SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco Police announced the arrest of former director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, on June 2. Nuru was previously arrested in January 2020 for fraud and lying to investigators.
Officers from the Bayview Station responded to the 1000 block of Marin Street regarding a person with a knife on June 2 at approximately 11:18 a.m. The victim told officers that the suspect produced a knife and demanded the victim’s property. The victim fled the area and notified the police of the incident, according to a police statement.
SFPD Robbery investigators took over the investigation and developed probable cause to arrested Nuru without incident and he was later admitted to San Francisco County Jail. Nuru had also been involved in a bribery scheme that transpired in January of 2020 where he accepted multiple bribes from public contractors, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
“According to the charges earlier filed against Mohammed Nuru and others, Nuru allegedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including cash, meals, and work on his vacation home from contractors who obtained San Francisco public contracts,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a release.
Florence Kong, a public contractor, bribed Nuru with gifts including a $36,000 Rolex watch in return for past and future actions that would benefit her business. 10 individuals have been charged including Nuru as part of a larger investigation to target public corruption in the city of San Francisco.
The case is being prosecuted by the Corporate Fraud Strike Force of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and investigated by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.
