By Olga R. Rodriguez | Related Press
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s former public works director, who pleaded responsible to steering public contracts and taking expensive items, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in jail in a corruption case that ensnared a number of Metropolis Corridor officers and insiders.
Mohammed Nuru in January pleaded responsible to what federal prosecutors described as “a staggering quantity of public corruption” throughout his time main the town’s Division of Public Works. Federal prosecutors stated that over a 12-year interval, Nuru accepted greater than $1 million in cash, worldwide journeys, jewellery, restaurant meals and different items and companies from metropolis contractors and builders in change for preferential remedy and confidential details about metropolis enterprise.
“This can be a story of greed as previous as time,” federal prosecutors stated in a court docket submitting requesting that Nuru, who they described because the “quintessential grifter,” serve a minimum of 9 years in jail, get three years probation upon his launch and pay $35,000 in fines to discourage different officers from doing the identical. Nuru’s attorneys had requested for a three-year sentence, which Choose William Orrick stated didn’t “come near recognizing the gravity of this case.”
Orrick agreed with prosecutors saying it was vital for the sentence to “clarify that public corruption can't be tolerated in a democratic society. When it’s found, it ought to come at a excessive value for its practitioners.”
Orrick stated he thought of the great issues Nuru has accomplished in life when issuing his seven-year sentence in a packed courtroom. He additionally sentenced Nuru to 3 years of probation and ordered him to pay $35,000 in fines.
Authorities stated that a lot of the bribe cash paid to Nuru went to fund his ranch in Colusa County the place he deliberate to retire. As a part of a plea settlement, Nuru forfeited the ranch that federal prosecutors known as “a monument to his grifting.”
The mortgage on the sprawling property “was partly paid by laundered bribes from Metropolis contractors, with a big house custom-built and furnished by Metropolis contractors, on grounds maintained with the assistance of kit and soil offered by Metropolis contractors,” federal prosecutors stated.
In change for his responsible plea on the fraud cost, prosecutors agreed to drop extra costs, together with mendacity to the FBI and cash laundering.
The sweeping Metropolis Corridor corruption probe toppled outstanding leaders, together with Harlan Kelly, the previous normal supervisor of the San Francisco Public Utilities Fee, who's accused of receiving hundreds of dollars in journey bills, meals, jewellery and restore work on his home.
Mayor London Breed, who dated Nuru greater than 20 years in the past, was not charged with any crimes however admitted to receiving $5,528 for automobile repairs and a rental automobile in 2019 from him.
Greater than 100 members of the family, associates, and former colleagues despatched letters of help for Nuru, who was generally known as Mr. Clear due to his efforts to scrub San Francisco’s soiled streets, praising his dedication to his 5 youngsters, who he raised as a single father, and his work for the residents of San Francisco, and describing him as type and hard-working.
Public Works Deputy Director for Operations DiJaida Durden wrote to the decide asking for leniency for her former boss, explaining that she labored for Nuru for 19 years beginning as a cement mason.
“He needed us to take pleasure in how our metropolis appears to be like,” she wrote. “Mr. Clear definitely match his fashion of working as a result of not solely did he encourage workers to maintain the town, he did it himself.”
In a four-page letter to the decide earlier than sentencing, Nuru apologized for violating the belief of the individuals of San Francisco, saying his habits left him in fixed anxiousness however nonetheless, he didn't cease. He highlighted his well being issues and requested for leniency and a second likelihood.
“I settle for full duty for violating the general public belief,” he wrote. “I hope and pray that the sentence will permit me to reveal afterward that I've realized my lesson.”
Nuru, 59, was among the many first of 12 individuals and three company entities to face federal costs because of the Division of Justice’s probe into public corruption within the metropolis and county of San Francisco. After he was arrested in January 2020, he agreed to cooperate with the investigation and never disclose his arrest however shortly after advised a number of individuals being investigated in regards to the probe. He then lied to the FBI about his disclosure.
Final yr, a recycling plant proprietor was sentenced to at least one yr and someday in federal jail after stating in a plea settlement that she plied Nuru with items that included a $36,500 gold Rolex watch. Florence Kong, who owned SFR Restoration Inc., was the primary individual to be sentenced as a part of a federal probe into citywide corruption. Contractor Alan Varela, who together with two fellow businessmen gave Nuru a $40,000 tractor and equipment to do work on his ranch, was sentenced to 2 years in jail.