Billionaire Rubens Ometto, chairman of the board of directors of Cosan, is the biggest financier of candidates and parties for the fourth consecutive election. In this last dispute, the businessman invested more than R$19 million in campaigns spread across 102 cities.
Data from the (Superior Electoral Court) refer to the first round. The candidates gave their final accounts this month. The values are subject to typing errors and will still be analyzed by the Electoral Court.
In total, 189 candidates benefited, 72 of whom sought a place in the municipal Executive and 117 in the Legislature. The current mayor of Belo Horizonte, Fuad Noman (), received the largest donation from Ometto, R$2 million. The value is also the largest transfer of the election made by an individual.
Fuad won against the state deputy (PL), obtaining 53.73% of the valid votes against 46.27%.
The businessman also financed, with smaller amounts, mayors of large cities, such as , , and José Botelho, from Cuiabá (MT), who came in third place in the first round.
Ometto’s donations were spread across different parties and ideologies. The most significant values were for PSD names.
The sum received by the party’s candidates was R$8.5 million, an amount almost eight times greater than the second party most benefited from the businessman’s donations, the PT, with R$1.1 million.
Among those chosen by Ometto, 43% won — 36 mayors and 45 councilors. Another 65 names got a place as a substitute.
The businessman also gave resources directly to the parties. In total, R$4.3 million was sent to the acronyms’ accounts, with the MDB and PSD being the biggest beneficiaries.
Ometto’s advisor told the Sheet that the electoral donations made by the businessman were “made on a personal basis” and that they followed the rules established by the TSE and other applicable standards.
The second largest donor was José Ricardo Rezek, founder of the RZK Group, which has companies operating in the energy and agricultural sectors. The businessman injected R$6.8 million into the dispute, covering the campaign of 45 candidates — one of them (PSOL), who lost the election for Mayor of São Paulo in the second round.
The list of biggest donors continues with agribusiness businessman Odilio Balbinotti Filho, who financed individual campaigns and parties with R$4.7 million, and with Alcebiades de Queiroz Barata Filho, from the real estate management and administration branch, who injected R$ $3.3 million.
Resek and Odilio’s advisors reported that the businesspeople preferred not to comment on the matter. The report was unable to contact Alcebiades.
In addition to these, another 20 donors totaled more than R$1 million in donations.
The champion in receiving donations from individuals was the influencer, who came in third place in the contest for São Paulo city hall. According to data from the TSE, he received R$7.8 million from 93,900 different donors.
as to Sheet has already shown, the self-proclaimed former coach has established himself as the . This is because he received several donations of small amounts: there were 6,570 donations of up to R$1.
After the influencer is Fuad in Belo Horizonte, who received R$5.6 million, and the federal deputy, who received R$2.7 million and came in fourth place in the Executive dispute in the capital of São Paulo.
Considering general donations, that is, involving contributions from both individuals and parties, Boulos was consolidated as the candidates with the most expensive campaigns, with R$81 million, , with R$53 million, and , with R$26 million. They all ran for mayor, the first two being in the city of São Paulo and the last in Rio de Janeiro.
Among the parties that received direct resources from donors, the PSD accumulated R$26 million, followed by (R$18 million) and (R$11 million).
The best recipients of donations were also in municipal disputes this year.
In addition to the seats won, this victory also represents greater control of municipal budgets next year. Together, the . This value corresponds to R$489 billion.
