San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin has confirmed to CNBC that an arrest has been made in connection to the April 4 fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee. Local news outlets Mission Local and the San Francisco Chronicle identified the suspect as Nima Momeni, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur from Emeryville, California. Momeni’s LinkedIn profile and media reports confirm his involvement in the Bay Area tech scene.
On Thursday morning, Momeni was booked on suspicion of murder, according to jail records cited by the Chronicle. However, CNBC has not been able to independently confirm the suspect’s identity. Media reports suggest that Momeni was acquainted with Lee, but no further details have been provided.
Peskin informed NBC Bay Area that the San Francisco Police Department arrested an individual in Emeryville and that the murder was “apparently not a random act.” The police department is expected to hold a news conference with more information later in the day.
Police officers discovered Lee, aged 43, with stab wounds in a deserted area of downtown San Francisco at 2:35 a.m. on April 4. He was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries but later succumbed to them.
Lee had been working as the chief product officer for cryptocurrency company MobileCoin. Previously, he served as the chief technology officer of Square (now known as Block), a financial technology firm co-founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Lee was also the creator of Cash App, a popular money transfer service.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Lee was an investor in Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture and other tech firms, including social audio app Clubhouse. His former colleagues have praised his visionary mind, with MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbard describing Lee as “brilliant” and possessing a “kaleidoscopic” mind in a Twitter thread.
