A close friend of Cash App founder Bob Lee’s testified in San Francisco Superior Court today about a contentious conversation he heard between Lee and Nima Momeni, the man on trial for allegedly stabbing Lee to death.
The testimony could bolster prosecutors’ allegation that Bob Lee’s killing took place over a misunderstanding regarding Momeni’s sister.
The friend, Borzoyeh Mohazzabi or “Bo,” was called as a witness this afternoon by prosecutors who questioned him about his and Lee’s activities together in the afternoon and evening prior to Lee’s death in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023.
Part of that included a phone conversation Mohazzabi overheard between Momeni and Bob Lee, during which Momeni questioned Lee about Momeni’s sister. Prosecutors have used this call to make a case that Momeni was driven to murder Lee because he was angered by some perceived impropriety between Lee and his sister.
Mohazzabi said that Momeni’s view of a naked, drug-fueled encounter happening earlier that day between Lee and his sister, Khazar Momeni, was wildly wrong.
“We went there, and the idea that there were girls getting naked or something was just so far off the vibe and the situation that I saw and experienced,” Mohazzabi said. Lee was visiting San Francisco, and had invited Mohazzabi to the home of his friend Jeremy Boivin on the afternoon of April 3, 2023.
There, Mohazzabi, Khazar Momeni, Boivin, and Lee spent a brief time together that Mohazzabi described as “pretty chill” Monday afternoon, where he had a drink and one whippit before he and Lee left. On the table, he said, there was a bowl of white powder, but he said no one consumed it as far as he was aware.
Text messages read aloud in court today revealed that Mohazzabi asked Lee whether there were whippits present at Boivin’s apartment, and Lee responded, “Dude, a tank.”
It was after Mohazzabi and Lee left that Nima Momeni rang Lee, questioning him about his time with his sister, Mohazzabi said.
“I was like, ‘Who is this person? Like, get the hell off the phone. This is crazy,’ is what I said to him,” Mohazzabi told the jury of his conversation. Lee and Mohazzabi were catching up at Lee’s hotel room on the afternoon of April 3, 2023, just hours before his killing.
Mohazzabi said he and Lee had spent about an hour with Nima Momeni’s sister, Khazar Momeni, earlier that day. He described Nima Momeni’s call as “interrogating” and “almost like a detective.”
According to Mohazzabi, Momeni asked “really strange” questions about what had been going on during that time the two men had been with his sister. Momeni indicated that the “girls” had gotten naked — referring to another woman who purportedly arrived after Mohazzabi and Lee left the apartment.
Video footage of Mohazzabi and Lee leaving in an elevator shows the two men tussling with each other playfully and gesturing excitedly. The rest of the afternoon, the two men had drinks at different bars, discussed tech ideas, and FaceTimed with friends, Mohazzabi testified today.
Mohazzabi’s testimony also gave one of the first insights into Bob Lee’s character in the ongoing trial, describing him as an “the smartest engineer I’ve ever met,” and “somebody I really respected,” who he asked for feedback on his tech startup idea.
Mohazzabi said Lee was “very supportive, enthusiastic, and encouraging,” and said the pair spent time discussing the longer-term vision of his product idea.
After spending several hours together, around midnight, the pair separated — Mohazzabi went to bed, and Lee went to Khazar Momeni’s home, where he eventually was seen leaving with Nima Momeni. Later that night, around 2:30 a.m., Lee was stabbed to death in the street and Momeni was filmed driving away from the area where Lee was killed.
Though he described the phone conversation he overheard as unusual, Mohazzabi also said he did not think to mention Momeni and Lee’s conversation in his initial interview with police.
“I had no idea what was going to be relevant,” Mohazzabi said. “I thought that maybe it was some crazy person or something like that.”
Momeni’s attorneys have focused on Bob Lee’s drug use being a factor in the killing, and have attempted to paint a picture of Lee as a cocaine-addled aggressor who pulled a knife on Momeni. This morning, San Francisco Police Officer Rosalyn Check, who assessed the crime scene, testified that she did not test the knife for fingerprints, only DNA.
But, while Mohazzabi said that drugs were present at Boivin’s house, and prosecutors showed a surveillance camera video of Mohazzabi taking out what was described as a green baggie, Mohazzabi repeatedly denied any memory of Lee or himself consuming drugs that day — he repeatedly mentioned that he had just completed a juice cleanse that weekend.
“We just saw a video of you in an elevator with a little green bag,” Zangeneh asked. “You’re refusing to admit that it’s cocaine, you’re refusing to admit that it’s drugs?”
“I’m not going to speculate on what it was. I saw the video, it didn’t jog my memory of what that is,” Mohazzabi said.
Mohazzabi’s interview will continue tomorrow.
I love that tech bros are just as drug-addled as the homeless they deride! LOL