Latest news with #kickbacks
ABC News
5 days ago
- ABC News
Tearful ICAC witness recalls 'very improper' meeting with transport official
A traffic controller has told the state's corruption commission that he went behind his "wife's back" to pay kickbacks to a Transport for NSW (TfNSW) official, in order to win lucrative roadwork contracts. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating allegations that Ibrahim Helmy, who worked for TfNSW for 15 years, received $11.5 million in payments for helping contractors secure roadwork jobs, often at inflated prices. Mr Helmy failed to appear at ICAC earlier this month and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. On Thursday, operations manager at Direct Traffic Pty Ltd, Adam Spilsted, became emotional, telling the commission he would pass cash to Mr Helmy "under the table" at a Merrylands restaurant to help secure contracts for the business. "I was scared of not getting any work," he said "Working for a government agency such as Transport for NSW is a privilege," he said, choking back tears. "I've done the wrong thing ... It's something I should have … reported." Mr Spilsted told the hearing that Mr Helmy initially offered to help him win state government contracts because he knew Mr Spilsted's father. The ICAC earlier heard that about $48 million in contracts had been awarded by TfNSW to Direct Traffic Pty Ltd between 2018 and 2025. Mr Spilsted said Mr Helmy gave him tender evaluation criteria, as well as confidential information on other companies' bids. However, during one of their meetings at Merrylands library in 2018, Mr Helmy allegedly asked for money. "In order for me to give you this work, I would expect some type of payment," Mr Helmy allegedly said. Counsel Assisting, Rob Rob Ranken SC, asked Mr Spilsted whether he understood the gravity of that request. "Did you appreciate that what he was proposing was improper?" Mr Ranken asked. Adam Spilsted said he later told his wife, Mechelina Van Der Ende-Plakke, who is a director of Direct Traffic Pty Ltd, that Mr Helmy had asked for money. "She didn't want to give him any money whatsoever," he told the hearing. According to Mr Spilsted, Mr Helmy threatened to stop helping him win contracts unless he got paid. "So, what I did was went behind my wife's back," he told the commission. Mr Spilsted said he initially paid Mr Helmy using gift cards, but was soon told "the gift cards aren't cutting it". He later made several large cash withdrawals and handed them to Mr Helmy both in his car and "under the table" at an Egyptian restaurant in Merrylands. However, as the relationship continued and more contracts were awarded to the business, Mr Spilsted said the transport official wanted more money. "Every time that I'd see him, he'd ask for money all the time," he said. Mr Spilsted told the hearing that Mr Helmy ultimately asked him to pay about $600,000. He said that when his wife found out about that demand, she threatened to "dob" Mr Helmy in to TfNSW. Mr Spilsted said he warned her against going to authorities, saying they would both get into a "lot of trouble" because "we'd already paid him". The hearing was then played a phone conversation allegedly between Ms Van Der Ende-Plakke and Mr Helmy, recorded by Mr Spilsted. In the recording, she told Mr Helmy she was "shocked". "If we would go ahead with this [and] it would ever come out, it would not be good," she said. She told Mr Helmy she only wanted her company to win contracts based on merit. The man — allegedly Mr Helmy — responded by trying to reassure her. "I don't see it as badly as you're seeing it," he said. However, he later conceded "it is not 100 per cent legal". The hearing continues.
News.com.au
14-07-2025
- News.com.au
Former Transport for NSW employee accused of ‘staggering' corruption now on the run
A former Transport for NSW (TfNSW) employee who is accused of pocketing about $11.5 million from allegedly corrupt dealings with roadworks contractors is on the run. Ibrahim Helmy is at the centre of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry that alleges a 'staggering' $343 million of taxpayer-funded contracts were awarded to businesses that he is suspected to have had corrupt relationships with. After he failed to attend an ICAC summons in May, NSW Police issued a warrant for Mr Helmy's arrest. A family member told the Commission he 'took the rubbish out on a Sunday night and did not return', and counsel assisting Rob Ranken, SC, told the inquiry, 'we believe he remains in the jurisdiction and that individuals have been collaborating to conceal his whereabouts.' His family has not reported him missing. It is alleged that between 2012 to 2024, Mr Helmy masterminded a web of corruption involving at least four other TfNSW employees that saw a number of businesses awarded lucrative contracts in return for kickbacks which came in the form of gold bullion nuggets, cryptocurrency, gift cards and other valuables. Invoices for the contracts, which were worth between $12 million to $99 million, were allegedly 'falsely inflated' and according to one of the business owners, the excess was split 50/50 between the business and Mr Helmy. Mr Ranken said there is evidence suggesting that on one occasion Mr Helmy helped a business prepare a tender submission and provided 'confidential documents prepared by other contractors to assist with the preparation' of their submission. It is also alleged that Mr Helmy stacked tender evaluation committees 'in a way that allowed him to manipulate the committee's recommendations'. The inquiry heard that one of the businesses involved, Protection Barriers, had received 'very little' work from TfNSW prior to mid 2020 when Mr Helmy is alleged to have begun a corrupt relationship with them. Protection Barriers founder Jason Chellew told the inquiry on Monday he was contacted by Mr Helmy and that he 'proposed, giving us jobs, for yeah, kickbacks.' 'The problem we had at that sort of time, we were worried that if we said 'no', we would have got nothing,' Mr Chellew said, referring to a fear that rejecting Mr Helmy's offer would result in the business being passed up by TfNSW for lucrative contracts in future. 'I didn't really want to do it but that was what we did at the time,' he said. Between 2020 and 2024, Protection Barriers was awarded approximately $99 million worth of contracts and it is alleged that Mr Helmy received about $9m in kickbacks from the business, most of which was paid in cryptocurrency. A police search of Mr Helmy's premises in September last year seized 12 bars of silver weighing 1kg each, three platinum bars weighing 1 ounce each, 20 gold bullion nuggets and five gold bullion bars each weighing 1 ounce, nine 100 gram gold bullion bars and $12,317 in cash. The Crime Commission also found the equivalent of about $8 million in cryptocurrency stored in the account of an associate of Mr Helmy, the inquiry heard. Mr Helmy and Mr Chellew have not been charged with any criminal offence. This is the fourth public inquiry into TfNSW since 2019 and in his opening statement, Mr Ranken said: 'In each of the previous investigations, (other) TfNSW officials were found to have manipulated procurements and/or contract management processes for corrupt benefit. We expect the evidence is likely to establish that also to be the case in this investigation.'
Free Malaysia Today
10-07-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
MACC knew of graft claims against Lim since 2018, court told
DAP's Lim Guan Eng is charged with using his position as then Penang chief minister to ask a businessman for a 10% cut of the profits from the undersea tunnel project and accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks. (Bernama pic) KUALA LUMPUR : The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) knew that former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng had been implicated in graft since 2018, the sessions court was told today. MACC investigating officer Eng Heng Jun told Lim's undersea tunnel trial that he had taken statements from witness and businessman Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli in his investigation into a cheating case. Eng said Zarul claimed that money had been paid to Lim for the project. 'I told Datuk (Zarul) to give his statement later to another (investigating officer) who would handle this case. 'I also told this to my supervisors, and they said a special investigation (against Lim) would commence,' he told the court. The witness also said that he doubted neither Zarul's credibility nor the businessman's statement to MACC in the cheating case. Eng said his investigations — which were corroborated by evidence — showed that Zarul had passed RM19 million to another businessman, G Gnanaraja, in 2017. Lim is charged with using his position as then Penang chief minister to ask Zarul for a 10% cut of the profits from the undersea tunnel project and accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks from the businessman. He is also accused of two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land. The hearing before judge Azura Alwi continues on July 22.
South China Morning Post
26-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Ex-New York official facing Chinese agent charge indicted for US$35 million in kickbacks
A former top New York official earlier charged with acting as a Chinese agent was handed a second federal indictment alleging she received kickbacks for steering some US$35 million worth of healthcare contracts to favoured suppliers during the coronavirus pandemic , a federal court said on Thursday. The new charges against Linda Sun, 41 – once an aide to New York governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo – and against her husband and co-defendant, Chris Hu, 40, included wire fraud, bribery, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the US. 'As alleged, Linda Sun not only acted as [an] unregistered agent of the government of the People's Republic of China but also enriched herself to the tune of millions of dollars when New York state was at its most vulnerable' during the start of the pandemic, US attorney Joseph Nocella with the Eastern District of New York said in a statement. 'When masks, gloves and other protective supplies were hard to find, Sun abused her position of trust to steer contracts to her associates so that she and her husband could share in the profits,' he added. Details of the superseding indictment were released on Thursday after the additional charges were handed down on Wednesday. Sun accompanied by her husband, Chris Hu, who also faces US federal charges. Photo: Reuters As outlined in court documents, in early 2020, Sun and a team of state employees drew on her connections in Beijing to obtain highly sought-after protective gear.
Japan Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
LDP's Shimomura denies he ordered kickbacks to resume in 2022
Hakubun Shimomura, former policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Tuesday that he did not request kickback practices at an LDP faction be resumed after they were once suspended in April 2022. Speaking as a witness at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, Shimomura said the resumption was not decided at an executive meeting in August 2022. In a hearing in February, a former chief accountant of the now-defunct faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that "a faction executive" asked for the restart of the kickback system in July 2022, and the resumption was decided at an executive meeting in August of the same year. The testimonies of the former chief accountant and Shimomura, whom the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and others regard as "the faction executive" in question, conflicted with each other. According to Shimomura's explanation, a faction member called for kickbacks exceeding their quotas in their fundraising ticket sales after a fundraising party was held in May 2022. Shimomura said he had told Abe, then head of the faction, and the former chief accountant after June of that year that "such a call has come out." Shimomura also said that there was such a call in his talks over the phone with the former chief accountant in late July of the same year, after Abe's death. Shimomura said he "merely told them in a businesslike way" such opinions, emphasizing that "I didn't mean I requested the resumption." He told the day's committee meeting that the executive meeting held in August 2022 "discussed means to conduct kickbacks in forms other than cash refunds but did not reach a conclusion." His explanation matches testimony given by Hiroshige Seko, a Lower House lawmaker, who has left the LDP, that the executive meeting was about alternatives for the faction to buy up tickets at fundraising parties by its member lawmakers. Shimomura explained that the discrepancies between testimonies from him and the former chief accountant came from differences in perception. "A conclusion should have been made clear at the executive meeting," he said. "I need to reflect on how I phrase things if I made the former chief accountant misunderstand." Some opposition lawmakers said the facts have not been made clear yet and called for summoning former LDP General Council chief Ryu Shionoya and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, a former leader of the faction, as witnesses.
