Cash App founder Bob Lee allegedly murdered by fellow tech exec Nima Momeni
A fellow tech entrepreneur has been arrested over the slaying of Cash App founder Bob Lee on the streets of San Francisco.
A US tech entrepreneur has been arrested in connection with the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee on the streets of San Francisco.
The dad-of-two, 43, was fatally stabbed just after 2.30am on April 4 in the ritzy neighbourhood of Rincon Hill, New York Post reports.
Police have now arrested and charged Nima Momeni, 38, with murder.
“We can confirm that Mr Lee and Mr Momeni knew each other,” SFPD Chief William Scott said in a Thursday press conference, though he refused to go into any more detail.
Mr Momeni, boss of a company called Expand IT, is alleged to have been driving through the city with Mr Lee when they had some kind of confrontation, which resulted in the tech mogul exiting the vehicle, police said.
Their alleged altercation continued, ending with Mr Lee being fatally stabbed, according to police sources.
Chief Scott would not disclose if any weapon was recovered by investigators, as reported by San Francisco news outlet Mission Local.
How the two had met and ended up in a car together remains unknown.
Security video – which has not been publicly released, but has been viewed by various local news outlets – reportedly shows the dying entrepreneur walking up to a car with its hazard lights flashing and lifting his shirt to the driver to show his injuries.
The car is then seen driving off without helping as Mr Lee collapses to the ground, according to the outlets that have seen the footage.
Mr Lee, who has two young daughters, called 911 himself, telling the operator he’d been stabbed and needed help. By the time police arrived, he was unconscious. He later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
Mr Momeni is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for an arraignment. He faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in prison if he’s convicted on all charges, prosecutors said.
Mr Lee’s estranged wife, Krista, 38, spoke publicly for the first time since his death, talking to Oakland station KTVU Fox2.
“This is the first step toward justice,” she said.
Sam Singer, who owns a PR firm next door to Mr Momeni’s loft, told The Post a large number of police officers attended the residence to make the arrest, using a bullhorn to call for him.
“He was a very nice guy and everyone is in shock that he’s accused of this murder,” Mr Singer told The Post.
“He had a very nice pool table, gourmet food, and a very high-end speaker system. There was a lot of technology in his workspace. He handed me his business card and said, ‘Hey, if you ever need IT help, give me a ring.’”
On April 3, about 24 hours before Mr Lee was killed, a woman was seen inside the building yelling out for Mr Momeni, the neighbour said.
“Apparently, she banged on another door looking for him. It was raised by the security committee in the building because there was a question on why there was a woman there in the wee hours of the morning yelling for Nima and how did she get into a secure building,” Mr Singer said.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she is filing a motion to hold Mr Momeni without bail due to “obvious and severe public safety risks”.
A friend of Mr Lee said the tech mogul, who had most recently worked for cryptocurrency start-up MobileCoin, recently moved to Miami because he felt San Francisco was “deteriorating”.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed cautioned against “people jumping to conclusions” when the killing was first reported, with some putting the death down to the city’s high crime areas and large homeless population.
Meanwhile Mr Lee’s father, Rick Lee, penned a heartbreaking tribute to his son on Facebook, calling him his “best friend”.
“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” the grieving dad wrote. “He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.”
Who is Nima Momeni?
Here’s everything we have learned so far about the tech entrepreneur.
Mr Momeni was the boss of a company called Expand IT, which helped other businesses with their IT infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Websites and social media pages for the company appeared to be taken down on Thursday afternoon, but it previously boasted “concierge-level support that is available 24/7/365”, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Expand IT’s office is listed as the same address where Mr Momeni lived – and where he was arrested on Thursday morning.
Despite giving the impression he was running a thriving tech business, his neighbour Mr Singer remained sceptical there were ever more employees than just Mr Momeni working there.
He told The Post, “I never saw anyone in there but him and one time a cleaning service. No employees ever.”
The Chronicle also reported that while Mr Momeni said he graduated from UC Berkeley, the school has no record of his attendance or graduation.
This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission
