Suspect in Cash App founder’s San Francisco killing had planned the stabbing, prosecutors say

Tech consultant charged with killing the founder of Cash App Bob Lee planned the attack, drove the victim to a secluded spot and stabbed him over an apparent dispute related to the suspect’s brother, prosecutors said in a court document released on Friday.

The move to hold Nima Momeni, 38, without bail is the first official accounting of what may have led to Lee’s death on a quiet side of downtown San Francisco early on April 4. Momeni was arrested Thursday and appeared in San Francisco. the courtroom was there but did not enter a plea.

He is now scheduled to be arraigned on April 25.

A judge in a brief hearing on Friday agreed to hold Momeni in jail without bail. If convicted, he faces 26 years to life in prison, said Attorney General Brooke Jenkins’ office.

Momeni appeared in court wearing an orange shirt and pants. He said nothing except to say, “Yes, Your Honor,” when the judge asked if he agreed to waive his right to a speedy trial.

Khazar Elyassnia’s sister sat with her husband, renowned San Francisco plastic surgeon Dino Elyassnia, and two other family members in the front row at the hearing. When Momeni entered the courtroom, an older woman made a heart sign with her hand and Momeni, who was wearing a face mask, smiled and nodded.

The family declined to speak to reporters.

Momeni is represented by Burlingame-based attorney Paula Canny, who is on vacation and her brother Robert Canny, also an attorney, appeared in her place on Friday. “The truth of what happened, or didn’t happen, will come out over time,” he told reporters after the hearing.

On Thursday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott announced Momeni’s arrest and said the two men knew each other but declined to elaborate on their relationship. He also refused to reveal a possible motive.

‘Victim left to die slowly’

The motion to detain Momeni relies on surveillance video and testimony from a friend who was with Lee the afternoon and evening before his death. The incident began the day before, when the friend, along with Lee and Khazar Elyassnia, were drinking together at someone else’s apartment, according to the document.

The friend met Khazar Elyassnia through Lee a few years earlier.

That night, the friend said she and Lee left the apartment. Later, he went to Lee’s hotel room, without Khazar Elyassnia, and saw a conversation in which Momeni asked Lee if his sister was “doing drugs or acting inappropriately,” according to the document. Lee assured Momeni that nothing untoward had happened. It is unclear whether the conversation took place in person or over the phone.

Friends and Lee parted ways around 12:30 a.m. Minutes later, Lee can be seen on video surveillance entering the Millennium Tower, where public records show Elyassnias has a unit. The video also shows Lee and Momeni leaving the building shortly after 2 a.m. and driving away in Momeni’s BMW.

Prosecutors say that Momeni drove to a dark and secluded place, and attacked Lee with a kitchen knife, stabbing him three times, including once in the heart. He then fled “and left the victim to slowly die,” according to the motion. Police recovered a knife with a four-inch blade at the scene.

The motion also shows a text message sent by Khazar Elyassnia to Lee to check on him because his sister came to “drop you” and thank him for “handling it with class.”

Robert Canny did not return email and phone messages seeking comment on the details released by the prosecutor’s office. Dino Elyassnia did not return emails and messages left during training seeking comment. Khazar Elyassnia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lee’s stabbing death shocked the tech industry, with friends and former colleagues mourning the man described as brilliant, gregarious and doting father to two children.

Police found Lee with stab wounds in the downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:30 on April 4. He died at the hospital.

Lee is known for creating the widely used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer at payments company Square, now known as Block.

On his LinkedIn profile, Momeni describes himself as an “IT Consultant/Entrepreneur” as well as the owner of a company called Expand IT, which is described as an information technology consulting business in state filings.

Criminal records show Momeni was charged in 2011 with carrying a switchblade, a misdemeanor offense. The case was dismissed the following year after he entered a plea.