這是一個星期二的凌晨,時間剛過凌晨2點,警方突然接到了一位名叫鮑勃·李的男子從舊金山海灣大橋附近一個寂靜的街區打來的報警電話。
“救命!”他在電話中大喊道:“我被人捅了!”
根據現場監控錄像,鮑勃·李跌跌撞撞地走在一條人煙冷清的街道上。他試圖攔下一輛閃著警示燈的白色凱美瑞(Camry),但最終還是體力不支倒在地上,那輛白色凱美瑞也開走了。等到6分鐘后警察趕到現場時,鮑勃·李已經失去了意識,血流不止。他全身有三處刀傷,一處在臀部,兩處在胸部。他被緊急送往舊金山總醫院(San Francisco General Hospital),但很快就因為搶救無效而被宣告死亡,時年43歲。此案震驚了整個美國。
舊金山科技界的所有人都認識鮑勃·李,他原本是一名程序員,后來成了一位科技界的大佬,他曾經開發過價值幾十億美元的產品,包括Cash APP和Square支付終端等等。他的死引起了科創界和風投圈很多大佬的關注,就連埃隆·馬斯克都站出來發聲,指出他的死與美國的自由主義政策和無家可歸者的問題有很大關系。
不過事實上,行兇者并非陌生人。檢方表示,鮑勃·李是被一個名叫尼瑪·莫米尼的男子殺害的,莫米尼也是科技圈的一位高管。警方于4月13日以涉嫌謀殺鮑勃·李為由逮捕了莫米尼。
《財富》雜志就此事采訪了十幾人,包括鮑勃·李和莫米尼的朋友、同事和熟人等,試圖還原他們二人之間的關系,以及莫米尼的作案動機。
至于鮑勃·李被殺前的最后幾分鐘里究竟發生了什么,現在只有莫米尼一個人知道了。不過莫米尼的律師保拉·坎尼稱,此事有“復雜的背景”。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“大家首先應該等一等,聽聽鮑勃·李當時在做什么。”
鮑勃·李的遺產
莫米尼和鮑勃·李的人生起點截然不同——莫米尼生于伊朗,幼年時移民來到美國,而鮑勃·李生在美國的密蘇里州。
鮑勃·李生于1979年,高中時期,他曾經是學校里遠近聞名的水球明星。據他大學時的好兄弟內森·威爾斯介紹,當時鮑勃·李就因為玩得特別嗨而獲得了“瘋狂鮑勃”的綽號,但同時他也以魅力和熱情聞名。后來鮑勃·李進入了東南密蘇里州立大學(Southeast Missouri State University),他這方面的個性更加展露無遺,人們都認為他是一個逍遙自在、精力充沛、熱情奔放的人。同時他也是一位剛剛嶄露頭角的科技新秀。
威爾斯回憶說,有一次他們自駕游的時候,鮑勃·李談到有一種名為“紅色代碼”(Code Red)的計算機病毒正在威脅整個世界,在當時已經造成了20億美元的損失。鮑勃·李稱他已經找到了對付這種病毒的方法。
聽到這番話,威爾斯當時不以為然地說了一句:“世界上比你聰明的人多了去了,全球有成千上萬的人都在做這件事情。反正你沒有解決這個問題?!?/p>
鮑勃·李并沒有被他“勸退”。他在車上詳細闡述了他打算如何給軟件打補丁,后來他還專門寫了一個殺毒程序。他還應邀參加了一個電視節目,科普他的解決方案。在這個節目上,他穿著一件Polo衫,頭發用發膠打理得一絲不茍。主持人在介紹他時,稱他就是“紅色代碼殺手”。
不過鮑勃·李早早地就從大學輟學了。馬克·哈奇是他后來在舊金山的“創客”社區遇到的一個朋友,這個社區里的人都是DIY硬件愛好者。馬克·哈奇認為,鮑勃·李之所以輟學,是因為他覺得大學不夠有挑戰性。他告訴《財富》雜志:“他是一個天才,不然你還能怎么形容他?”
雖然鮑勃·李一直沒有達到他的密蘇里州老鄉、Square的老板杰克·多爾西那么高的知名度,但他也在硅谷科技行業的全盛時期做出了巨大貢獻。他出版過一本相當有影響力的關于Java編程語言的書,還曾經為谷歌(Google)的AdWords平臺做出重要貢獻。2010年,Square聘請他擔任首席技術官。鮑勃·李隨即幫助Square公司開發了現在已經十分普及的Cash應用程序。
2015年Square上市時,鮑勃·李在社交媒體上發了一張紐約證券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)的照片。威爾斯看到后給他發了條短信?!靶值埽惝斏习偃f富翁了嗎?”鮑勃·李給他回了一個“眨眼”的表情。
不過成功并沒有讓鮑勃·李沖昏頭腦。馬克·哈奇表示,每次他們一起參加聚會的時候,鮑勃·李都會把他介紹給在場的每一個朋友,并稱他也是“創客運動”的共同發起人。大家甚至沒有意識到他是美國最有影響力的科技公司之一的首席技術官。“他并沒有到處顯擺自己的才能。”哈奇說。
鮑勃·李是一個不知疲倦的“社?!薄K牧硪粋€朋友湯米·索爾斯說:“他就是想一直吸取人生的精華部分。”據威爾斯回憶,鮑勃·李從大學起就有一個習慣,不到凌晨四點不睡覺,要么是工作,要么就是出去社交。這個習慣他一直保持到三四十歲的時候,任何同齡人都堅持不了他這樣的生活節奏。
鮑勃·李也很喜歡舊金山灣區的科技社交圈。不過據了解內情的人士介紹,可卡因等毒品在這個圈子里是司空見慣的。
鮑勃·李的事業和社交生活有時也會產生交叉。比如他的朋友魯茲·莫哈扎比,白天是科技創業者,晚上就化身成一位DJ。鮑勃·李有一次在安卓系統(Android)的開發者大會上認識了莫哈扎比,但這兩位科技人士之所以發展成了好友關系,還是因為對舊金山地下嗨場的共同愛好。鮑勃·李還問過莫哈扎比能不能在他的DJ秀上給Cash 應用程序做個推廣。
“他一直在拼命工作、瘋狂地工作。所以他需要這種釋放,需要去社交,和朋友出去玩,包括喝酒喝到凌晨四點?!蹦葘Α敦敻弧冯s志表示。
鮑勃·李有兩個孩子,分別是14歲和17歲。但是他在2019年與妻子分居了,并且在新冠疫情期間與父親一起搬到了邁阿密。他在那里繼續過著夜夜笙歌的生活。每次回到舊金山,他都要充分利用自己的社交圈,總是想再多認識一個朋友。而就在某一個漫漫長夜,他遇到了那個宿命中的男人——尼瑪·莫米尼。
IT奇才
尼瑪·莫米尼的事業并未達到鮑勃·李那樣的高度,但他在科技行業也積累了相當可觀的身家。他隨母親和姐姐卡扎爾移民到美國,在伯克利的郊區長大。莫米尼一家信奉襖教,這是一種前伊斯蘭時代的伊朗宗教。
莫米尼后來成了一名IT顧問,在同事的印象中,他是一位隨和友好的員工。
一位名叫阿卡什·索尼的產品經理2015年曾經在一家科技創業公司與莫米尼打過幾個月的交道。他說:“沒有任何跡象表明他會做這種性質的事情。”
不過莫米尼也曾經陷入過一些麻煩?!敦敻弧冯s志查閱了阿拉米達縣的犯罪記錄,發現他有一系列的輕微違法行為,包括2004年的一次酒駕,2011年他曾經因為無證駕駛(駕照被吊銷)和持有管制刀具而兩次被警方指控,后來他因為無證駕駛而被判入獄10天,緩刑三年。至于管制刀具那件事情,警方最后撤銷了指控?!杜f金山紀事報》(San Francisco Chronicle)報道稱,埃默里維爾地區的警方曾經以涉嫌毆打他人為由傳喚莫米尼,但隨即將其釋放,檢方也沒有因為那件事情而起訴他。當時一名警官在筆錄中寫道,受害者認為莫米尼“可能患有雙相障礙,因為前一分鐘他還好好的,后一分鐘他就會無緣無故地發狂?!?/p>
據一位曾經在2006年至2010年與莫米尼共事過的匿名人士稱,莫米尼曾經談到過駕照被吊銷的事情。該匿名人士告訴《財富》雜志:“如果你知道這些之前發生的事情,你就不會那么驚訝了?!?/p>
莫米尼的律師保拉·坎尼稱,發生在埃默里維爾的那件打人案完全是“一派胡言”。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“他收到了傳票,但這恰恰意味著他沒有被捕。這是一個很適合拿來炒作的話題,但是沒有任何意義?!?/p>
莫米尼的姐姐卡扎爾也住在舊金山灣區,2013年她嫁給了一位名叫迪諾·伊利薩尼亞的整型醫生,這名醫生專門給舊金山的名媛做整型手術。2016年,他們在舊金山的千禧大廈(Millennium Tower)購買了一套價值270萬美元的公寓。這棟樓之所以有名,一是因為房價特別貴,二是因為它的地基居然在下沉。所以在這座貧富懸殊巨大的城市里,這座大廈成了不少人幸災樂禍的笑柄。
尼瑪·莫米尼也有一些富人的愛好,他擁有一艘船,一輛售價5萬美元的寶馬(BMW)敞篷跑車,還在貝斯勒大廈(Besler Building)租了一個辦公室。這個大廈是位于舊金山東灣的一個綜合體,始建于1917年,近年來為了吸引科技公司而進行了翻修。
資深公關人士薩姆·辛格最近在莫米尼的隔壁開了一家辦公室。他表示,他搬進來之后,莫米尼曾經邀請他參觀自己的辦公空間,并稱莫米尼是一個非常熱情親切的人?!拔覀兊泥従涌雌饋硎莻€很好的人,不可能犯下這種罪行?!?/p>
兩個人生軌跡的交匯
鮑勃·李和莫米尼究竟是如何認識的,現在已經沒有人記得清細節了。不過好幾位消息人士都告訴《財富》雜志,他們很可能是通過共同的社交圈子結識的。特別是鮑勃·李幾年前就認識了莫米尼的姐姐卡扎爾。雖然僅從法庭文件上看,我們無法得知他們是不是談過男女朋友,但熟悉兩人的人均指出,他們倆沒有在一起過??ㄔ鸂柋救艘矝]有回應我們的置評請求。
不過,3月14日舊金山地區檢方提交給法庭的文件提供了很多關于此案的細節。4月3日星期一下午3時30分許,鮑勃·李邀請的一位密友(證人一)來到了舊金山市中心的一間公寓。當這位朋友到達時,鮑勃·李和卡扎爾正在喝酒。這位朋友向警方表示,鮑勃·李和卡扎爾至少已經認識好幾年了。
下午晚些時候,鮑勃·李和這位朋友離開了公寓,前往鮑勃·李在輪渡大廈(Ferry Building)附近的酒店,這里離舊金山海灣大橋只有幾個街區。就在那時,鮑勃·李和尼瑪·莫米尼通了電話,這位朋友回憶道,莫米尼在電話里問,他姐姐是否吸了毒或是做了其他什么不對的事情。鮑勃·李向莫米尼保證沒有發生任何不好的事情。這位朋友在星期二的凌晨12時30分許離開了鮑勃·李。
警方查看過的監控錄像顯示,鮑勃·李在凌晨12時39分左右離開酒店前往千禧大廈,也就是卡扎爾夫婦居住的那棟“下沉大廈”。那里離他的酒店只有幾個街區。那時莫米尼已經在他姐姐家待了幾個小時了。
凌晨2時03分,鮑勃·李和莫米尼一起從他姐姐的公寓樓層進入了電梯。電梯下到一樓大廳后,他們上了莫米尼的那臺寶馬車。法庭的文件寫道,莫米尼將車開到附近一個“黑暗且隱蔽”的地方停了下來。視頻顯示,兩人走進夜色,其中一人突然走向另一人,然后兩人分開了。一名被警方確認為莫米尼的男子向南走去,隨后在一處圍欄旁停了下來,警方后來在那里找到了一把刀。另一個人也就是鮑勃·李則搖搖晃晃地向北走了。寶馬車以極快的速度駛離現場。鮑勃·李則于當天上午在舊金山總醫院去世。
警方找到鮑勃·李的手機后,發現了一條卡扎爾·莫米尼發來的短信。
短信的內容是:“我只是想知道你還好嗎,因為我知道尼瑪對你很兇,謝謝你這么有風度地處理這件事情。愛你,自私的混蛋?!?/p>
鮑勃·李的朋友們只能猜測到底發生了什么。他的好兄弟內森·威爾斯認為,他可能是想緩和局面?!磅U勃不是一個對抗型人格的人?!彼f。
鮑勃·李的死,讓他們的朋友們產生了巨大的失落感。在他們眼中,鮑勃·李是一位可以改變世界的人,但他也從來不乏謙遜。他的死在整個科技界產生了重大反響。他曾經的老板杰克·多爾西寫道,這個消息簡直“令人心碎”。還有一些人則利用這件事情來抱怨“舊金山已經成什么樣子了”。
鮑勃·李在創客社區的朋友哈奇嘆道,想不到他的死這么快就被人當作政治議題來操弄,不少人拿鮑勃·李的死作文章,有的譴責舊金山的犯罪率,有的譴責舊金山科技圈的短視。
“這會帶偏人們對他的悼念。”哈奇表示。
鮑勃·李死亡一個多星期后,莫米尼的被捕終于轉移了人們的注意力。現在的問題是,這兩個男人為什么會在星期二的凌晨兩點半出現在那個僻靜的街區。檢方認為這是一起有預謀的殺人案,理由是莫米尼攜帶了一把餐刀(警方后來在犯罪現場發現了這把刀),并且故意開車將鮑勃·李帶到了一個偏僻的地方。
檢方在報告中稱:“這是一次有計劃的、蓄意的襲擊。”
莫米尼于4月25日被傳訊。檢方表示,如果罪名成立,他將面臨26年的牢獄生涯,甚至有可能是終身監禁。4月22日,他的律師保拉·坎尼稱,她仍然在等待檢方的起訴文件,包括相關的病歷、監控錄像和證人證言等。她表示,莫米尼可能會先看完檢方的證據材料,再提出抗辯。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“大家不應該急于下結論,有時候,人的生活是復雜的,甚至是一團糟的,所以我們需要一點時間才能夠知道真相是什么樣的。”
隨著鮑勃·李被殺的事實逐漸浮出水面,冷酷無情的法律體系即將開始運作。對莫米尼來說,這也將是他向鮑勃·李的親朋好友提供答案的最后機會。
“我只是感到另一種失落感?!币晾藨馉幚媳鴾住に鳡査拐f。他是在競選國會議員時認識鮑勃·李的?!拔覟樗暮⒆印⑺呐笥迅械奖瘋?,為這種自私暴力的殺人行徑感到悲傷。”(財富中文網)
譯者:樸成奎
這是一個星期二的凌晨,時間剛過凌晨2點,警方突然接到了一位名叫鮑勃·李的男子從舊金山海灣大橋附近一個寂靜的街區打來的報警電話。
“救命!”他在電話中大喊道:“我被人捅了!”
根據現場監控錄像,鮑勃·李跌跌撞撞地走在一條人煙冷清的街道上。他試圖攔下一輛閃著警示燈的白色凱美瑞(Camry),但最終還是體力不支倒在地上,那輛白色凱美瑞也開走了。等到6分鐘后警察趕到現場時,鮑勃·李已經失去了意識,血流不止。他全身有三處刀傷,一處在臀部,兩處在胸部。他被緊急送往舊金山總醫院(San Francisco General Hospital),但很快就因為搶救無效而被宣告死亡,時年43歲。此案震驚了整個美國。
舊金山科技界的所有人都認識鮑勃·李,他原本是一名程序員,后來成了一位科技界的大佬,他曾經開發過價值幾十億美元的產品,包括Cash APP和Square支付終端等等。他的死引起了科創界和風投圈很多大佬的關注,就連埃隆·馬斯克都站出來發聲,指出他的死與美國的自由主義政策和無家可歸者的問題有很大關系。
不過事實上,行兇者并非陌生人。檢方表示,鮑勃·李是被一個名叫尼瑪·莫米尼的男子殺害的,莫米尼也是科技圈的一位高管。警方于4月13日以涉嫌謀殺鮑勃·李為由逮捕了莫米尼。
《財富》雜志就此事采訪了十幾人,包括鮑勃·李和莫米尼的朋友、同事和熟人等,試圖還原他們二人之間的關系,以及莫米尼的作案動機。
至于鮑勃·李被殺前的最后幾分鐘里究竟發生了什么,現在只有莫米尼一個人知道了。不過莫米尼的律師保拉·坎尼稱,此事有“復雜的背景”。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“大家首先應該等一等,聽聽鮑勃·李當時在做什么。”
鮑勃·李的遺產
莫米尼和鮑勃·李的人生起點截然不同——莫米尼生于伊朗,幼年時移民來到美國,而鮑勃·李生在美國的密蘇里州。
鮑勃·李生于1979年,高中時期,他曾經是學校里遠近聞名的水球明星。據他大學時的好兄弟內森·威爾斯介紹,當時鮑勃·李就因為玩得特別嗨而獲得了“瘋狂鮑勃”的綽號,但同時他也以魅力和熱情聞名。后來鮑勃·李進入了東南密蘇里州立大學(Southeast Missouri State University),他這方面的個性更加展露無遺,人們都認為他是一個逍遙自在、精力充沛、熱情奔放的人。同時他也是一位剛剛嶄露頭角的科技新秀。
威爾斯回憶說,有一次他們自駕游的時候,鮑勃·李談到有一種名為“紅色代碼”(Code Red)的計算機病毒正在威脅整個世界,在當時已經造成了20億美元的損失。鮑勃·李稱他已經找到了對付這種病毒的方法。
聽到這番話,威爾斯當時不以為然地說了一句:“世界上比你聰明的人多了去了,全球有成千上萬的人都在做這件事情。反正你沒有解決這個問題。”
鮑勃·李并沒有被他“勸退”。他在車上詳細闡述了他打算如何給軟件打補丁,后來他還專門寫了一個殺毒程序。他還應邀參加了一個電視節目,科普他的解決方案。在這個節目上,他穿著一件Polo衫,頭發用發膠打理得一絲不茍。主持人在介紹他時,稱他就是“紅色代碼殺手”。
不過鮑勃·李早早地就從大學輟學了。馬克·哈奇是他后來在舊金山的“創客”社區遇到的一個朋友,這個社區里的人都是DIY硬件愛好者。馬克·哈奇認為,鮑勃·李之所以輟學,是因為他覺得大學不夠有挑戰性。他告訴《財富》雜志:“他是一個天才,不然你還能怎么形容他?”
雖然鮑勃·李一直沒有達到他的密蘇里州老鄉、Square的老板杰克·多爾西那么高的知名度,但他也在硅谷科技行業的全盛時期做出了巨大貢獻。他出版過一本相當有影響力的關于Java編程語言的書,還曾經為谷歌(Google)的AdWords平臺做出重要貢獻。2010年,Square聘請他擔任首席技術官。鮑勃·李隨即幫助Square公司開發了現在已經十分普及的Cash應用程序。
2015年Square上市時,鮑勃·李在社交媒體上發了一張紐約證券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)的照片。威爾斯看到后給他發了條短信?!靶值?,你當上百萬富翁了嗎?”鮑勃·李給他回了一個“眨眼”的表情。
不過成功并沒有讓鮑勃·李沖昏頭腦。馬克·哈奇表示,每次他們一起參加聚會的時候,鮑勃·李都會把他介紹給在場的每一個朋友,并稱他也是“創客運動”的共同發起人。大家甚至沒有意識到他是美國最有影響力的科技公司之一的首席技術官。“他并沒有到處顯擺自己的才能。”哈奇說。
鮑勃·李是一個不知疲倦的“社?!?。他的另一個朋友湯米·索爾斯說:“他就是想一直吸取人生的精華部分?!睋査够貞?,鮑勃·李從大學起就有一個習慣,不到凌晨四點不睡覺,要么是工作,要么就是出去社交。這個習慣他一直保持到三四十歲的時候,任何同齡人都堅持不了他這樣的生活節奏。
鮑勃·李也很喜歡舊金山灣區的科技社交圈。不過據了解內情的人士介紹,可卡因等毒品在這個圈子里是司空見慣的。
鮑勃·李的事業和社交生活有時也會產生交叉。比如他的朋友魯茲·莫哈扎比,白天是科技創業者,晚上就化身成一位DJ。鮑勃·李有一次在安卓系統(Android)的開發者大會上認識了莫哈扎比,但這兩位科技人士之所以發展成了好友關系,還是因為對舊金山地下嗨場的共同愛好。鮑勃·李還問過莫哈扎比能不能在他的DJ秀上給Cash 應用程序做個推廣。
“他一直在拼命工作、瘋狂地工作。所以他需要這種釋放,需要去社交,和朋友出去玩,包括喝酒喝到凌晨四點。”莫哈扎比對《財富》雜志表示。
鮑勃·李有兩個孩子,分別是14歲和17歲。但是他在2019年與妻子分居了,并且在新冠疫情期間與父親一起搬到了邁阿密。他在那里繼續過著夜夜笙歌的生活。每次回到舊金山,他都要充分利用自己的社交圈,總是想再多認識一個朋友。而就在某一個漫漫長夜,他遇到了那個宿命中的男人——尼瑪·莫米尼。
IT奇才
尼瑪·莫米尼的事業并未達到鮑勃·李那樣的高度,但他在科技行業也積累了相當可觀的身家。他隨母親和姐姐卡扎爾移民到美國,在伯克利的郊區長大。莫米尼一家信奉襖教,這是一種前伊斯蘭時代的伊朗宗教。
莫米尼后來成了一名IT顧問,在同事的印象中,他是一位隨和友好的員工。
一位名叫阿卡什·索尼的產品經理2015年曾經在一家科技創業公司與莫米尼打過幾個月的交道。他說:“沒有任何跡象表明他會做這種性質的事情?!?/p>
不過莫米尼也曾經陷入過一些麻煩。《財富》雜志查閱了阿拉米達縣的犯罪記錄,發現他有一系列的輕微違法行為,包括2004年的一次酒駕,2011年他曾經因為無證駕駛(駕照被吊銷)和持有管制刀具而兩次被警方指控,后來他因為無證駕駛而被判入獄10天,緩刑三年。至于管制刀具那件事情,警方最后撤銷了指控?!杜f金山紀事報》(San Francisco Chronicle)報道稱,埃默里維爾地區的警方曾經以涉嫌毆打他人為由傳喚莫米尼,但隨即將其釋放,檢方也沒有因為那件事情而起訴他。當時一名警官在筆錄中寫道,受害者認為莫米尼“可能患有雙相障礙,因為前一分鐘他還好好的,后一分鐘他就會無緣無故地發狂。”
據一位曾經在2006年至2010年與莫米尼共事過的匿名人士稱,莫米尼曾經談到過駕照被吊銷的事情。該匿名人士告訴《財富》雜志:“如果你知道這些之前發生的事情,你就不會那么驚訝了?!?/p>
莫米尼的律師保拉·坎尼稱,發生在埃默里維爾的那件打人案完全是“一派胡言”。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“他收到了傳票,但這恰恰意味著他沒有被捕。這是一個很適合拿來炒作的話題,但是沒有任何意義?!?/p>
莫米尼的姐姐卡扎爾也住在舊金山灣區,2013年她嫁給了一位名叫迪諾·伊利薩尼亞的整型醫生,這名醫生專門給舊金山的名媛做整型手術。2016年,他們在舊金山的千禧大廈(Millennium Tower)購買了一套價值270萬美元的公寓。這棟樓之所以有名,一是因為房價特別貴,二是因為它的地基居然在下沉。所以在這座貧富懸殊巨大的城市里,這座大廈成了不少人幸災樂禍的笑柄。
尼瑪·莫米尼也有一些富人的愛好,他擁有一艘船,一輛售價5萬美元的寶馬(BMW)敞篷跑車,還在貝斯勒大廈(Besler Building)租了一個辦公室。這個大廈是位于舊金山東灣的一個綜合體,始建于1917年,近年來為了吸引科技公司而進行了翻修。
資深公關人士薩姆·辛格最近在莫米尼的隔壁開了一家辦公室。他表示,他搬進來之后,莫米尼曾經邀請他參觀自己的辦公空間,并稱莫米尼是一個非常熱情親切的人。“我們的鄰居看起來是個很好的人,不可能犯下這種罪行?!?/p>
兩個人生軌跡的交匯
鮑勃·李和莫米尼究竟是如何認識的,現在已經沒有人記得清細節了。不過好幾位消息人士都告訴《財富》雜志,他們很可能是通過共同的社交圈子結識的。特別是鮑勃·李幾年前就認識了莫米尼的姐姐卡扎爾。雖然僅從法庭文件上看,我們無法得知他們是不是談過男女朋友,但熟悉兩人的人均指出,他們倆沒有在一起過??ㄔ鸂柋救艘矝]有回應我們的置評請求。
不過,3月14日舊金山地區檢方提交給法庭的文件提供了很多關于此案的細節。4月3日星期一下午3時30分許,鮑勃·李邀請的一位密友(證人一)來到了舊金山市中心的一間公寓。當這位朋友到達時,鮑勃·李和卡扎爾正在喝酒。這位朋友向警方表示,鮑勃·李和卡扎爾至少已經認識好幾年了。
下午晚些時候,鮑勃·李和這位朋友離開了公寓,前往鮑勃·李在輪渡大廈(Ferry Building)附近的酒店,這里離舊金山海灣大橋只有幾個街區。就在那時,鮑勃·李和尼瑪·莫米尼通了電話,這位朋友回憶道,莫米尼在電話里問,他姐姐是否吸了毒或是做了其他什么不對的事情。鮑勃·李向莫米尼保證沒有發生任何不好的事情。這位朋友在星期二的凌晨12時30分許離開了鮑勃·李。
警方查看過的監控錄像顯示,鮑勃·李在凌晨12時39分左右離開酒店前往千禧大廈,也就是卡扎爾夫婦居住的那棟“下沉大廈”。那里離他的酒店只有幾個街區。那時莫米尼已經在他姐姐家待了幾個小時了。
凌晨2時03分,鮑勃·李和莫米尼一起從他姐姐的公寓樓層進入了電梯。電梯下到一樓大廳后,他們上了莫米尼的那臺寶馬車。法庭的文件寫道,莫米尼將車開到附近一個“黑暗且隱蔽”的地方停了下來。視頻顯示,兩人走進夜色,其中一人突然走向另一人,然后兩人分開了。一名被警方確認為莫米尼的男子向南走去,隨后在一處圍欄旁停了下來,警方后來在那里找到了一把刀。另一個人也就是鮑勃·李則搖搖晃晃地向北走了。寶馬車以極快的速度駛離現場。鮑勃·李則于當天上午在舊金山總醫院去世。
警方找到鮑勃·李的手機后,發現了一條卡扎爾·莫米尼發來的短信。
短信的內容是:“我只是想知道你還好嗎,因為我知道尼瑪對你很兇,謝謝你這么有風度地處理這件事情。愛你,自私的混蛋?!?/p>
鮑勃·李的朋友們只能猜測到底發生了什么。他的好兄弟內森·威爾斯認為,他可能是想緩和局面。“鮑勃不是一個對抗型人格的人?!彼f。
鮑勃·李的死,讓他們的朋友們產生了巨大的失落感。在他們眼中,鮑勃·李是一位可以改變世界的人,但他也從來不乏謙遜。他的死在整個科技界產生了重大反響。他曾經的老板杰克·多爾西寫道,這個消息簡直“令人心碎”。還有一些人則利用這件事情來抱怨“舊金山已經成什么樣子了”。
鮑勃·李在創客社區的朋友哈奇嘆道,想不到他的死這么快就被人當作政治議題來操弄,不少人拿鮑勃·李的死作文章,有的譴責舊金山的犯罪率,有的譴責舊金山科技圈的短視。
“這會帶偏人們對他的悼念?!惫姹硎?。
鮑勃·李死亡一個多星期后,莫米尼的被捕終于轉移了人們的注意力?,F在的問題是,這兩個男人為什么會在星期二的凌晨兩點半出現在那個僻靜的街區。檢方認為這是一起有預謀的殺人案,理由是莫米尼攜帶了一把餐刀(警方后來在犯罪現場發現了這把刀),并且故意開車將鮑勃·李帶到了一個偏僻的地方。
檢方在報告中稱:“這是一次有計劃的、蓄意的襲擊?!?/p>
莫米尼于4月25日被傳訊。檢方表示,如果罪名成立,他將面臨26年的牢獄生涯,甚至有可能是終身監禁。4月22日,他的律師保拉·坎尼稱,她仍然在等待檢方的起訴文件,包括相關的病歷、監控錄像和證人證言等。她表示,莫米尼可能會先看完檢方的證據材料,再提出抗辯。
她對《財富》雜志表示:“大家不應該急于下結論,有時候,人的生活是復雜的,甚至是一團糟的,所以我們需要一點時間才能夠知道真相是什么樣的?!?/p>
隨著鮑勃·李被殺的事實逐漸浮出水面,冷酷無情的法律體系即將開始運作。對莫米尼來說,這也將是他向鮑勃·李的親朋好友提供答案的最后機會。
“我只是感到另一種失落感?!币晾藨馉幚媳鴾住に鳡査拐f。他是在競選國會議員時認識鮑勃·李的?!拔覟樗暮⒆?、他的朋友感到悲傷,為這種自私暴力的殺人行徑感到悲傷?!保ㄘ敻恢形木W)
譯者:樸成奎
It was just after 2 a.m. on a Tuesday morning when Bob Lee called the police from a sleepy block near San Francisco’s Bay Bridge.
“Help!” he yelled into his phone, “Someone stabbed me.”
Lee was struggling to walk up a sparsely populated city street, according to surveillance footage captured at the scene. He attempted to wave down a white Camry with its hazard lights flashing but ended up collapsing on the ground when the car drove away. By the time the police arrived six minutes later, Lee was unconscious and bleeding uncontrollably from three knife wounds, one in the hip and two to the chest. He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital where he was pronounced dead, the victim in a murder case that would captivate the nation. Lee was 43.
Everyone in the San Francisco tech scene knew Lee, a coder turned tech magnate who had helped build products worth billions, from the Cash App to Square’s payment terminal. His death led to a wave of finger-pointing by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs including Elon Musk who blamed it on liberal policies and homelessness.
The stabber, though, was not a stranger. Prosecutors say Lee was killed by another tech executive, Nima Momeni, who ran in the same circles as Lee. Police arrested Momeni on April 13 and charged him with Lee’s murder.
Fortune has spoken with more than a dozen people, including Lee’s and Momeni’s friends and coworkers and other people close to the two men, to piece together how their lives intersected and to trace the shock that has ensued.
Only Momeni now has the complete picture of what happened in those final minutes, but his lawyer, Paula Canny, cautioned that there are “multiple backstories.”
“Everybody will have to wait to hear what Bob Lee was doing,” she told Fortune.
The legacy of Bob Lee
Momeni’s and Lee’s lives started in very different places—Momeni in Iran, where he emigrated to the U.S. at a young age, and Lee in Missouri.
Born in 1979, Lee had been a water polo star at Lindbergh High School in an affluent suburb outside of St. Louis. He earned the nickname “Crazy Bob” for his ferocious play but gained a reputation for charisma and warmth, according to Nathan Wills, a fraternity brother from college. By the time Lee enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University, those aspects of his personality were front and center; people viewed him as a happy-go-lucky ball of energy endowed with a well of enthusiasm. He was also a budding tech phenom.
Wills recalls how Lee kept talking while on a road trip about a computer virus called Code Red terrorizing the world. Lee claimed to have come up with a solution to the virus, which had caused $2 billion in damages.
“There are people way smarter than you—hundreds, thousands of people working on this across the globe,” Wills remembers telling him. “You did not solve this.”
Undeterred, Lee spent the car ride expounding in meticulous detail about how he would patch the software. And, indeed, he wrote a program that users could implement to deflect it. He was invited onto a tech-focused TV program to talk about his solution, appearing in a polo with gel-slicked hair. The host referred to Lee as the “Code Red vigilante.”
Lee dropped out of college early. Mark Hatch, a friend he would later meet in the San Francisco “maker” community of do-it-yourself-focused hardware enthusiasts, speculated that it was because he wasn’t challenged enough. “He was a genius,” Hatch told Fortune. “How else do you describe it?”
Although Lee never became a household name like his fellow Missourian Jack Dorsey, who became his future boss at Square, Lee made outsize contributions during the heyday of the Silicon Valley tech scene. He published an influential manual on the coding language Java before contributing crucial work to Google’s AdWords empire. In 2010, Square recruited Lee to become its CTO, where he helped build the now-ubiquitous Cash App.
When Square went public in 2015, Lee posted photos from the New York Stock Exchange. Wills sent him a text. “Bobby, did you just become a millionaire?” Wills asked. Lee sent back a winky face.
The success didn’t go to his head. Hatch said that whenever they attended a party together, Lee would introduce him to every single one of his friends in the room as the cofounder of the maker movement. People wouldn’t even realize that he was the CTO of one of the most influential U.S. tech companies. “He didn’t wear his genius on his sleeve,” Hatch said.
Lee was an insatiable extrovert. As another friend, Tommy Sowers, put it, “He just wanted to suck the marrow out of life.” It was a habit Lee had in college, Wills recalls, staying up until four in the morning either working or going out. The habit lasted through his thirties and into his early forties, where Lee could outlast anyone who tried to keep pace.
Lee also loved to socialize in the Bay Area tech party scene, where a source said that drugs, including cocaine, were commonplace.
Lee’s professional and party lives sometimes crossed, like with Rooz Mohazzabi, a tech entrepreneur by day and DJ by night. Lee met Mohazzabi, who goes by “DJ Rooz,” at a developer conference for Android, soon bridging the professional relationship into a shared love of San Francisco’s underground rave scene. Lee asked Mohazzabi if he could set up Cash App at his shows.
“You’re working your ass off, working crazy hours. You need that release, to go be social and drink until four in the morning and hang out with friends,” Mohazzabi told Fortune.
Lee had two children, ages 14 and 17, but he separated from his wife in 2019 and moved to Miami during the pandemic with his father, continuing his lifestyle in perpetual motion. Whenever he came back to San Francisco, he took full advantage of his social scene, always wanting to see one more friend. It was during one of those long nights out that he met Nima Momeni.
The IT whiz
Nima Momeni never attained Bob Lee’s level of career success, but he built his own respectable tech fortune. He immigrated to the U.S. with his mother and sister, Khazar, and grew up outside of Berkeley. The family practiced Zoroastrianism, a pre-Islamic Iranian religion.
Momeni became an IT consultant, embedding at other companies where colleagues remember him as a pleasant and cordial worker.
“There were no red flags at all that would indicate that he would do something of this nature,” said Akash Sawhney, a product manager who intersected with Momeni for a few months at a tech startup in 2015.
Momeni got caught in a few problematic situations, however. Alameda County criminal records reviewed by Fortune reveal a litany of minor infractions, including a charge for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2004, and two charges for driving with a suspended license and possession of a switchblade in 2011. Momeni was sentenced to 10 days in jail and three years of probation for the suspended license charge, and the switchblade charge was dismissed. The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Emeryville police had cited and released Momeni for misdemeanor battery, although prosecutors declined to charge him. At the time, an officer wrote that the victim thought that Momeni “may be bipolar because one minute he will be fine and the next he will go off for no reason.”
Another colleague, who worked with Momeni from 2006 to 2010 and asked to remain anonymous to protect their privacy, recalls Momeni talking about his suspended license. “If you know all of these priors, it’s less surprising,” the colleague told Fortune.
Paula Canny, Momeni’s attorney, dismissed the Emeryville case as “bullshit.”
“He was issued a citation, which means he wasn’t arrested,” she told Fortune. “It makes for a sensational headline, but it’s not of any import.”
Momeni’s sister, Khazar, also lived in the Bay Area, marrying a socialite plastic surgeon named Dino Elyassnia in 2013. They purchased a $2.7 million apartment in the glitzy Millennium Tower in 2016. The property is known for both its pricey residences and for being a (literally) sinking edifice, a source of schadenfreude in a city shaped by wealth inequality.
Nima Momeni also had a taste for some opulence, owning a boat, a BMW convertible that retails north of $50,000, and a rented live-work space in the Besler Building, an East Bay complex built in 1917 renovated to attract techies.
Sam Singer, a PR veteran who recently opened an office next to Nima Momeni’s, says that Momeni invited him for a tour of his workspace after Singer moved into the building. Momeni had been gracious and welcoming. “Our neighbor seemed like a very nice fellow and not capable of such a crime.”
Two paths cross
The details of how Lee and Momeni met are hazy, but several sources told Fortune that it was through broader social circles. In particular, Lee had a connection with Momeni’s sister Khazar, whom he met several years ago. Though court documents cast suspicion on whether the relationship was romantic, people close to both say they weren’t together. Khazar Momeni did not respond to a request for comment.
Court documents filed on April 14 by the district attorney and assistant district attorney for San Francisco begin to fill out the rest of the story. On Monday, April 3, Lee invited a close friend—identified as Witness-1—to an apartment in downtown San Francisco around 3:30 p.m. When the friend arrived, Lee was drinking with Khazar Momeni. The friend, who knew both of them, told police that Lee and Khazar Momeni had known each other for at least a few years.
Later in the afternoon, Lee and the friend left for Lee’s hotel near the Ferry Building, just a few blocks from San Francisco’s Bay Bridge. At that point, Lee had a phone call with Nima Momeni, where the friend said that Nima was asking whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate. Lee reassured him that nothing untoward had happened. The friend ended up leaving Lee around 12:30 a.m., now early Tuesday morning.
According to surveillance footage reviewed by police, Lee left his hotel for the Millennium Tower around 12:39 a.m., the sinking building where Khazar Momeni had an apartment with her husband, just a few blocks from Lee’s hotel. Nima Momeni had already been at his sister’s apartment for a few hours.
At 2:03 a.m., Lee and Nima Momeni entered an elevator together from the floor of his sister’s apartment, taking it to the lobby, and getting into Momeni’s BMW. As the court documents detail, Momeni drove them to a “dark and secluded” area nearby, parking the car. Footage captures the two men stepping into the night, with one suddenly moving toward the other before they separate. One man, who police identify as Momeni, walks south and stops along a fence, where police later recovered a knife. The other man, Lee, staggers north. The BMW speeds away. Lee would die in the early hours of the morning at San Francisco General Hospital.
After police recovered Lee’s phone, they found a text from Khazar Momeni.
“Just wanted to make sure your [sic] doing ok Cause I know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you And thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class,” she wrote, “Love you Selfish pricks.”
Lee’s friends are left to speculate on what happened. Nathan Wills, his frat brother, thought that he was probably trying to diffuse the situation. “Bob is not a confrontational person,” he said.
The only certainty is the immense feeling of loss they now feel. For those who knew him, Lee was a singular person who could change the world while never losing his humility. His already prodigious impact was reflected in the torrent of responses precipitated by his death from every corner of the tech world. Some honored his legacy, like his onetime boss, Jack Dorsey, who wrote the news was “heartbreaking.” Others seized on the tragedy to complain about what “San Francisco has become.”
Hatch, Lee’s friend from the maker community, lamented how quickly his death became politicized, with his apparent murder seized either to decry crime in San Francisco or the myopia of its tech scene.
“It diminishes his memory,” Hatch said.
Momeni’s arrest just over a week later would shift the attention. Now the question is how the two men ended up on that shrouded block at 2:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. Prosecutors allege that the killing was premeditated, pointing to the fact that Momeni had brought a cooking knife, which police later found at the crime scene, and drove Lee to a remote location.
“This was a planned and deliberate attack,” they wrote.
On April 25, Momeni will be arraigned. If found guilty, he faces 26 years to life, according to prosecutors. As of April 22, his lawyer Paula Canny said that she’s still awaiting documentation of the prosecutors’ charges, including medical records, surveillance footage, and witness interviews. She said that Momeni will likely wait to enter a plea until they have time to review the prosecution’s evidence.
“People shouldn’t rush to judgment,” she told Fortune. “Sometimes in complicated, messy situations of people’s lives, it takes a little bit of a time to figure out what’s true.”
As the reality of Lee’s killing sets in, the cold bureaucracy of the legal system will begin. For Momeni, it will represent his last chance to provide answers to Lee’s loved ones.
“I just felt a different type of loss,” said Tommy Sowers, an Iraq War veteran who met Lee while running for Congress. “Sadness for his kids, and for his friends, and then this violent, selfish loss.”