SAN FRANCISCO — An Emeryville man was arrested and charged Thursday in the April 4 stabbing death of tech executive Robert Lee — and the suspect and the victim knew each other before the killing, authorities said.
Nima Momeni, 38, was arrested Thursday morning in Emeryville by San Francisco police, who served multiple search warrants in the East Bay and San Francisco, officials said at a news conference. The arrest of Momeni, the owner of an Emeryville tech company known as Expand IT, was first reported by Mission Local.
San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott said at the news conference that Momeni and Robert “Bob” Lee had known each other before the killing, but he would not say how they were connected.
Scott declined to provide details about the killing, deferring on questions about a possible motive or a murder weapon. He repeatedly cited the ongoing investigation into the killing in turning down questions.
Lee, the creator of the CashApp payment service and an executive at MobileCoin, was fatally stabbed about 2:30 a.m. April 4 in the 300 block of Main Street in the Rincon Hill neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Scott would not say Thursday how detectives had developed information that led them to Momeni as a suspect.
“We can confirm that Mr. Lee and Mr. Momeni knew each other,” Scott said, declining to share any other details “regarding evidence that confirms that information. … We still have work to do, and our job is to provide the best evidence possible to the District Attorney and her team so we can bring this case to justice.”
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said that Momeni had been charged with murder, with an enhancement that the killing was committed with a knife. Momeni was scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon; Jenkins said her office would ask a judge to order Momeni held without bail.
Both Scott and Jenkins took time to offer condolences to Lee’s family and friends.
The killing quickly drew attention in national media, both due to Lee’s prominence in the tech community and to political debate over the issue of crime in big cities like San Francisco.
Asked about the use of the killing to portray San Francisco as especially lawless and violent, Scott said in part that “this is more about human nature, human behavior than it is about our city. … This is not about San Francisco. … Facts show that most people who commit homicide know the people that they kill.”
Jenkins also blasted prominent media figures criticizing the city, saying that such a narrative “negatively impacts the pursuit of justice for victims of crime as it spreads misinformation at a time when the police are trying to solve a very difficult case,” Jenkins said.
Lee had been chief product officer at MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency and digital payments startup, since 2021. Previous posts included chief technology officer at Square — where he created CashApp, originally known as Square Cash — and software engineer at Google. He also invested in and advised numerous startups.
A website for Momeni’s company, Expand IT, could be viewed Thursday morning but was taken down later in the day. A call to the phone number listed on the company website was not returned.
In a social-media post, Lee’s brother Timothy Lee called Bob “a loving Son, brother and father.” That statement continued as follows:
He positively affected millions of people throughout his life. He had an overarching need to make technology accessible, and to help out everyone. Bob’s dream was to make technology free and available.
From a modest upbringing in the midwest, he started out programing and making web pages for the small business that bordered his parents own store. Many people may not know, in the early days of tech one of the first computer viruses, Code Red, shut down the world. A young Bob created the solution unpaid and then gave it to the world for free. That’s who Bob was.
He spent the rest of his career on that same path. Through his help in creating Android, he made a cheaper and widely used OS. With Square, later block, he was able to solve a major problem for small businesses and help them to democratize cost effective payments. With Cash App, he helped the all people access the digital payments world. What attracted him to MobileCoin was their idea to connect business and payments around the world.
Bob loved being in San Francisco, and San Francisco loved Bob. Walking down the street would sometimes be difficult because every young person with a dream would search him out, and he would make time for every one.
After our Mom’s passing 3 years ago, Dad moved in with Bob to share in his life and support. Bob’s new job took him to Miami, Dad came along as well. His love for his Family and San Francisco kept him coming back.
Personally, Bob felt it was important to not judge based on someones beliefs. This caused so many people to love him from a Burning Man Camp to San Francisco to Miami and across the world. This philosophy afforded him friends from every walk of life. His love of music and art created an amazing group of truly individual and loving people. This community has been extremely supportive in his passing.
Every day around the world, people interact with technology that Bob helped create. Bob will live on through these interactions and his dreams of improving all of our lives.
As a family, we’re very thankful to the hard working Detectives at the SFPD for bringing his killer to Justice. Our next steps will be to work with the District Attorney’s office to ensure that this person is not allowed to hurt anyone else or walk free.
From the Family of Bob Lee
