BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Three Peninsula residents and executives of a construction and planning firm have been charged with bribing San Francisco building inspectors with personal loans, drinks, free meals and cash for passing building inspections.
Siavash “Sia” Tahbazof, 72, of Woodside, the founder of design firm SIA Consulting and SST Investments, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Tahbazof allegedly bribed San Francisco employees for expedited building permits and approved building inspections beginning in 2003.
Tahbazof allegedly gave former building inspector Bernie Curran a $260,000 interest-free loan. He also paid Curran about $1,500 for each favorable inspection Curran did for Tahbazof’s properties or clients. This resulted in Tahbazof paying Curran about $30,000, according to court filings.
Tahbazof also gave plan checker Rodolfo Pada an interest-free $85,000 loan, which Pada repaid using a cashier’s check and a personal check, according to court filings.
Reza Khoshnevisan, 54, of San Mateo, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Beginning in 2012, he, Tahbazof and Bahman Ghassemzadeh allegedly conspired to pay bribes to plan checker Cyril Yu with drinks, meals and cash, according to court filings. In return, Yu would expedite building plan permits, according to the DOJ.
Ghassemzadeh, 38, of Hillsborough, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Ghassemzadeh would regularly take building inspector Pada to lunch and for drinks. He would also pay Pada $1,200 to $1,700 for expediting and approving building permits, the DOJ alleges.
Ghassemzadeh also paid Curran $1,500 for each favorable building inspection, according to the DOJ.
If convicted, the three executives face a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, and a fine of up to $250,000, prosecutors said.
Yu, 41, and Pada, 68, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud last week. Curran was sentenced in July to a year and a day in prison, according to Mission Local.
The charges are the latest in a series of cases filed in a federal probe into corruption at San Francisco City Hall.
So how unsafe are the buildings involved in the bribes? Look what happened in the recent Turkish quakes when nefarious developers and inspectors were involved.