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Posted inToday's Mission

Rodrigo Santos: Engineer charged by US Attorney was working for US Attorney’s wife

by Joe Eskenazi September 24, 2020September 29, 2020

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"Rodbigo" Santos: A check to Ahsha Safaí
In this image from an FBI affidavit, Rodrigo Santos is accused of altering a check written to "DBI" to read "RoDBIgo Santos." It was allegedly deposited in his Bank of America personal account.

In May, United States Attorney Dave Anderson charged Rodrigo Santos with bank fraud relating to some $480,000 in clients’ money purportedly being deposited in Santos’ account. And hundreds of the prolific San Francisco engineer’s clients were left to frantically balance their checkbooks and figure out if they’d been ripped off. 

Including, it turns out, Anderson’s own wife. 

Kat Anderson, a journalist, attorney, and restaurateur, last year initiated a project to erect a cottage in the rear yard of the Third Street structure she owns that houses her restaurant: Word. A Cafe. 

The structural engineer hired for the project in 2019 was Santos. 

Department of Building inspection records from August 2020 — well after his arrest and charging — designate him as the engineer of record for the project. 

Kat Anderson says none of her checks have improperly found their way into Santos’ account. 

“My general contractor selected Santos-Urrutia” — Santos’ firm — “which we pre-paid in 2019.” 

As Santos was pre-paid, separating him from the project after he was arrested and charged would have required both seeking out a new engineering firm, and paying them. 

“We didn’t want to start over when we learned Santos was charged,” Anderson continued. “The work was almost done, and was honest and accurate.” 

Anderson’s contractor, Peter Sheridan, confirmed that hiring Santos was his call.  

“We’ve worked with Rodrigo before, and had relatively good success with him,” he said. “As far as I know, he’s been up front with us.” 

If not for the pandemic-related procedural hurdles from within the Department of Building Inspection, Sheridan feels this project could’ve been completed well before Santos was charged by the feds in May — or perhaps even before a bevy of allegations against him were revealed by the City Attorney in March. 

“The Department of Building Inspection is totally backed up,” said Sheridan. “It takes, like, six months to get an over-the-counter permit.” 

The feds accuse Santos of soliciting clients or others to write 261 checks to city departments or youth sports leagues over a three-year period — but instead, depositing the roughly $478,000 into his own Bank of America account. 

He is, notably, accused of altering a check made out to “DBI” to read “RoDBIgo Santos,” and depositing that, too.

A search of the property records reveals that Dave Anderson does not have any interest in the building; in 2016 he quit his claim to it, ceding it to Kat Anderson as her sole property. She subsequently transferred ownership to an LLC. 

She hopes the project proceeds as planned expeditiously, “adding to San Francisco’s badly needed housing stock.” 

Incidentally, the derelict former storefront church next door to Kat Anderson’s property is also slated to add to the city’s housing stock via a future multi-story development. 

The excavator on that project, according to DBI records, is Seosamh O’Briain. 

O’Briain, coincidentally, is one of several excavators whose names were forged on bogus reports given to the city by Santos, according to the City Attorney. 

The City Attorney also claims that, on those forged documents, O’Briain’s name was misspelled “Seamus.” 

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Tagged: Department of Building Inspection, department of public works

Joe Eskenazi

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com
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Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.

“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.

More by Joe Eskenazi

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5 Comments

  1. hmmm says:
    September 24, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    same kat anderson of the DCCC?!

    Reply
  2. Rose kelsey says:
    September 28, 2020 at 11:12 am

    ‘RoDBIgo Santos’ is the gift that just keeps giving. What a sad fool!

    Reply
    1. john perri says:
      November 16, 2020 at 8:54 am

      I thought so too, until illegal excavation work started – without any notice or permit from DBI – next door to my 1907 brick foundation. His work continues undeterred.

      Reply
  3. Allie says:
    October 13, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    The Santos & Urrutia website is completely down. Looks like they are no longer. Good riddance. Too bad there are so many more corrupt people in SF DBI. Keep digging, Joe! Thank you!!

    Reply
    1. John perri says:
      November 16, 2020 at 8:49 am

      Or, not. Apparently business has simply been transferred to the engineering firm of his son and former employee, Alexander Santos (Altos Structural Engineering). Same BS, slightly different name.

      Reply
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