Three more people, including one San Francisco city official and a former city employee, have been charged in a corruption probe centered on the city's former public works director, Mohammed Nuru.
Federal prosecutors announced on Monday that Sandra Zuniga, director of the Office of Neighborhood Services, was charged earlier this month with one county of conspiracy to launder money that was allegedly illegally gained by Nuru. The criminal complaint was unsealed on Monday.
Zuniga, who is Nuru's longtime girlfriend, allegedly used the money to pay his expenses including costs related to a vacation home they own in Colusa County.
Charges were also unsealed Monday against engineering firm executive Balmore Hernandez, who was accused of one count of bribing Nuru in 2018 with $52,000 worth of building materials for the vacation home and $200,000 worth of labor and materials in exchange for help getting city contracts and approvals worth millions of dollars. Hernandez used to work as a civil engineer with the Department of Public Works.
Florence Kong, who owns a construction company, is facing charges of lying to the FBI. The complaint alleges that she denied paying money to Nuru and getting help from him to win city contracts.
Hernandez and Kong appeared in court Monday and are currently not in custody. Zuniga will make her first court appearance on Wednesday.
Nuru was charged in January with a count of wire fraud, which was allegedly part of an unsuccessful scheme to bribe the SFO commissioner to help restauranteur Nick Bovis get a restaurant concession. He also faces a county of lying to the FBI.
"Today's criminal complaints will not be the last,” said U.S. Attorney Dave Anderson in statement. "To everyone with a piece of this corruption, again I urge you to help make things right for San Francisco" by coming to the FBI and cooperating with the probe, Anderson said.