Former San Francisco city official pleads guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges

SAN FRANCISCO – The former head of the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission pleaded guilty Friday to multiple bank fraud and tax evasion charges and now could spend the rest of his life in federal prison.

United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said Rodrigo Santos -- who was appointed to the building commission by former Mayor Willie Brown and then appointed commission president by former Mayor Gavin Newsom -- pleaded guilty to 10 counts of bank fraud, one count of honest services wire fraud, one count of falsifying records in a federal investigation and 5 counts of tax evasion.

Each count of bank fraud carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The count of honest services wire fraud carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.

As part of his guilty plea, Santos also agreed to pay more than $1 million in restitution to victims. 

This case was part of a larger federal investigation targeting public corruption in the city and county of San Francisco. 

To date, twelve individuals have been charged, including high-ranking San Francisco public officials Harlan Kelly and Mohammed Nuru.

Nuru was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in August 2022. Multiple city contractors and facilitators have also been charged and several have been sentenced to prison.

The 64-year-old Santos is a licensed civil and structural engineer, was the co-founder and a principal of the San Francisco-based company Santos and Urrutia Structural Engineers, Inc.

Along with his political appointments to the building inspection commission, he also was appointed by the late Mayor Ed Lee to the San Francisco City College Board of Trustees in 2012.

Santos private business provided engineering services and managed the process of obtaining building permits from municipal authorities for his clients. According to the indictment, he funneled funds not into his company account or to the city permit offices, but into his private bank account.

To do so, he either fraudulently altered the checks by editing the "pay to the order of" section of the checks to appear as if the checks had been written to him personally or he fraudulently endorsed the checks to himself by signing the back of the check on behalf of the payee.   

 Santos admitted that from 2012 to 2019 he deposited approximately 445 checks of his clients' checks into his personal bank account and fraudulently obtained more than $775,000 of his clients' money.

He further pleaded guilty in the same indictment to falsifying records in a federal investigation.