SF businessman to plead guilty in corruption case

SAN FRANCISCO >> A businessman charged in a public corruption case involving a former highranking San Francisco city official has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges and cooperate with investigators under a plea deal, federal prosecutors said.

Nick Bovis, owner of Lefty O’ Doul’s, a popular sports bar frequented by city officials, has agreed to plead guilty to honest services wire fraud and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI announced Wednesday.

Bovis, 56, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea on May 21 during a hearing with a federal judge to be held by videoconference, federal officials said.

The FBI arrested Bovis, 56, and Mohammed Nuru, the former head of San Francisco Public Works, in January on a lengthy criminal complaint full of unnamed contractors, developers, executives and employees who are referenced in conversations caught on surveillance that federal officials said described several public corruption schemes.

Federal prosecutors said the men schemed in 2018 to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner for prime restaurant space at San Francisco International Airport. The commissioner did not take the $5,000 bribe.

Prosecutors also said Nuru accepted lavish gifts from people with city business, including a $2,000 bottle of wine and travel from a wealthy Chinese developer seeking to build a large mixed-use building in San Francisco.

They are free on $2 million bail each. Nuru, 57, resigned from his post in February.