Former Department of Building Inspection plan reviewer Cyril Yu, who pleaded guilty in March to accepting bribes, was today sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison — the latest in the fallout from a wide-ranging federal investigation into corruption across San Francisco.
The judge said incarceration was necessary to bolster faith in government institutions.
“I think custody is really important because this is public corruption,” said Senior District Judge Susan Illston in federal court today, before announcing the sentencing. “It undermines the public confidence in our government, and it undermines the quality of the government services that are provided.”
Federal prosecutors had requested “a significant sentence.” Yu’s attorney Nghi Lam had pushed for home confinement, even with a longer time, or “whatever terms of community service that court deems appropriate.”
The court also imposed a $20,000 fine on Yu. Upon release from imprisonment, he will be placed on supervised release for a term of two years. He’s also required to not have contact with any co-conspirators in this case, including Bernie Curran, a former DBI senior inspector previously sentenced to a year in federal prison for two counts of accepting illegal gratuities.
Yu was charged on Nov. 2, 2023, with bribery and taking kickbacks, meals and drinks from developer Sia Tahbazof, who was hit with federal charges in Nov. 2023, as well as Reza Khoshnevisan and Bahman Ghassemzadeh. He pleaded guilty in March to accepting bribes from developers to help approve building projects.
According to remarks from attorneys on both sides, Yu appeared to have “cooperated with the government,” said the assistant U.S. attorney, David Ward. Yu’s attorney, Lam, said Yu helped the state’s case against others by “wearing the wire more than once.”
Lam wanted to draw a distinction between Yu and others charged in the federal probe. Yu “did come clean right away and he made himself available from day one … really trying to assist the government to make up for” his crimes, said Lam in court.
Mission Local has written quite a bit about Yu. In order to help ousted DBI head Tom Hui, he pushed the troubled project at 555 Fulton forward “unusually quickly,” approving the project’s shoring plan’s in “less than a day.” Yu also approved work on a home owned by his family, in apparent contravention of Department of Building Inspection rules.
“From the bottom of my heart, I’m deeply sorry for my actions. I made a huge mistake and a lapse in judgment during my weakest moments,” said Yu, who today did not appear in court in his well-known puffy vest, which he liked to wear over white shirts; he wore a black suit instead. “I’m humbly asking for a second chance to remain a contributing member of society.”
“Mr. Yu was entrusted literally with ensuring the safety of the residents of San Francisco,” said the U.S. attorney, Ward. “He owed that duty to the people of San Francisco, whom he betrayed. He did so for increased loads of cash. And in return, Mr. Yu agreed to expedite and approve permits from the people that were providing these bribes.”
Yu is the latest in a series of city employees who have been charged and sentenced for corruption, including the former Public Works head, Mohammed Nuru and former PUC general manager Harlan Kelly.
The charges levied against Yu were not a surprise to his former DBI colleagues, though Yu’s motivation to take bribes has not been explained: He earned a decent salary at the department — nearly $222,000 in total pay in 2020. He also came from a family of means. His family owns at least five properties around the city. In June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when the department was in a lockdown and approval delays were common, Yu approved a permit for his parents’ home one day after the permit was filed.
Notably, DBI’s ethics code reads, “I will request to be recused from any issue in which I, a member of my family, or a close personal acquaintance has an interest.”
Yu started working at DBI in 2014 and left in 2021, after taking an extended leave.
