount of work.
Asked about when events got out of hand in terms of the money involved, Chellew recalled a meeting at a Caltex station on the M4 motorway where he handed over about $72,000 in cash. He recalled Helmy talking about access to the dark web and hitmen during a conversation, but he did not explicitly link those remarks to the payment of money.
In response to questions about whether it was improper for Helmy to be paid large sums of money, Chellew said it was, but when the arrangement started, he thought it was “just a little operation” before the amount of work with Transport for NSW blew out.
“It was craziness, the amount of work that came through,” he said.
Chellew also told the inquiry that he paid kickbacks to Liu at Transport for NSW for the hiring of a truck and driver from Protection Barriers for various work over a number of months from April 2023.
Of the $200 per hour charge to Transport for NSW, Chellew paid $50 an hour as a “kickback in cash”, which was handed over during meetings at a Caltex service station and Bunnings stores.
The public inquiry, which is being presided over by ICAC chief commissioner John Hatzistergos, is part of an ICAC investigation known as Operation Wyvern. The hearings are expected to run for six weeks, and continue on Tuesday when Chellew will return for further questioning.
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