Suspect Arrested in San Francisco Killing of Cash App Founder Bob Lee
Nima Momeni is facing murder charges for allegedly stabbing the tech mogul.
We have following the stabbing death of Cash App Founder Bob Lee, who was attacked in an upscale neighborhood in San Francisco and struggled to attract aid before succumbing to his injuries.
A suspect has been arrested in connection with this murder.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged 38-year-old Emeryville resident Nima Momeni with murder for allegedly stabbing Lee twice in the chest at 2:30 a.m. on April 4, leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk in San Francisco’s wealthy Rincon Hill neighborhood.
Lee, 43, was a colorful, outsize figure, known for his leadership role at Square and for working on the team that launched Google’s Android operating system, but more often remembered as the last guy to leave any party.
Officers booked Momeni into San Francisco County Jail at 9:19 a.m. He was scheduled to appear for his first court hearing on Friday.
The victim and the accused killer knew each other, Police Chief Bill Scott told reporters who gathered Thursday afternoon at the department’s headquarters in China Basin. Scott said officers had served two search warrants in San Francisco in addition to the arrest and search warrant in Emeryville, but he declined to offer more detail.
“We know that this has been a high-profile case, and there has been a lot of speculation, and a lot of things said about our city, and crime in the city,” Mayor London Breed said at the opening of the press conference, during which she commended law enforcement for handling the case appropriately.
Momeni’s arraignment has been delayed two weeks because the suspect’s lawyer is reportedly on vacation.
Burlingame attorney Paula Canny is representing Momeni, and Friday morning, her brother, Robert Canny, stood in her place with Momeni during a brief appearance at the Hall of Justice, CBS News reported.
Robert Canny made a brief comment to reporters. “The facts of what occurred, or didn’t occur, will come out over time,” he said, according to the TV news station.
The new arraignment date is April 25, and Momeni will remain in jail without bail until then.
Momeni’s motive for the alleged attack has not yet been revealed. Investigators indicate that the pair knew each other.
The tech entrepreneur was also joined in the courthouse by his glamorous sister Khazar Momeni, who is said to have introduced the pair and owns property both near where Lee was stabbed and the suburb where he lived last year.
Her luxury high-rise apartment, which is 4.5 miles from the Lee’s former home and a few blocks from where he was stabbed, was searched by police Thursday.
The probe came after reports from the San Francisco Chronicle revealed she had recently become ‘acquainted’ with Lee.
According to CBS Bay Area, Momeni has interacted with the criminal justice system prior to this incident.
He was charged with a misdemeanor for driving while intoxicated in 2004, and in 2011 he pled no contest to selling a switchblade. Momeni spent 10 days in jail for the charge.
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What this demonstrates is that the police and DA can solve and charge a murder — when they want to do so. It helps when the victim is a multi-millionaire and prominent citizen, and when the citizens around him become alarmed enough that they start muttering about leaving the city with all their multi-millions, but still, it’s useful to see the police actually being allowed to arrest someone.
Memo to the new mayor of Chicago — this is how it’s done…
Looks like Mr Lee was having an affair with the Muslims married sister
Looks like an “honor” killing
Don’t you just love the religion of peace
You can take the Muslim out of the ME but you can’t take his knife away…
https://nypost.com/2023/04/14/nima-momeni-allegedly-killed-cash-app-founder-bob-lee-over-fight-about-sister-court-docs/
“and in 2011 he pled no contest to selling a switchblade. Momeni spent 10 days in jail for the charge.”
“Selling a switchblade”?? Really? And 10 days in jail for that? That’s really weird.
If you’ve lived all your life in “America,” you might be surprised that there are still a dozen or so states where the possession of “assisted knives” is still illegal.
When I was growing up in RI near the MA border, they were illegal in both states. (A retired police chief uncle had a fine illegal collection that we enjoyed examining and operating.)
In fact, just today, Knife RIghts (a sort of “NRA for knives” based in Arizona) sued California over this unconstitutional law.
(Sorry, not today, a month ago today. I keep forgetting it’s April.)
“A public records search showed that Momeni had nine liens on his properties in Emeryville, San Francisco and San Jose.”
So maybe a “shakedown” gone bad. I remember as a kid when a wealthy person in our town was shot at 2AM by a pimp. The secret lives of the rich and famous. It was around that time that my dad taught us the lesson of not associating with people who, in his words “had way less to lose than we did.” Desperate people are to be avoided at all costs. Winners might present a challenge, but never a threat. Stick with the winners and you will be OK. Losers always have a threat somewhere in their tool kit.
I find it interesting that they keep talking about the upscale neighborhood. The neighborhood had nothing to do with it. He was dealing with a person whose character traits made them a low-life. So clearly a stupid person and at a stupid time, while not necessarily a stupid place (unless being in a car with said person was a stupid place).
Some good advice there. Thank you for sharing it. As a teenager, generally figured that, but without succinctly determining why. At that age, it was those going places, and those that weren’t (or not going anywhere good).
Meh. The introduction of the hot sister rocking fashionable Western outfits, along with the documented heated arguments, pretty much writes this story.
I guess since some sketchy Muslim grifter offed Lee, rather than a street person, it proves the city is a safe, clean and wonderful place to reside.
No, but as a classic “crime of passion,” it could have happened just as easily in Orem, assuming you could find any hot sisters of hotheaded Muslim brothers there. The city itself looks right now to have had negligible contribution to this one.
I should add that one might claim as a contributing factor the California STATE suppression of the right to bear arms for self-defense… however, Lee was one of the 1% who could easily have gotten approved if he cared to, and he obviously didn’t.
Lee was fully armed with a rapier-like wit.
Apparently, the mot is not motier than the sword.
Since Lee was not a citizen of Calif & Calif doesn’t do reciprocity. Lee couldn’t have been (legally) armed. OTOH, even if he had been caught with a concealed weapon, I suspect that (particularly after some “campaign contributions”) the charges would have been dropped (in the interest of justice, of course).
Good catch on the citizenship. I assumed that California, like most states, had some sort of byzantine (non-)accommodation for “non-resident permits,” but I have to say I’ve never been inclined to pursue the subject.
Looks like I’d have been wrong/ CA does not offer any non-resident permits. I’m not more than mildly surprised.
I looked into getting a MA non-resident permit for the period I would be attending my college’s 50th reunion. It requires a personal visit to an office in Boston, then a multi-week (or month) wait for the permit to be issued. Kind of defeats the purpose, which I’m sure is the entire reason.
Mere money isn’t enough to get a carry license in CA, you need political connections to the approving sheriff.
cherchez la femme in the muslim tradition