Nima Momeni, the man who was convicted one year ago in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, has now filed a lawsuit against multiple media organizations claiming defamation, among other claims.
Momeni, who remains behind bars awaiting sentencing, has reportedly decided to represent himself in a lawsuit against media entities including the SF Standard, Los Angeles Times, and New York Post, seeking $17 million in compensatory damages over the coverage of his arrest and trial.
As the Standard reports, the suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday, includes claims of defamation, breach of contract, professional negligence, civil rights violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and invasion of privacy.
The suit also names photographer Paul Kuroda as a defendant — Kuroda shot some images of Momeni in his jail cell that the Standard published in late 2023, which Momeni's lawyers argued were grounds to have the trial moved out of the city. A judge disagreed. Kuroda also shot some courtroom images of Momeni early in the legal process, like the one above.
The case, which drew national attention and has since been covered by Dateline, stemmed from an altercation between Momeni and Lee that occurred in April 2023 in which Lee was fatally stabbed, using a kitchen knife taken from Momeni's sister's apartment shortly beforehand. Momeni's defense team argued that he had acted in self-defense, but he was ultimately convicted last December of second-degree murder.
Initial media coverage of the murder — and social media knee-jerk reactions from the likes of Elon Musk and others — attempted to use this to bolster the narrative of a city "out of control" with crime. But within days, fellow tech entrepreneur Momeni was arrested, and the story emerged about how the two men came to be in each others' company the night of Lee's death.
The day before the stabbing, Lee had been hanging out with Momeni's sister, with whom Momeni is reportedly very close. And testimony suggested that Momeni blamed Lee for leaving his sister alone with another man, Jeremy Boivin, who gave her drugs and may or may not have taken advantage of her. The sister, Khazar Momeni, testified in Momeni's defense at the trial, and she and her husband reportedly funded his defense. (And Boivin later told Dateline that he and Khazar Momeni had an ongoing, consensual relationship that continued to the time of the trial.)
This past April, the family of Bob Lee filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Momeni and his family, alleging that they helped to cover up the crime and destroy evidence.
And in June, we learned that Momeni had hired new lawyers, the San Francisco-based team of Daniel Shriro and Boris Bindman, to handle his appeal.
Momeni is scheduled to be sentenced at a hearing on December 12.
Top image: Momeni appearing in court in May 2023. Photo by Paul Kuroda-Pool/Getty Images
