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From: leroysoetoro@kaga.com

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-Public-Works-Director- Mohammed-Nuru-arrested-15010510.php

Federal authorities charged San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed
Nuru and high-profile restaurateur Nick Bovis with fraud Tuesday following
a public corruption probe. The schemes involved an envelope of cash,
fraudulent city contracts, improper gifts from a Chinese developer and a
$2,000 bottle of wine, according to authorities.

FBI agents on Monday arrested Nuru, 57, and Bovis, 56, at their Bay Area
homes before unsealing a federal complaint Tuesday for one charge of wire fraud. Nuru is separately charged with lying to the FBI after initially
being arrested on Jan. 21 and being told to keep quiet about the
investigation.

“The complaint alleges corruption pouring into San Francisco from around
the world,” said David Anderson, U.S. attorney for the Northern District
of California, at a news conference Tuesday.

Anderson accused Nuru of “corruption, bribery kickbacks and side deals by
one of San Francisco’s highest-ranking public employees.”

Both men face up to 20 years in prison on the fraud charge. They were
arraigned Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco.

“Mohammed Nuru ... has been a dedicated public servant in San Francisco
for decades. Mr. Nuru welcomes and looks forward to addressing these
charges in court,” Nuru’s attorney, Ismail Ramsey, said in an email.

Bovis’ attorney did not return phone calls.

Play
Fifth & Mission
Bombshell Arrest of "MrCleanSF"
San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and Lefty O'Doul's owner
Nick Bovis are charged with fraud after a months-long federal corruption
probe. Audrey Cooper, Heather Knight and Evan Sernoffsky explain.
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00:00:00
SHARESUBSCRIBECOOKIE POLICYDESCRIPTIONMegaphone wordmark

The charges stunned San Francisco, with city officials expressing shock
over the alleged schemes that took place between 2018 and 2019. Mayor
London Breed vowed to “cooperate fully with any investigation” and placed
Nuru on paid leave while the city finds an interim replacement.

Nuru is a visible department head who’s been at the post for nearly two
decades and is deeply intertwined in San Francisco’s so-called city
family, which includes former Mayors Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and Ed Lee
and current Mayor Breed. As head of the DPW, Nuru, known in City Hall as
Mr. Clean, was continually struggling with the city’s quality-of-life challenges like sprawling homeless encampments and filthy streets.

Bovis — who was sentenced to five years in state prison for robbery in the 1990s — is owner of famed bar and restaurant Lefty O’Doul’s and was the
public face of its annual Christmas toy drive.

But while Nuru and Bovis projected one image to the public, the FBI
alleges the two were quietly involved in a number of fraud schemes
involving city resources.

FBI Special Agent James Folger outlined the allegations in a federal
complaint unsealed Tuesday following the arraignments.

Starting in January 2018, Nuru and Bovis began scheming to win a contract
for a restaurant lease at San Francisco International Airport by bribing
an unnamed airport commissioner, the FBI said.

Nuru and Bovis plotted to give the commissioner $5,000 cash, along with a
free trip, in exchange for voting for the lease, authorities said. The
airport commissioner, though, declined to take the cash, authorities said,
and the scheme fell apart after Bovis and others got suspicious that the undercover agent was working for the FBI.

Nuru was separately using his position in city government to work with an unnamed billionaire developer in China who was putting together a multimillion-dollar project in San Francisco, authorities said. In
exchange for travel, lodging, high-end booze — including a $2,070 bottle
of French wine — and other gifts, Nuru pledged to manipulate the building
and inspection process for the developer, authorities said.

Nuru and Bovis’ relationship involved schemes across multiple government agencies, authorities said. Nuru allegedly tried to get Bovis a lease for retail space at the Transbay transit center, by circumventing the
traditional process, authorities said. Nuru chairs the Board of Directors
for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which operates the center.

Nuru also provided Bovis inside information on specifications for public toilets and homeless shelters so he would have the jump when the contracts
went to bid, according to the FBI. In 2017, Bovis’ company Tiny Potties provided design and manufacturing work for a DPW portable toilet project
that looked like the Painted Ladies Victorian homes near Alamo Square.

Nuru is also accused of receiving free and discounted materials along with
a John Deere tractor at his Stonyford (Colusa County) vacation home.

For years, Nuru has presided over DPW, which is responsible for
construction management, maintaining public buildings and caring for
street trees. With a $500 million budget, DPW has a roughly 1,600-person workforce. He drew a $273,400 salary last year, not including benefits.

Nuru was made the permanent head of DPW by then-Mayor Ed Lee in 2012.
Prior to his appointment, Nuru worked for 11 years as the department’s
deputy director for operations and was long considered a protege of former Mayor Willie Brown.

Federal officials informed Breed about the arrest at about 3:30 p.m.
Monday, shortly before FBI agents executed a search warrant for Nuru’s
office.

“Nothing matters more than the public trust, and each and every one of us
who works for the city must hold ourselves to the highest standard,” Breed
said in a statement. “I accept nothing less for myself or for those who
serve in this administration.”

Breed asked City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Controller Ben Rosenfield on Monday to begin reviewing any city contract that might be connected with
Nuru’s alleged scheme to “ensure that they comply with city law and
procedures and meet our highest standard of integrity.”

City Administrator Naomi Kelly, who oversees Nuru, said Tuesday that she
had named City Purchaser Alaric Degrafinried as acting director of the department.

This is not the first time Nuru has found himself at the heart of a city scandal. In the early 2000s, DPW whistle-blowers alleged Nuru
misappropriated public funds and replaced city workers with employees from
a nonprofit he previously led, among other allegations.

Following Nuru’s appointment, Herrera, who was running for mayor against
Lee, slammed the decision as nothing more than “cronyism, politics and bad judgment.”

Herrera led a 2004 investigation into reports that Nuru, while working for
DPW, improperly directed employees of the nonprofit he had formerly led to campaign for Newsom, who was making his first run for mayor.

Bovis came into the public spotlight during his bitter dispute over Lefty O’Doul’s with the building’s landlord three years ago.

The famed baseball-themed bar and restaurant, known for its corned beef, cabbage and Bloody Marys, was a Union Square landmark since 1958, but was forced to move to a less-prestigious location at Fisherman’s Wharf in
2018.

Bovis — who also owns the once-popular and now closed Gold Dust Lounge in
San Francisco and Broadway Grill in Burlingame — welcomed patrons into
Lefty O’Doul’s during an emotional farewell in February 2017 attended by
local news and city dignitaries, including the mayor.

The high-profile business owner, though, had a criminal past that never
came to light during the property dispute, The Chronicle has learned.

Bovis was arrested in 1993 in Santa Clara County and charged with second- degree robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. He
ultimately was found guilty of a single count of second-degree robbery in
1996 and sentenced to five years in state prison, records show.

Bovis had enough credits for time served in county jail and was released without serving time in state prison, according to Santa Clara County
Superior Court records.

News of Nuru’s arrest jolted much of City Hall Tuesday.

“It’s a shock. I think that department has been run like a one-person
fiefdom for a long time,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, who sparred often
with DPW over a number of issues.

“There’s an understanding that, ‘everything goes through Mohammed,’ and if
you piss him off, there’s retribution. I think there needs to be an
overhaul of that department.”

Evan Sernoffsky and Dominic Fracassa are San Francisco Chronicle staff
writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, dfracassa@sfchronicle.com
Twitter: @evansernoffsky, @dominicfracassa



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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)