Former planning inspector sentenced in San Francisco city hall corruption investigation

Cyril Yu, a former plans examiner for the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections, was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison for accepting $15,000 in bribes from a local developer in exchange for speeding up construction plans.

He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release following his prison term and will have to pay a $20,000 fine.

Prosecutors say Yu accepted bribes from developer Bahman Ghassemzadeh, of design firm SIA Consulting, between 2018 and shortly before his resignation in 2021, accepting envelopes containing between $1,200 and $1,700 in cash. Ghassemzadeh pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of honest wire services fraud, receiving three years of probation and monetary fines.

“From the bottom of my heart, I am deeply sorry for my actions,” Yu told the court on Friday, stressing that all he wanted was a “second chance” to serve his family and community.

His guilty plea marks the latest action in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation into San Francisco city government that began with the arrest of former public works chief Mohammed Nuru four years ago, but which also included former employees and others working with the building inspection department.

Federal prosecutors also filed charges against former building inspector Bernie Curran and plans auditor Rudy Pada. Curran admitted to accepting illegal payments in exchange for issuing licenses and was sentenced in 2023 to one year and one day in prison. Pada pleaded guilty in December to accepting bribes in 2000, but remained with the department until his retirement in 2017. He has not yet been sentenced.

The department has been plagued by allegations of favoritism and dysfunction for decades. A recent Chronicle investigation into contractor John Pollard and his ties to former top DBI official Ed Sweeney led California regulators to investigate Pollard’s work.

In court records, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Ward said Ghassemzadeh would pick Yu up for lunch, buy him meals and drinks and “surreptitiously” hand him an envelope of cash. In return, Yu would research Ghassemzadeh's plans, remove them from the review queue, and quickly approve them. Yu was arrested and charged in May 2022, cooperating with the investigation and pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest reporting in March.

Ward initially requested that Yu be sentenced to one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He also recommended that Yu be fined $25,000.

Yu’s attorney, Nghi Lam, requested a sentence of probation or home confinement for his client. Lam claimed his client was “under pressure” from the department to expedite permit approvals for some notable developers connected to the department, according to court records.

Earlier this week, Michelle Yu, a DBI supervisor and Cyril Yu’s sister, filed a letter asking a federal judge not to sentence her brother to prison. In her letter, she claims the department created a “corrosive culture” while her brother worked there, which may have led him to accept the bribes.

Yu said the agency his brother worked for often failed to follow ethical practices and that supervision constantly pressured staff to comply, and anyone who spoke out was ostracized.

DBI has seen leadership change hands since Yu was hired in 2014. Former director Tom Hui resigned in March 2020 for giving preferential treatment to permit shipper Walter Wong.