Tech Consultant Arrested for the Murder of CashApp Founder Bob Lee

San Francisco police arrested tech consultant Nima Momeni, 38, for the fatal stabbing of CashApp founder Bob Lee. The two men reportedly were acquainted, but police did not elaborate on the nature of their relationship, according to published accounts.

On April 4, San Francisco police discovered Lee with stab wounds in a residential neighborhood near downtown San Francisco. Lee, 43, was the chief product officer at MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency firm. The arrest was first reported by Mission Local, a nonprofit news outlet reporting on the Mission District in San Francisco.

Momeni was taken into custody early Thursday morning at his Emeryville residence, a short drive across the Bay Bridge from the San Francisco neighborhood where Lee was killed. He is reportedly being held pending arraignment. Momeni is the owner of Expand IT, an IT firm with offices in Emeryville and San Mateo.

Chris Donatiello, a neighbor at Momeni’s apartment complex in Emeryville, told the Washington Post that he was awakened by the sound of multiple police officers instructing Momeni to leave his apartment at around 5 a.m. Donatiello described Momeni as a friendly, sociable neighbor who he frequently waved at in the parking lot where Momeni kept his sailboat. Another neighbor, Emily Pia, told The Post that Momeni enjoyed socializing and was one of the kindest people she knew in the building.

Before assisting small businesses with Square and launching Cash App, Lee worked on Android at Google. Friends told The Washington Post that Lee was a determined and warmhearted entrepreneur whose objective was to improve the world through his financial technology endeavors. Mark R. Hatch, a fellow Silicon Valley CEO who met Lee when he ran a TechShop for makers, described Lee as a “hardcore, purpose-driven person” with a passion for humanity and the desire to change it for the better.

The murder of Lee caused alarm in San Francisco, and the absence of clear information resulted in a flurry of unverified claims that was a victim of random street crime in the San Francisco, despite data indicating that violent crime in the area is relatively low.