A self-proclaimed tech consultant was arrested Thursday in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee last week in San Francisco, police said.
Nima Momeni, 38, was booked on suspicion of murder, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said during a news conference. He was taken into custody Thursday morning in Emeryville, a San Francisco suburb.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Momeni will be charged with murder in Lee's death and is expected to be arraigned Friday. Prosecutors will ask a judge to hold him without bail.
Scott declined to give details on how they linked the death to Momeni or how the men knew each other. The chief also refused to disclose a possible motive for the killing.
Police found Lee with stab wounds in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco at 2:30 a.m. April 4. He died at a hospital.
Investigators served search warrants in San Francisco and Emeryville, but Scott would not say whether a weapon has been found.
Lee is known for creating the widely used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block. He was the chief product officer for the cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin at the time of his death.
“I acknowledge and understand how the loss of a young, vibrant leader and innovator has rocked our city and even beyond,” Jenkins said.
On his LinkedIn profile, Momeni describes himself as an “IT Consultant/Entrepreneur” as well as the owner of a company called Expand IT.
It was not immediately clear whether Momeni has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
“I hope today’s arrest can begin a process of healing and closure for all those touched by this tragedy,” Matt Dorsey, another San Francisco supervisor, tweeted Thursday morning.
Prominent tech leaders took to social media to mourn Lee's death and blame San Francisco for what they call the city's lax attitude toward crime. Scott and Jenkins pushed back against that narrative on Thursday, with the prosecutor specifically naming tech billionaire Elon Musk for commenting on the case.
“This doesn't have to do with San Francisco, this has to do with human nature,” Scott said.
__
Janie Har contributed to this report. Dazio reported from Los Angeles.
DJ X, alongside Molly Holder, Senior Director of Product Personalization, takes us inside Spotify's A.I. DJ and how it's the best new way to listen to music.
Skype users are scrambling to find an alternative after Microsoft shut down the pioneering internet phone service which let people make cheap long distance calls and chat with other users. Google Voice lets users make calls from a smartphone or a desktop web browser but it's only available to people in the U.S. Viber users can call phone numbers but can't get a number to receive calls. Zoom offers phone options too. You could get a number from a low cost virtual carrier or try other internet phone services. Microsoft says some Skype features will migrate to Teams, but its Teams Phone feature is only for businesses.
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
