ACT trial hears business name Algoram shows Abdul El-Debel and Raminder Kahlon conspired to defraud Finance Department

Department worker Abdul Aziz El-Debel, also known as Alex, and IT consultant Raminder Singh Kahlon have stood trial in the ACT Supreme Court since June 6.

They have pleaded not guilty to conspiring with each other and Gopalakrishnan Suryanarayanan Vilayur, who is not on trial, with the intention of dishonestly obtaining a gain from the Commonwealth between March 2019 and June 2020.

The alleged conspiracy involves influencing or corrupting the department's IT procurement processes relating to contractual projects to favour candidates at Kahlon's and Vilayur's businesses, being New Horizons Business Solutions and Algoram, respectively.

The trio then allegedly shared in the profit margins the businesses made from the contracts.

Among the evidence the Commonwealth prosecution relies on is the business name Algoram, incorporated on March 22 in 2019, which is also when the participation in the alleged conspiracy began.

Prosecutor David Staehli SC in his closing address, which began on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, argued the name was significant because it combined the first syllables of each of the three men's first names - being Alex in El-Debel's case - that went towards establishing the conspiracy.

Mr Staehli said evidence included phone recordings of the name being discussed, including between Kahlon and his wife in April 2020.

When he asked her if she knew what Algoram meant, she said it was the combination of the men's names.

Mr Staehli said Kahlon, 38, not refuting or denying that assertion showed "the men were involved in a partnership, an arrangement, an agreement".

A phone recording between Ed-Debel, 49, and Vilayur, 52, about the meaning of Algoram was also played.

The latter said there would be "gossip that 'everything is going to Gopal's company now', 'everything is going to Raminder's company now'".

Mr Staehli said that, during a police interview, Kahlon called the business name a "fun thing".

The prosecutor said a number of arguments could be made about the name, including that it was clever, stupid or a joke.

He said the odds of having a business name accidentally based on the men's names was "so astronomical as to be close to nil".

"It's Wordle writ large to actually have the means of creating a word which includes the first three syllables," Mr Staehli said.

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The trial heard the contracts awarded to New Horizons and Algoram represented only a small portion of about $25m worth of IT contracts at the department at the time.

In relation to the proceeds, Mr Staehli said "one very powerful piece of evidence talks about how Alex was all about his margins".

"That made him very motivated ... Alex was to get a margin himself from the recruitment of people who were then put forward by Algoram," Mr Staehli said.

"That margin [is] the essence of the gain ... that was what the agreement was about."

Mr Staehli said El-Debel had a conflict of interest in relation to "business matters such as this" and that "the proximity of him to those other two is a powerful feature of the agreement".

Mr Staehli also cited financial evidence related to the businesses and Kahlon's international money transfers from which payments to El-Debel and Vilayur could be made as part of the conspiracy.

"The kind of payments which we say lie at the heart of this case," he said.

Defence barristers on Tuesday cross examined federal agent Stephen Gibson, the officer in charge of the investigation, and scrutinised police work and the lack of disclosure about some evidence.

Matthew Kalyk, representing Kahlon, argued the evidence could not establish a conspiracy.

Mr Kalyk said calls between El-Debel and Vilayur indicated "they were anxious to ensure the best candidates were selected and were frustrated from time to time about the kind of resources engaged by the department".

The defence lawyers will make their closing addresses after Mr Staehli, who is expected to finish on Thursday morning.

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