They met as budding engineers at the University of Wollongong in the early noughties.
Now one of the men is facing allegations he solicited $300,000 in corrupt payments in a plum government job, while the other is accused of helping him to "launder" some of the cash.
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The Independent Commission Against Corruption kicked off a five-day public inquiry on Monday into allegations former Ausgrid engineer Phillip Cresnar solicited cash and gifts as a reward for helping contractors win lucrative contracts with the state-owned electricity company.
The inquiry has heard this included $25,000 in modifications to his Saab car and tens of thousands of dollars in luxury renovations and fittings for his property in Alexandria in inner Sydney, including an imported marble bath and tiles.
The money started flowing just two years after he took up a graduate engineer position at Ausgrid in April 2006, the inquiry has heard. He had graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Engineering with second class honours.
Mr Cresnar's friend Robert Ujszaszi appeared in the witness box on Tuesday over two payments totalling almost $7000 that Mr Cresnar made into a PayPal account Mr Ujszaszi set up at Mr Cresnar's request in late 2009.
The two men met at university fourteen years ago, Mr Ujszaszi told the ICAC. They had kept in touch, catching up "probably every couple of months".
He said Mr Cresnar was sitting next to him when he set up the PayPal account on October 12, 2009.
Counsel assisting the ICAC, Tim Gartelmann, tendered documents showing that "within a matter of minutes", Mr Cresnar had transferred $5619.65 into his friend's account, which was later paid into Mr Ujszaszi's bank account.
A $1236 payment was made by Mr Cresnar into the same account on February 8, 2010.
The account then lay dormant until 2013, after the ICAC started investigating Mr Cresnar.
Mr Ujszaszi said he could not recall what happened to the money after it was paid into his bank account.
The ICAC has heard the money came from a contractor who has told the commission he felt he was being "held at ransom" and would get only "crap work" if he stopped paying up at Mr Cresnar's demand.
"Were you helping Mr Cresnar launder some money?" Mr Gartelmann asked Mr Ujszaszi.
"No, I would have thought it would have come from [Mr Cresnar's] credit card," he replied.
Mr Ujszaszi said he did not know why he received the money, or what happened to it, but he did not think he withdrew it from his bank account and gave it in cash to his friend.
He told Assistant Commissioner Theresa Hamilton that he likely gave his friend the password so he could access the PayPal account himself.
"You're not telling the truth in your evidence about your knowledge of those transactions, are you?" Mr Gartelmann said.
"I disagree with that," Mr Ujszaszi replied.
Ausgrid is one of the state's "poles and wires" electricity network businesses the Baird government wants to partially privatise.
By 2008, Mr Cresnar was a project engineer at the company with responsibility for inspecting some contracts.
The inquiry has heard allegations that Mr Cresnar approved variations to contracts, worth millions of dollars, for contractors who gave him kickbacks.
"The approval of variations to contracts and the adequacy of systems to limit opportunities for corrupt conduct ... is a significant issue," Mr Gartelmann said in his opening address.
On Tuesday, two contractors who allegedly gave lavish gifts to Mr Cresnar, Patrick Miskelly and Eamon Burke, denied giving kickbacks and rejected suggestions they were lying to the commission.
Mr Burke claimed to have no knowledge of cheques signed by him for expensive renovations, including a $60,000 custom-made kitchen.
Mr Cresnar's employment was terminated last year, during the ICAC's investigation. On his LinkedIn page, he lists his occupation as stock market analyst.
