Mohammed Nuru to Plead Guilty in SF City Hall Corruption Probe, Admits Taking Bribes

Mohammed Nuru, the former director of San Francisco's Department of Public Works, agreed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud in a federal investigation into public corruption at City Hall.

Nuru, who was arrested in January 2020 and lost his job, faces up to nine years in prison as part of the plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds — although a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

As part of the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against him, including money laundering and lying to the FBI.

He is next scheduled in court on Jan. 14 to formally enter the plea and, in the meantime, remains out of custody on a $2 million bond.

As part of the plea agreement, Nuru, 59, admitted to widespread corruption, including taking bribes from developers, a restaurant owner and the city's garbage company, Recology, as part of what prosecutors called "a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks."

"For years, Nuru held a powerful and well-paid public leadership position at San Francisco City Hall, but instead of serving the public, Nuru served himself," Hinds said, calling the degree of corruption "staggering."

"He took continuous bribes from the contractors, developers and entities he regulated," she added. "He now faces a prison sentence for enriching himself at the expense of the public as he sat in high office."

Nuru admits in the plea agreement to a litany of transgressions, in which he offered city contractors and developers preferential treatment in exchange for cash, jewelry, international trips and a slew of other goods and favors.

“Mohammed is ready to accept responsibility in this matter and begin to put it behind him," his attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. "He has learned a lot from his past mistakes.”

Nuru's guilty plea does not mark the end of the long-running investigation into public corruption in San Francisco, federal authorities said in a statement released Friday.

"We will persist in our commitment to protect the integrity of the institutions that serve the people of San Francisco,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair.

Twelve people have been charged in the City Hall corruption probe that began  in 2020.

Less than two months after Nuru's arrest, Tom Hui, former director of the Department of Building Inspection, faced allegations of breaching ethics laws by the City Attorney's Office and resigned before being dismissed.

Last November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. He has since pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.

The scandal has also brought down former Recology executive Paul Giusti, who was charged last November with bribing Nuru, as well as for money laundering.

At roughly the same time that Giusti was allegedly handing bribes to Nuru in 2017, Recology's service rates were going up. In March 2020, the City Attorney’s Office announced that the garbage company had overcharged rate payers by $94.5 million.

In a settlement city officials reached with Recology, the garbage company has since agreed to pay back some $95 million to the roughly 160,000 San Francisco ratepayers affected by the improper increases.

This post includes reporting from Bay City News and KQED's Alex Emslie and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.