San Francisco police arrested a suspect last Thursday morning Cash App creator and fintech pioneer Bob Lee stabbed to deathofficials said.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott told reporters at an afternoon press conference that Nima Momeni, 38, was arrested at her home in Emeryville, a suburb between Oakland and Berkeley.
Lee and Momeni, owners of tech company Expand IT, knew each other, the police chief said.
“Our investigators, like all murders in this city, have worked tirelessly to make this arrest and bring this case to justice on behalf of the Lee family.” Scott said.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Momeni is being charged with special hardening charges of murder and murder with a knife.
Jenkins told reporters that Momeni was not a “direct suspect” in the case, but was identified by a large police investigation.
He will be charged Friday afternoon, and prosecutors will ask a judge to deny him bail, Jenkins said.
News of Momeni’s arrest mission local.
Police found Lee, 43, with a stab wound in the downtown area around 2:35 am on the 4th. He was taken to a nearby hospital but died from his injuries.
Including some technical Twitter owner Elon Muskused Lee’s murder to denounce the city as dangerous and criticize what they believe lax liberal policies against crime.
“Many people I know have been severely assaulted. Violent crime in SF is terrifying, and when attackers are caught, they are often released quickly,” Musk said. Tweeted on April 5th“Is the city taking stronger action to jail repeat violent criminal @BrookeJenkinsSF?
At the press conference, Jenkins criticized Musk by name, as well as others who made “reckless and irresponsible remarks” about Lee’s murder.
Jenkins said these statements “help mislead the world’s perception of San Francisco and also spread misinformation, thus negatively impacting victims of crime’s pursuit of justice.”
Scott also said Lee’s murder could have happened in any city.
At the time of his death, Lee was working as chief product officer for payments company MobileCoin.
He was previously the first Chief Technology Officer at Square, now known as Block, an e-commerce company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
In that role, Lee created a Cash App that allows users in the US and UK to send money to each other via mobile phones.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Momeni started Expand IT in 2010. The company provides his IT and technical support services to other companies.
Voicemails asking for comments left on Expand IT were not immediately returned.
In a Facebook post, Lee’s brother, Tim Oliver Lee, thanked police for arresting the suspect.
“We look forward to working together [the] District attorney’s office to prosecute this case,” he wrote. “Hopefully our family can begin the healing process.”
