Nima Momeni found guilty in murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee | US news

A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found a tech consultant guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of the Cash App founder, Bob Lee, which carries a sentence of 16 years to life.

Nima Momeni was charged with murder in the first degree, but jurors found him guilty of murder in the second degree. Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023.

Jurors took seven days to deliver their verdict against Momeni in the 4 April 2023 death of Lee, a tech mogul who was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. Lee, 43, later died at a hospital.

Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack on Lee, driving him to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbing him three times with a knife he took from his sister’s kitchen. They say Momeni was angry with Lee for introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer she says gave her GHB and other drugs and then sexually assaulted her.

But Momeni testified on the stand that Lee was the one who attacked him with a knife, alleging the CEO was angry after the tech consultant chided him about spending more time with his family instead of searching for a strip club that night. Momeni, who studies martial arts, claimed self-defense and said he didn’t realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt.

Jurors received the case, which started 14 October, on 4 December.

In a 2023 press release announcing a murder charge against Momeni, the office of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said he faced 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

Lee had created the mobile payment service Cash App and was the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency MobileCoin when he died. He had moved to Miami from the San Francisco Bay Area, where his ex-wife, Krista Lee, lives with their two children.