Despite efforts to escape jail time, a San Francisco restaurateur who funneled bribes to a key City Hall official through a charity for underprivileged children was sentenced to nine months in prison. After reprimanding restaurateur Nick Bovis for his offenses, Senior U.S. District Judge William Orrick imposed the term. Bovis is most renowned for his now-closed Lefty O’Doul’s hofbrau in Union Square. When a massive City Hall corruption scandal initially surfaced in January 2020, Bovis was the first person detained by the FBI together with Mohammed Nuru, the former head of Public Works. Subsequently, the dispute would involve nearly twenty dozen additional local officials, businesses, and individuals.
The scandal unfolds
Even though Orrick said that Bovis was mostly a failure, he added that the restaurateur tried to “get in on any contract” he could from Nuru, regardless of whether or not he was eligible to accept them. One such contract involved making portable restrooms that resembled Victorian mansions. Orrick said to Bovis, “While Mr. Nuru is certainly the leader of the pack of this part of the public corruption.” “There is a reason why you are the face of private corruption in San Francisco for this scandal.” The sentencing complied with the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s recommendation that Bovis serve nine months in prison. In deciding to sentence Bovis to a year of supervised release and a $100,000 fine, Orrick also concurred with the prosecution. Bovis’ lawyers, Michael Stepanian and Gil Eisenberg, said that since he started helping the FBI with their investigation nearly immediately after his detention, he ought to be given a community service and home confinement term.
Bovis’s rise in the culinary world
Prosecutors said that in May 2020, Bovis collected bribe funds for Nuru through his charity, the Lefty O’Doul’s Foundation for Kids, and he entered a guilty plea to one count of honest services wire fraud. Stepanian stated, “We went in the day following his arraignment, and we answered all of the questions.” “I can only tell the truth,” he stated. Prosecutors claim that although the foundation was founded to provide children with baseball bats and gloves and to accompany them to baseball games, Recology, a waste management firm based in San Francisco, paid $60,000 to the charity under the guise of “holiday donations,” but the funds were really utilized to provide parties for Nuru and his employees.
Nuru was responsible at the time for authorizing rate increases for Recology, the company that has a monopoly on waste collection in San Francisco. “The intention is for it to serve as a charitable foundation for children,” stated David Ward, the assistant U.S. attorney leading the prosecution. “And Mr. Bovis knowingly permitted that to be used as a means of payment for bribes.”
The allegations surface
In an effort to get restaurant space at San Francisco International Airport, Bovis and Nuru allegedly plotted to bribe an airport commissioner; however, the plans were never carried out. In a further development, Bovis entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud pertaining to a plan to collect $85,000 in insurance proceeds after a fire occurred at one of his eateries. Despite his admission of insurance fraud, he invested the money back in the restaurant and his employees, according to his lawyers. Bovis fought back tears as he expressed regret for his misdeeds and for damaging his family’s and charity’s reputations before being given his sentence.
Bovis addressed the judge, saying, “I am doing the best I can for my family and my city right now, but my conduct tarnished the Lefty O’Doul’s Foundation.” “I ruined it, but there was a lot of good in it.” Bovis claimed that his ambition was “out of control.” He declared, “I truly wanted to be a big shot.” “I was out of my league.” Bovis was given a deadline of early July to turn himself in and start serving his time.
Legal battle ensues
Bovis’s collaboration might have an effect, according to San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of Nuru and the alleged toxic atmosphere at City Hall. According to Haney, “Nick Bovis has long maintained close ties with individuals at the highest levels of San Francisco government.” It is obvious that he took full advantage of such connections to further his own interests at the expense of the general welfare. “I hope he says everything; I’m sure he has a lot to say. Hopefully, this will contribute to the disclosure of the truth and the complete exposure of any wrongdoing in the local administration.
Final words
In conclusion, “We haven’t forgotten that this problem of deep corruption remains in the City and County of San Francisco,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen stated. I think the main need of San Franciscans is resolution; they want answers, period. We’re hoping that this news brings us one step closer to it.
