Alexandra Gordon sentences Nima Momeni to 16 years to life for Bob Lee’s killing

Judge rejects new-trial request; attorneys plan an appeal

A San Francisco Superior Court judge sentenced tech consultant Nima Momeni to 16 years to life in prison on Tuesday for the second-degree murder of Bob Lee, the founder of the mobile payment service Cash App. Momeni had been convicted in December 2024 after a jury rejected his claim that he acted in self-defense.

Momeni has remained in custody since his arrest nine days after the April 4, 2023, killing. Before imposing the sentence, Judge Alexandra Gordon rejected Momeni’s request for a new trial. Momeni’s attorneys said they plan to appeal.

Members of Lee’s family addressed the court, including his 18-year-old daughter, Scout Lee, who spoke directly to Momeni. “You did not just end his life, you ended an entire future built around a man,” she told Momeni, according to media reports.

Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Momeni maintained that he acted in self-defense and told Lee’s family that he understood their loss. “Unfortunately, we have completely different understandings of what transpired,” Momeni said.

Lee, 43, was found staggering on a deserted downtown street, dripping a trail of blood and calling for help. He later died at a hospital.

Prosecutors said Momeni planned the attack, drove Lee to an isolated spot under the Bay Bridge and stabbed him three times, including once to the heart, with a knife taken from his sister’s kitchen.

Prosecutors also said 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.

Momeni testified that Lee attacked him with a knife, 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, said he did not realize he had fatally wounded Lee or that Lee was even hurt.

A first-degree murder charge required prosecutors to prove that Momeni acted deliberately, willfully and with premeditation. Jurors rejected that charge and convicted him of second-degree murder, which does not require premeditation.

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