San Francisco authorities make arrest in stabbing of Cash App creator Bob Lee

Police chief Bill Scott said there was evidence that the suspect and Bob Lee knew each other but did not comment on the possible motive of the attack.

The San Francisco Police Department has arrested a tech executive named Nima Momeni in connection with the April 4 stabbing of Cash App creator Bob Lee.

In an April 13 press conference, the SFPD announced Momeni was in custody following the execution search and arrest warrants in San Francisco and Emeryville, a city across the bay. Police chief Bill Scott said “the evidence shows that [Momeni and Lee] knew each other” but did not comment on the motive of the stabbing, adding the case was not yet closed.

The death of Lee, known by many in the tech world for creating the mobile payment service Cash App, sent shockwaves through the crypto space. The news that Lee knew Momeni suggested the attack was not random, despite some media outlets pointing to San Francisco as a “crime-ridden” city.

“We knew nothing about the facts of this case immediately after it happened, none of us did,” said San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins. “My urging, through Twitter, through the news was to really press upon not just the media but the residents of San Francisco and everyone else not to draw conclusions about what happened in this case.”

1/ Protecting public safety & holding violent/repeat offenders accountable is a top priority for my administration. We work closely w/ @SFPD & bring forward charges when arrests are made & there is enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. https://t.co/vq7fYoAjdP

— Brooke Jenkins 謝安宜 (@BrookeJenkinsSF) April 5, 2023

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It’s unclear at the time of publication what charges, if any, Momeni could face in connection to Lee’s death, but San Francisco Mayor London Breed referred to the case as a murder. In addition to developing Cash App, Lee had been the former chief technology officer of Square — later rebranded as Block — the chief product officer of MobileCoin, and a father of two.

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