Police announced an arrest in last week’s San Francisco slaying of Bob Lee, chief product officer of crypto startup MobileCoin Inc., and the alleged killer is a fellow technology entrepreneur who knew Lee.
Nima Momeni, 38, was taken into custody Thursday in the nearby city of Emeryville and charged with murder in the stabbing of Lee, 43, on a downtown street in San Francisco in the early morning of April 4, police said. A LinkedIn profile for Momeni lists him as an IT consultant and entrepreneur.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at a news conference that the two men knew each other, but declined to provide details on the alleged motive behind the fatal attack or how they identified Momeni as the suspect.
While Lee’s killing initially triggered commentary about San Francisco falling into lawlessness - including a tweet by Elon Musk that “violent crime in SF is horrific” — city leaders warned Thursday about jumping to conclusions.
Singling out Musk’s criticism, Jenkins said “reckless and irresponsible statements like those contained in Mr. Musk’s tweet that assumed incorrect circumstances about Mr. Lee’s death serve to mislead the world in their perceptions of San Francisco, and also negatively impact the pursuit of justice for the victims of crime as it spreads misinformation.”
“This has nothing to do with San Francisco,” Scott said. “This had to do with human nature.”
Mayor London Breed praised the San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s office for not responding to rumors and focusing on the facts of the case. “What the people of San Francisco have asked for again and again is accountability,” she said.
Mission Local, an online news site in the city, reported that the attack followed an argument Lee and Momeni were having while driving in Momeni’s vehicle and that the knife used in the attack was recovered not far from the spot where officers initially responded to the incident. Mission Local didn’t cite the source of its information.
Jenkins said Momeni is being held in custody without bail and will be arraigned Friday.
Lee was the first chief technology officer of Square, the startup co-founded by Jack Dorsey, and now called Block Inc. While at the company, he created CashApp, a money transfer tool that lets users buy stocks and Bitcoin. Earlier in his career, he helped develop Android while working as a software engineer for Google.
Momeni owns a small IT firm called Expand IT Inc. On Thursday, as news reports circulated about his arrest, the firm’s LinkedIn page suddenly became unavailable and the company’s website went down. Earlier in the day, LinkedIn said that the firm had less than 10 employees.
His company’s website previously listed testimonials from customers and a phone number to call to request services. Phone calls to the number listed for Momeni’s IT company went to automated lines that directed callers to voicemail. State business registration records indicated his company was based in Emeryville.
Momeni lists the University of California, Berkeley on his LinkedIn profile. The university didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry as to whether Momeni attended or graduated from the school.
Momeni donated $250 to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, according to OpenSecrets. In 2020, he also donated $250 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
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