Former San Francisco Building Inspector Charged With Perjury And Conflict Of Interest
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Bernard Curran, a former San Francisco senior city building inspector, has been charged with multiple counts of perjury and violations of local conflict of interest laws, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced Friday.
The arrest and charges were the product of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption at the city's Department of Building Inspections.
"My office is committed to rooting out public corruption and ensuring equal justice under the law," Boudin said in a news release. "In my administration, no one is above the law—and public officials who breach public trust will be held accountable."
Prosecutors say that in March 2017, while working as a city building inspector, Curran is alleged to have obtained a $180,000 loan from a local developer, which remained outstanding until May 2020.
During that three-year period, Curran allegedly created a conflict of interest with the developer – performing building inspections and signing-off on building permits for their projects.
In addition to the financial conflict of interest involved in the loan, Curran allegedly failed to disclose that he received the loan on his mandatory government 'Statement of Economic Interests' forms. Additionally, the the district attorney's investigation revealed that Curran received tens of thousands of dollars from several other homeowners for whom he performed and signed off on building inspection permits.
He never disclosed any of those payments.
Curran worked at the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections from 2005 until mid-2021, when he resigned from the department.
In addition to the charges brought by the district attorney's office, Curran has also been charged federally with honest services wire fraud related to permits he approved for people who made donations to his preferred charitable organizations.
Curran was scheduled to be arraigned on the chares on March 17, 2022.
