Police: Tech Exec Nima Momeni Murdered Cash App Founder Bob Lee, Has a Record of Knife Crimes

San Francisco police arrested tech entrepreneur Nima Momeni under suspicion of murder in connection with the stabbing death of CashApp founder Bob Lee. According to the police, Momeni has a record including several crimes involving a knife. Momeni and Lee were reportedly traveling through the city in Momeni’s car before the incident occurred in the middle of the night last Thursday.

Fox 2 KTVU reports that a 38-year-old UC Berkeley alumnus and tech entrepreneur named Nima Momeni was detained on Thursday in connection with the stabbing death of Cash App co-founder Bob Lee. The founder of Expand IT, Momeni, is currently being held in San Francisco County Jail without bond and will likely face a murder charge.

Nima Momeni, the tech executive arrested for murder of Bob Lee (Nima Momeni/Twitter)

The relationship between Momeni and Lee and the reason for the stabbing are still unknown. Bill Scott, the police chief, acknowledged that more needs to be done in this case. “We’ve been on this around the clock. The interest in this case is not lost on any of us,” said Scott. Local news outlet Mission Critical was the first to report Momeni’s arrest. The two men were reportedly together in Momeni’s car leading up to the incident at approximately 2:30 a.m. last Thursday. After the stabbing, Lee staggered up the street seeking help, which onlookers ignored.

Momeni has a minor criminal record involving knives dating back to 2004, but his neighbors described him as friendly and welcoming. A tenant in the Besler Building in Emeryville, where Momeni lived and worked, said, “Everyone knows Nima. He seemed very generous. If you asked everyone, they’d say the same thing as well.”

Sam Singer, a public relations expert who worked next to Momeni in the same building, expressed shock at the news. “He was a very nice gentleman. He seemed to be a thorough professional, working all the time,” Singer said. “Momeni once offered me IT help if I ever needed it, and his live/work space was very nice, decorated with a pool table, a fully stocked kitchen, and lots of technology equipment.”

As the founder of CashApp, Square’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and a key contributor to Android at Google, Bob Lee was a well-known figure in the tech industry. He was a “loving son, brother, and father,” according to his brother Tim Oliver Lee, who said his mission was to “make technology free and available.”

Although the murder of Lee was not a random crime, it has exposed a troubling side to San Francisco’s community. As first reported by the San Francisco Standard, Lee failed to get help from bystanders while still alive:

Surveillance footage reviewed by The Standard shows Lee, who had already been stabbed, walking up Main Street away from the Bay Bridge at around 2:30 a.m. Lee crosses the intersection at Harrison Street and walks up to a parked white Camry with its hazard lights flashing.

Lee then lifts his shirt—as if to show the driver his wound and ask for help—and falls to the ground after the car drives away, the footage shows. He gets up and walks back toward the Bay Bridge before falling to the ground again outside an apartment building called the Portside.

The tech industry and Bob Lee’s family are both still searching for explanations and justice as the murder investigation continues.