Transport official boasts of ‘juicy meeting’ and pocketing ‘cash in brown paper bag’
Under questioning from ICAC counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, Helmy struggled to explain his own spreadsheet, the formulas he used and what he had recorded in it, but confirmed that Capital Lines & Signs director Andrew Stewart had never paid the full amount he believed he was owed under the agreements.
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Helmy had his first secret meeting with Stewart on May 19, 2020, when the contractor went to his Merrylands home.
After that meeting, Helmy consulted with Le and told him that it was “a nice and interesting meeting… and he liked me very much.”
Le responded: “Can he make cash?”
Helmy added: “Oh yeah, there’s money in the brown paper bag, he says hahaha.”
Four months later Helmy received the first cash payment from Stewart of $40,000 for work the company was carrying out at inflated rates on the Lachlan Valley Way near Yass.
Capital Lines & Signs director Andrew Stewart will appear before the ICAC in July.
ICAC is investigating allegations Helmy was the mastermind behind corrupt dealings with nine companies paid at least $343 million in contracts by Transport for NSW. He is accused of pocketing $11.5 million in kickbacks from contractors, including bundles of cash and gold bullion, in exchange for being awarded work on state roads.
On Tuesday, Helmy had no recollection of meeting Stewart frequently to get cash until he was shown his WhatsApp conversations with Le.
In a WhatsApp message on December 17, 2020, Helmy told Le that he would meet with Stewart the following week, adding: [sic] Be rich again.”
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The inquest heard Helmy met Stewart near Bowral on Christmas Eve 2020 and received $44,000 from him, but later told Le he had only received $30,000. This was the second of eight cash payments totaling $604,000 that Helmy received from Stewart between 2020 and the beginning of last year.
When asked what he did with the $604,000 he received, Helmy confirmed that he met people via the messaging app Telegram and arranged to exchange cash for a cryptocurrency known as meme money. “I bought different new coins. There was a cat coin. They call them breast coins,” he said at the hearing. “There was a Metaverse coin.”
Stewart had previously told the inquiry that Helmy had pressured him to pay him in cryptocurrency and that the then Transport official had asked him to buy a yellow Mercedes-Benz CLA45-S-class car and put it in his sister’s name.
After eluding police for four months, Helmy was discovered by detectives hiding in a cupboard at a unit in south-west Sydney on September 26. Helmy remains in custody except for his participation in the ICAC investigation.
He will return to the witness stand on Wednesday.
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