It’s been nearly two years since Nima Momeni was convicted of stabbing Cash App founder Bob Lee to death, but the 42-year-old isn’t done fighting. Now he’s back in a San Francisco courtroom, claiming racial bias tainted his murder trial under California’s Racial Justice Act.
According to Courthouse News Service, Momeni’s new defense team is invoking the Racial Justice Act and arguing that prosecutors violated the law during the trial. The claim is set for an evidentiary hearing Friday morning before a San Francisco Superior Court judge.
Momeni, an Iranian-born non-U. S. citizen who speaks English as a second language, was found guilty of second-degree murder in December 2024.
His lawyers reportedly allege that prosecutors used dehumanizing and ethnically charged descriptions of him throughout the case.
The story goes back to the early hours of April 4, 2023, when Lee, 43, was stabbed through the heart beneath the Bay Bridge. The father of two was a major name in tech — a former Google engineer, the creator of Cash App, and an executive at cryptocurrency company MobileCoin.
Prosecutors said Lee was unarmed when he was killed, and they argued that Momeni lured him away from his sister Khazar’s luxury Millennium Tower apartment to a dark street near the bridge, according to court documents.
The alleged motive centered on Khazar. Momeni reportedly blamed Lee for using drugs with her, introducing her to a dealer, and leaving her alone with that person. Khazar, married to a wealthy plastic surgeon, had a casual relationship with Lee, and jurors were shown flirtatious texts between the pair.
That same morning, before she knew Lee was dead, Khazar sent him a message: “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok. Cause i know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you.” She also flooded Momeni with angry texts, reportedly calling him a “lunatic” and a “psycho.”
Momeni, however, told a different story from the witness stand. He testified that Lee attacked him after Momeni made a “bad joke” about Lee spending time in strip clubs instead of with his family.
California’s Racial Justice Act became law in 2021, and in 2025 a San Francisco judge granted an RJA motion for the first time in the city, finding implicit racial bias against a Black man convicted on gun charges.
What that could mean for Momeni’s conviction remains unclear. But even with a guilty verdict, he still hasn’t been sentenced — nearly 20 months later, he remains in San Francisco County jail awaiting a heavily delayed sentencing hearing.
He faces 16 years to life in prison.
Could this late-stage legal move actually change the outcome, or is it just one more chapter in a case that refuses to close?
