Gilberto Kassab (born 12 August 1960) is a Brazilian politician and former mayor of São Paulo. His term ended in 2012. A civil engineer and economist, one of the most famous Brazilians of Lebanese descent, Kassab took over from José Serra, after Serra decided to run for governor of São Paulo. He belongs to the Lebanese community of São Paulo, and is a member of the Partido Social Democrático (PSD). He is mentioned in 2017 among the beneficiaries of bribes from the multinational JBS.

Political career

Administration

The advertising industry criticized the city of São Paulo administration for the Cidade Limpa law, which prohibits all forms of external media and visual pollution such as billboards. Ad companies tried to keep the billboards in the streets with injunctions, but the supreme court determined the law to be constitutional. At any rate, support for the initiative from the public continues to be widespread. Kassab appeared Morgan Spurlock 2011 documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

2022 presidential bid

In July 2021, Kassab announced that he would support Rodrigo Pacheco in the 2022 presidential election.

Car Wash Operation

The biggest implicated company, Odebrecht kept an entire department to coordinate the payment of bribe to politicians. In the Car Wash Operation, officers seized several electronic spreadsheets linking the payments to nicknames. Every corrupt politician received a nickname based on physical characteristics, public trajectory, personal infos, owned cars/boats, origin place or generic preferences. Gilberto Kassab's nickname was 'Chefe Turco' and 'Kibe', portuguese form of 'Turkish Boss' and 'Kibbeh', respectively, alusing his Middle East ancestry.

Electoral history