The probe into corruption in the city’s Department of Building Inspection intensified Friday when the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed wire fraud charges against former San Francisco senior building inspector Bernie Curran and Rodrigo Santos, a former city building commissioner who was indicted in July.
The complaint alleges that Santos, a structural engineer, would request his clients make charitable contributions between $500 and $1,500 “attributable to Curran” to a “local non-profit athletic organization favored by Curran,” according to the complaint. In exchange for the contribution, Curran gave Santos’ clients “favorable official treatment.” While the U.S. Attorney didn’t identify the athletic organization to which the money was allegedly funneled, sources close to the investigation said it was the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club.
“These checks, in the amounts of $500 to $1,500, were written to the athletic organization on numerous occasions during the scheme,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “Curran is alleged in the complaint to have been aware of these donations and understood that the payments were in furtherance of the permit-approval scheme.”
In one case Curran inspected and issued final approval for a project that was never done. In addition, the majority of the projects Curran approved for Santos’ clients were not even in the district that the senior inspector oversaw, but were in parts of the city that other inspectors were in charge of.
Curran, 60, of San Francisco was put on leave by the Department of Building Inspection in May after investigators found that he had failed to report a $180,000 loan from a politically connected developer. He later resigned. Chronicle investigations have uncovered multiple questionable projects that Curran signed off on, including the unpermitted removal of a retaining wall on Myra Way and an approved 10-unit project on San Bruno Avenue that was illegally increased to 30 units.
Illegal work done at 571 Myra Way in San Francisco was approved by former senior building inspector Bernie Curran. On Friday, Curran was charged with wire fraud in a corruption probe.
Gabrielle Lurie/The ChronicleSantos, 63, also of San Francisco, is a co-founder of the San Francisco-based Santos & Urrutia Structural Engineers. In addition to his engineering work, Santos was an “expediter” who used his connections and knowledge of the city’s planning and building departments to help developers and construction companies obtain permits. In 2000 Mayor Willie Brown appointed Santos to the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission, and in 2012 the late Mayor Ed Lee appointed him to the San Francisco City College Board of Trustees.
Santos was earlier indicted in July on federal charges that allege bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and obstruction of justice in a scheme to obtain and wrongfully divert money from clients into his own account. That case is pending.
Curran and Santos face a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a fine equal to the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the crime, according to the indictment. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.
The office of City Attorney Dennis Herrera, which uncovered the allegedly illegal $180,000 loan, said “We are pleased that Mr. Santos and Mr. Curran have been indicted on federal criminal charges.”
“We commend the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for now building a criminal case, a legal option that is not available to us,” said John Cote, spokesman for Herrera. “Our civil investigations are ongoing, and we will continue to root out corruption wherever we may find it. But we welcome the efforts of other law enforcement agencies, especially those with access to exclusive investigative tools, to hold bad actors fully accountable. At the end of the day, our goal remains the same: clean government.”
J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
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Former S.F. building commissioner, senior inspector are accused of wire fraud - San Francisco Chronicle
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