Key ICAC witness put the rubbish out on a Sunday night. He hasn't been seen since
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 were consistent in appearance with gold bullion nuggets 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.
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 also seized multiple properties owned by the Chellews in NSW and Queensland worth $15 million.
Under questioning at the first day of a 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 in cash before the amount of work from Transport for NSW 'got crazy' during the COVID pandemic.
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 up the payments to Helmy because of the amount of work.
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.
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