A month before his house was raided, a former transport official accused of running a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme asked a contractor for "back pay" from their alleged improper arrangement.
Ibrahim Helmy claimed he was owed hundreds of thousands of dollars from Direct Traffic after giving them "a bit extra help" to secure lucrative contracts on NSW road projects.
But he denied holding a "grudge" against the company as it began losing work to Mr Helmy's other favoured contractors.
Mr Helmy has been giving evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption's fourth inquiry into procurement processes at Transport for NSW since 2019.
He was in hiding when public hearings began in July but was arrested and detained to give evidence in September.
Counsel assisting Rob Ranken SC suggested on Thursday Mr Helmy was "very conscious" Direct Traffic might perceive its loss of work as adverse action for ending an improper arrangement between the pair.
But like many other messages to his former colleague Peter Le, his direction to "f**k them bitches" was not to be taken seriously, Mr Helmy told the inquiry.
"You told him not to give work orders to Direct Traffic but to give them to somebody else," Mr Ranken said.
"Those messages indicate that you did hold a grudge against Direct Traffic, for the fact that they were not prepared to pay you."
Mr Helmy did not accept that.
"The way me and Peter communicate is - you've seen how it is - it's not to be taken seriously," he said.
At a meeting in August 2024, he told Direct Traffic's director and operations manager he wasn't holding any grudges.
It came more than three years after he showed company officials a spreadsheet claiming they owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The meeting, which took place shortly before search warrants were executed at Mr Helmy's home and office in September 2024, canvassed resuming the previous arrangement.
Mr Rankin suggested Mr Helmy had in mind he would have to receive payment if there was going to be an ongoing arrangement.
"I don't think I had anything in mind," Mr Helmy said.
"I just said, 'need to take into account or look at what has been given previously' and then I left it at that."
"So what you're saying is you want back pay," a recording of the meeting captured Direct Traffic's director saying.
Mr Helmy replied, "Yeah, you could say that".
Mr Ranken seized on the recording, played repeatedly at Thursday's hearing and suggested Mr Helmy was agreeing he was asking for back pay.
"No but it really wasn't ... I did not have an idea on how," Mr Helmy told the inquiry.
"She said back pay, I said 'yeah you can think of it that way'."
More than $343 million in work was awarded to multiple contractors during the alleged scheme, with Mr Helmy accused of receiving more than $11.5 million.
He has not been criminally charged but remains in custody to give evidence before the inquiry.
