A Finance Department IT consultant accused of conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth was told phone recordings involving him were "contrary to what you've been telling us" after he denied any wrongdoing during a police interview.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Raminder Singh Kahlon, in his late 30s, and co-accused Abdul "Alex" Aziz El-Debel are on trial in the ACT Supreme Court charged with conspiring to dishonestly obtain a gain from the department between March 2019 and June 2020.
The men have pleaded not guilty and are accused of working with another man, Gopalakrishnan Suryanarayanan Vilayur, to corrupt the department's IT procurement processes to favour candidates at New Horizons Business Solutions and Algoram.
The trio then allegedly shared in the profit margins received by the two businesses, respectively owned by Kahlon and Vilayur, who is not on trial.
The prosecution also argues Kahlon had "a pool of money" overseas used to pay El-Debel and Vilayur as part of their agreement.
On Monday, the court heard that police in June 2020 executed a search warrant at Kahlon's premises where they seized a number of items, including electronic devices.
They also found and discussed evidence related to 10 international money transfers, including to Hong Kong-based Grand Union Technology, totalling about $1.6 million between February 2018 and September 2019.
In Kahlon's record keeping, police found a "profit to be shared" tab in a spreadsheet.
MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS
He was also questioned about his business' income statements and whether they contained a section for "bai" or "bhai", Hindi for brother, in which it allegedly referred to margins for El-Debel.
Statements in 2018-20 showed 70-30 and 50-50 splits, the court heard.
During a June 2020 interview with federal investigators at the Canberra City Police Station shortly after being arrested, Kahlon said "I disagree" when told about the allegation.
Kahlon, who started working with the department in 2017, said the money transfers were "just like an investment" and for software services relating to his business.
He denied having a spreadsheet containing cuts for El-Debel and said the statements showing the different splits referred to his working capital.
The accused said his company's profits, which in 2019-20 was about $600,000 from $7 million in revenue, remain with the company and he would be the only beneficiary if they were withdrawn because he was sole director.
When asked if he ever paid El-Debel and Vilayur, including whether through New Horizons, Kahlon said no.
He said Vilayur's business Algoram meant algorithm; however, Commonwealth prosecutor David Staehli SC in his opening address said evidence suggested that business name may be the combination of Alex, Gopal and Raminder.
Following questioning about the evidence, investigators told the MBA-graduated Kahlon about months of phone intercepts involving him and others.
"Some of which are contrary to what you've been telling us this afternoon," one of the federal agents told him before he was questioned about some of the calls.
Investigators also questioned him about how he obtained work with the department, the various projects he worked on, and his fees.
The jury trial, before Justice Michael Elkaim, is in its scheduled final week after starting on June 6.
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
