Add two more former SF Department of Building Inspection engineers to the long list of employees of that department to face federal bribery charges, as the feds say both engineers accepted lavish gifts from construction companies in exchange for permits.
Is the SF Department of Building Inspection the most corrupt government agency in San Francisco? We don’t know for sure, but they sure seem to have the largest number of federal bribery charges of any SF department in recent memory. As the Mohammed Nuu scandal spread, we saw the department’s director Tom Hui removed from his position over corruption allegations (though he was never charged), and we’ve seen guilty pleas and prison sentences for bribery and fraud for the department’s former commission head Rodrigo Santos, former inspector Bernard Curran, plus some highly suspicious DBI permits have factored into the fraud conviction for former SF Public Utilities Commission head Harlan Kelly.
The hits keep coming for the SF DBI, as the Chronicle reports that two former engineers have just been charged with bribery by federal prosecutors. The two engineers, Cyril Yu and Rudy Pada, are both no longer with the department. And years ago, Pada was transferred from his field inspector position to a desk job amidst some awfully suspect-sounding allegations.
In the cases of both men, the Department of Justice charging announcement says that their alleged bribes “consisted of cash, free meals, drinks, and other benefits bestowed upon [them] by executives at a construction planning and design firm in return for [them] expediting and approving permits."
In Pada’s case, he is also accused of taking “interest-free $85,000 loan” from an unnamed executive at a construction firm who had business before the DBI. Pada was also the DBI employee that we mentioned was taken off field work after a series of allegations from the year 2000 that he shook down an elderly couple with the demand they write him check made out to "pay to cash" in order to get their permits.
Neither Yu or Pada was arrested or taken into custody. Both face charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, and fines of up to $250,000.
Image: SF DBI
