The San Francisco Public Works corruption scandal is an ongoing investigation by federal, state and local prosecutors and investigators into bribery and fraud involving employees and contractors working for San Francisco Public Works (SFPW), and particularly, the Department of Building Inspection (DBI). The investigation was first brought to the public's attention by the arrest in January 2020 of Mohammed Nuru, who was the Director of Public Works, by federal agents. The scandal involved multiple instances of corruption, including conflict of interest, bribery, and fraud within the DBI. The scandal was uncovered through audits, legal proceedings, and investigations by city authorities and federal prosecutors, ultimately leading to the exposure of widespread corruption within the department. As of August 2024, 28 former city employees, officials, contractors and others have been criminally charged.

Mohammed Nuru

Nuru was first employed as a deputy director of the Department of Public Works in 2000 by then Mayor Willie Brown. He was promoted to Director of SFPW in 2011, by then interim Mayor Ed Lee. Nuru came under criticism for discrimination against African-American women working in the department. In a lawsuit against Nuru and the city, Toni Battle accused Nuru of firing her for retaliation against her work as an investigator of discrimination in SFPW. The case was settled before trial, with the city paying Battle $105,000. The City Attorney also accused Nuru of "...surviving a series of ethical scandals that include repeated instances of misappropriating public funds for personal uses."

San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners

From 1992 to 2001, Nuru was executive director of San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), a non-profit organization that provided job-training opportunities for low-income youth. In 2004, investigations conducted by the San Francisco city attorney and controller found that Nuru directed a $1 million contract to SLUG and had forced SLUG employees to campaign for Gavin Newsom, who was candidate for Mayor. This constituted illegal use of city funds for a political campaigns. SLUG also misappropriated over $130,000 of funds from city contracts and grants and failed to pay over $643,000 in payroll taxes. Although Nuru was not disciplined, SLUG was subsequently banned from obtaining city contracts.

Arrest, guilty plea and sentencing

On January 27, 2020, Nuru and local restaurateur Nick Bovis were arrested and charged with honest services wire fraud by federal authorities. The charges against Nuru and Bovis involved a scheme to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner with $5,000 in cash and free travel in the hope of securing a contract for Bovis to open a restaurant at the airport. The commissioner declined the cash bribe. Nuru was further charged with taking bribesincluding travel, lodging and wine on a vacation to Chinafrom a Chinese developer to expedite city inspections of the developer's projects. Nuru also used his influence as a city official to obtain a retail lease in the new transit center for Bovis and gave Bovis non-public details of upcoming city projects including new public toilets and homeless shelters. Nuru was also charged with accepting bribes from local contractors. Those bribes included free work on his vacation home and a tractor. Nuru had been previously arrested on January 21, 2020, and had agreed to cooperate with the investigation. However, he broke his promise to keep the investigation confidential and was charged with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Both Nuru and Bovis were each released on a $2 million bond.

Shortly after Nuru was charged, Mayor London Breed placed him on leave; Nuru subsequently resigned from his job.

Nuru pleaded guilty to the federal charges of honest services wire fraud in December 2021. In his plea agreement, he admitted to bribery and money laundering. The bribes included cash, trips, expensive wine, jewelry and other goods and services from Nick Bovis, Florence Kong (who owns a construction firm), and contractors Balmore Hernandez, William Gilmartin and Alan Varela. Bovis, Kong, Hernandez, Gilmartin and Varela all pleaded guilty to various federal charges. Nuru also admitted accepting bribes from the trash hauling company, Recology Nuru was defended by a team of attorneys led by Ismail Ramsey, who was subsequently appointed as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California by President Joe Biden.

In August 2022, Nuru was sentenced to 84 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. The sentence was a compromise between the request of the prosecutors who asked for nine years in prison, and that of the defense attorneys who suggested three years, which were both lower than the federal sentencing guidelines. He will also forfeit his ranch, pay a fine of $35,000 and perform 100 hours of community service. In sentencing Nuru, Judge William Orrick criticized Nuru's actions, saying "You made the city's competitive bidding, permit processing and decision-making a farce" and likening Nuru to drug dealers and gang murderers.

After his conviction, Nuru lost his public pension of $7,600 per month. In 2026, Nuru was released to a residential reentry center in San Francisco.

San Francisco employees and officials

Sandra Zuniga

Sandra Zuniga held two positions in SFPW: she was appointed as the director of the "Fix-It Team" by then Mayor Ed Lee and was subsequently appointed as Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services by Mayor London Breed. While employed by the city, and while Nuru headed SFPW and at times was her immediate supervisor, Zuniga was romantically involved with Nuru from November 2008 until May 2020. Nuru was instrumental in getting Zuniga her jobs with the city, approved her salary increases and wrote her positive employment reviews. Zuniga had given Nuru a loan of $25,000 before one positive employment review and salary raise. She was fired when the relationship between them was exposed in a report by the city's attorney. In 2021, she pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to her plea agreement, she admitted to laundering $26,000 that had been paid to Nuru as bribes. She used those funds to pay for work on Nuru's vacation home and for a vacation trip for both of them to South America. Zuniga was sentenced to three years probation and agreed to cooperate with the federal prosecutors. Contributions that Zuniga had made to the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System were returned to her after she pleaded guilty.

Bernard Curran

Bernie Curran, a former San Francisco building inspector, pleaded guilty to one count of felony perjury and one count of misdemeanor financial wrongdoing, including accepting a $180,000 loan and concealing gifts from developers and contractors. He was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. Curran was also sentenced to two years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to concealing monetary payments and violating California conflict of interest laws. He will serve the state and federal sentences concurrently. Additionally, he approved work on his family's property and intervened in the inspection process, raising concerns about potential impropriety. Curran lost his public pension of $4,500 per month after he pleaded guilty.

Harlan Kelly

Harlan Kelly, a former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), was found guilty of multiple charges. A federal jury convicted Kelly of six out of eight charges, including conspiracy, bank fraud, and honest services wire fraud. Kelly accepted bribes from Walter Wong in exchange for influencing the public bidding process and steering contract awards, and lied to a lender to acquire a $1.3 million loan. Kelly had access to confidential information about city contract bidding processes and the ability to influence the awarding of a portion of city contracts. Kelly was sentenced to four years in jail, to be followed by three years probation. He was also ordered to complete treatment for drug use. During sentencing, Judge Richard Seeborg admonished Kelly, saying: "Mr. Kelly participated in very serious criminal conduct. He betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the public." After he was convicted, Kelly was stripped of his city pension of $22,500 per month. Kelly is appealing his conviction.

Cyril Yu and Rodolfo Pada

Cyril Yu and Rodolfo Pada, former construction building plan engineers employed by the San Francisco DBI, were charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud for accepting bribes in exchange for expediting and approving building and construction plan permits. Pada was charged with accepting bribes, including an interest-free $85,000 loan from Freydoon Ghassemzadeh, a construction planning and design firm executive, and concealing the loan by having the funds provided by a relative of Ghassemzadeh. Yu was charged with taking bribes, including cash, meals, and drinks, from Ghassemzadeh and his associates in return for expediting and approving permits. Both Yu and Pada initially pleaded not guilty to all charges., but both eventually pleaded guilty. Yu subsequently was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and fined $20,000. During sentencing, Senior District Judge Susan Illston said: "...this is public corruption. It undermines the public confidence in our government, and it undermines the quality of the government services that are provided." Pada was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.

Gerald Sanguinetti

Gerald "Jerry" Sanguinetti, a former bureau manager for San Francisco's Public Works Department, faced charges related to concealing his ties to SDL Merchandising, a company owned by his wife, that did business with Public Works. He was charged by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin with five felony counts of perjury and two misdemeanor counts of failing to file financial disclosure statements. Prosecutors alleged that between 2013 and 2019, Sanguinetti failed to disclose over a quarter million dollars in income from SDL Merchandising, which received payments from Public Works employees through sub-accounts of the local non-profit organization San Francisco Parks Alliance for the purchase of custom-made items, including t-shirts and baseball caps. Despite the influx of money, Sanguinetti did not disclose this income and falsely stated on financial disclosures that he had no reportable interests. The relationship between Nuru, DPW and the Parks Alliance was described in detail in a report by San Francisco controller, who characterized the relationship as "pay-to-play".

Tom Hui

Tom Hui was hired as an engineer at DBI in 1989, became acting director in 2012 and was appointed to the position full-time in 2013 by then Mayor Ed Lee.

A 2014 confidential city report had outlined corruption and malfeasance issues with Hui's leadership at DBI, but the president of the Building Inspection Commission at the time, Mel Murphy, took no action despite being made aware of the report's findings. In 2020, then City Attorney Dennis Herrera's investigation into Nuru's misconduct uncovered evidence that Hui, referred to as "DBI Official 1" in the FBI's complaint against Nuru, likely committed ethical and legal violations himself. Hui was accused by Herrera of accepting bribes in the form of gifts, meals, and personal favors from billionaire developer Zhang Li and his associates involved with the 555 Fulton project, in exchange for giving them preferential treatment at DBI. As early as 2008, Hui allegedly gave permit expediter Walter Wong, who worked closely with Nuru, "unprecedented access" to DBI operations in exchange for personal favors like helping Hui's son and his girlfriend get jobs at City Hall.