Faulty towers and a disgraced developer’s war on building safety boss

August 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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Faulty towers weren’t the only defects in disgraced developer Jean Nassif’s playbook of destructive dealings, a corruption inquiry has revealed.

Nassif, who has fled to Lebanon, has loomed large at the ICAC’s hearings, living up to the moniker “The Godfather” that he gave himself in a taped call referred to in the opening address.

But in a surprise twist in an already dramatic tale, the commission revealed late on Thursday that Nassif will appear as a witness by video link next Friday.

On October 6, 2021, a phone intercept revealed Nassif boasting to an associate that then-building commissioner David Chandler’s days were numbered.

“I’m gonna step on his neck and strip him from his job. Just give me two months … I’m gonna f--k him sideways,” Nassif said.

Almost five years after this call, the normally ebullient Chandler found himself in the witness box of a corruption inquiry quietly detailing Nassif’s unsettling and insidious campaign to damage his reputation and remove him from office.

Chandler, the inaugural building........

© The Sydney Morning Herald