Tech tycoon ‘stabbed to death’ by brother of woman he met at elite sex and drug parties
Founder of Silicon Valley start-up worth £32bn was ‘hanging out with people who weren’t great’
A WEALTHY tech entrepreneur whose murder shocked San Francisco was allegedly stabbed to death by the brother of a woman he reportedly met at an elite underground sex and drug party scene.
Bob Lee, the founder of the money transfer system Cash App, was found dead outside an upmarket apartment building in Silicon Valley, prompting people such as Elon Musk to decry rising street crime in the area.
But according to reports in The Wall Street Journal, it is claimed that Mr Lee had told friends he was having intimate relations with Khazar Momeni, 37, whom he met at The Lifestyle, a party scene in San Francisco known for recreational drugs and casual sex. Prosecutors allege Mr Lee, 43, was repeatedly stabbed by Nima Momeni, the woman’s brother, after he confronted the former Google employee over his sister’s behaviour, asking if she was doing “anything inappropriate” or taking drugs.
Dana Wagner, the former general counsel of Square, the payments firm where Mr Lee once worked, said his friend was increasingly “hanging out with people who weren’t great people”.
“There are a lot of swingers, cheaters and liars in that crowd,” Mr Wagner said, adding that he did not know Ms Momeni or her brother.
Another of Mr Lee’s friends, Harper Reed, the boss of financial tech start-up General Galactic Corporation, said of The Lifestyle: “It started with the hippies, who were not sober people, trying to expand their brains and the tech people came in and gentrified it like they did everything else.”
Mr Lee’s friends said he was happy, hard-working and generous to those around him. They added that he took
‘There are a lot of swingers , cheaters and liars in that crowd’
drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, and ketamine. According to them, Mr Lee was known to pick up the bill at restaurants and once flew a group of them to Tulum in Mexico, paying for everything. He bought a Tesla for a woman he was dating, according to the report.
Krista Lee, Mr Lee’s wife, from whom he had separated, challenged portrayals of him as a “party boy”, insisting he was a “dedicated father” who was “kind and generous”.
She said she had never heard of the term The Lifestyle and believed the extent of his drug use involved ketamine microdosing for depression.
Cash App operates similarly to Paypal, enabling users to transfer money quickly. Mr Lee left the company, which Forbes valued at £32billion, in 2016. Before founding Cash App he helped write code for Google and was also an investor in Mr Musk’s Spacex company.
On the night of Mr Lee’s death, he and Mr Momeni arrived separately at Ms Momeni’s flat, before leaving together at 2.04am in Mr Momeni’s white BMW Z4. Prosecutors say Mr Momeni drove Mr Lee to a “dark and secluded” San Francisco street corner and stabbed him in a “planned and deliberate attack”.
Mr Momeni was arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail after being charged. His attorney, Paula Canny, said he planned to plead not guilty, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“My team and I continue to work hard to investigate all the many aspects of this case and the goings-on of the weeks preceding the incident,” she said.
Mary Mcnamara and Ed Swanson, lawyers for Ms Momeni, said in a written statement that there were untrue rumours circulating around the case.
They added: “Ms Momeni loves and supports her brother. What happened here is a tragedy, and Ms Momeni is deeply saddened at the suffering of the Lee family as they deal with their terrible loss.”
A post mortem examination showed that Mr Lee had a number of drugs in his system, including cocaine and ketamine.
Mr Musk, the Twitter boss, said he was “very sorry” to hear of Mr Lee’s murder, adding: “Many people I know have been severely assaulted. Violent crime in SF [San Francisco] is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately.”