SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Nick Bovis, a San Francisco restaurateur who admitted to lavishing former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru with bribes in an attempt to win lucrative city contracts, was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine on Thursday afternoon by Senior U.S. District Judge William Orrick III.
The sentencing follows the recommendations of the U.S. Attorney's Office. Bovis will also have to serve 100 hours of community service and spend a year on supervised release.
Bovis’ attorneys hoped for leniency because Bovis admitted to all wrongdoing after his arrest, pleaded guilty to honest service wire fraud and cooperated with the FBI’s probe, which is ongoing.
“We went in the next day after his arraignment and we answered all of the questions,” said Michael Stepanian, Bovis’ counsel. “He said, ‘All I can do is tell the truth.’”
Orrick was unpersuaded by the calls for leniency. He called Bovis the “face of private corruption” in San Francisco before he handed down the sentence, and said that any reduction or noncustodial sentence was inappropriate because of the seriousness of Bovis’ crimes.
“I think this crime is about as awful as I’ve seen. It’s a crime against everybody in San Francisco. It tarnished our entire city, it tarnishes city government, it tarnishes everybody’s thoughts about public service in our city,” Orrick said. “I think people in your position need to know that if you do something that is corrupt, there’s a penalty for it."
Prosecutors said that Bovis, former owner of the now-closed Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant in Union Square, gave bribes to Nuru for years, beginning in 2015 when he bought more than $22,000 in kitchen appliances for Nuru’s vacation home. The pair also conspired to bribe an airport commissioner for her help in securing a restaurant lease for Bovis at San Francisco International Airport.
Bovis was arrested along with Nuru in 2020 after a yearslong FBI probe unveiled public corruption scandals in the city that have led to numerous convictions and guilty pleas. Nuru was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 for his role in the corruption scandal.
Prosecutors said trash-hauling firm Recology began making a total of $60,000 in payments labeled as "holiday donations" to Bovis’ charity, the Lefty O'Doul's Foundation for Kids. Nuru was in charge of approving rate hikes for Recology, which controls a monopoly on garbage collection in San Francisco. Bovis set up the nonprofit to take needy children to San Francisco Giants games, but prosecutors said it was instead a conduit for bribe payments.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Ward told Orrick that Bovis and Nuru’s conduct was not a “onetime thing,” and that their “long-running scheme” only stopped once they were caught by the FBI.
Bovis’ charity “was supposed to be for kids,” Ward said, but Bovis “knowingly used it to funnel over $60,000 to Mohammed Nuru to pay for his holiday parties.”
Ward noted that Bovis was a significant cooperator with the FBI, but that did not change his opinion that Bovis should face prison time for causing the public to lose trust in the city’s government.
“The city of San Francisco has suffered. They’re the victim,” Ward said.
Bovis held back tears when he addressed the judge and said he was a victim of his own ambition and would not reoffend again. He apologized for tarnishing his family name, his charity, and the “city he loves.”
“I am doing the best I can for my city and my family now, but my conduct tarnished the Lefty O'Doul's Foundation,” Bovis said “There was a lot of good in that, but now I have ruined it.
“I really wanted to be a big shot,” Bovis added. “But I was out of my league.”
Bovis must surrender by July 12 to begin his sentence.
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