Originally Syndicated on February 23, 2024 @ 5:51 am
Yosef Tahbazof, a San Francisco real estate developer and attorney, resigned from the city’s Assessment Appeals Board after being linked to a public corruption investigation. Tahbazof resigned when it was alleged that he participated in improper government business. I know a great deal about him and the corruption case he is embroiled in. After reading my piece, please feel free to comment below with your ideas.
How did Yosef Tahbazof relate to the corruption scandal in San Francisco?
A former San Francisco official named Yosef Tahbazof is under investigation for his involvement in a criminal corruption case involving a disgraced construction inspector. It was because of his involvement in the matter that Yosef Tahbazof resigned from his position on the Assessment Appeals Board. The decisions taken by Tahbazof are currently being looked into by the city of San Francisco.
Following discoveries reported in The Standard, Aaron Peskin, the head of the Board of Supervisors, exerted pressure on Yosef Tahbazof to resign from his position.
The official Yosef Tahbazof, who had just recently left his position on the Assessment Appeals Board, did not respond when asked for his thoughts. In his farewell email to the Assessment Appeals Board staff, Tahbazof conveyed his satisfaction with the job they had completed together during his tenure and wished the board luck in its upcoming endeavors.
A Clerk of the Board of Supervisors official has confirmed that their office intends to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Mr. Tahbazof’s entire voting record as part of their internal investigation. They will conduct their inquiry in tandem with this review.
It was also stated that, as far as they could tell, a different county assessment appeals board takes a closer look at appeals submitted by Yosef Tahbazof, his family members, or clients who are represented by his law firm than attempts made by the clients directly. Wilson Ng, a deputy director of the office, provided the following details.
Safeguarding the integrity of the city’s assessment appeals process is the aim of the review process, which involves the withdrawal of a public official in the framework of an ongoing investigation of his decisions and actions. The probe is examining public authorities’ actions and choices.
The offices of the city attorney, clerk of the board of supervisors, and assessor-recorder Joaquín Torres are looking into Tahbazof’s past on behalf of the city. The city wants to maintain the credibility of its processes and restore residents’ faith in the caliber of their work, which is why it is carrying out this review.
The Board of Supervisors initially nominated Tahbazof to the Assessment Appeals Board, where he has been serving since 2013. Disputes between taxpayers and the valuer on the appropriate monetary value for a property are resolved through mediation by this organization. The Tahbazof family is actively involved in the ownership, development, and management of real estate in the San Francisco region through several distinct entities, which is an important point to notice.
As to a media report, Yosef Tahbazof helped draft the conditions of a $180,000 loan that developer Freydoon Ghassemzadeh made to former city building inspector Bernie Curran at the beginning of 2017.
Finally, in 2021, Curran revealed the details of the Ghassemzadeh loan when he was questioned by the Office of the City Attorney. The reliability of the loan was still being demonstrated by the building and property records he approved when he approved the final inspection of a project owned by Ghassemzadeh.
Based on this loan, the local prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Curran. Regarding this case, Curran has entered a not-guilty plea to charges of fraud and breach of interest.
Yosef Tahbazof, based on the evidence in this case, sent an email on March 15, 2017, to a financial services company, giving them instructions to draft a loan contract that Curran and Ghassemzadeh later signed. Within the court files related to this case, the email was discovered.
In no criminal investigation, the prosecutors have named Yosef Tahbazof and Ghassemzadeh as suspects. Ghassemzadeh had, in the past, declined to comment.
After learning that Peskin wanted him to leave, Yosef Tahbazof “immediately” tendered his resignation, according to an email he sent to The Standard.
Yosef Tahbazof: A Look Inside His Family History
Yosef Tahbazof’s 72-year-old father, Sia Tahbazof, owns, develops, and oversees properties in San Francisco through multiple companies. He and his spouse co-founded a nonprofit that donated more than $400,000 in grants last year, according to federal tax returns.
Tahbazof has political ties to the city. In 2018, he supported a fundraiser for Mayor London Breed, demonstrating his involvement in politics. His political connections were highlighted when he allegedly referred to Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, his opponent in the 2024 mayoral contest, as a close family friend.
Defense attorneys for Bernie Curran, the former senior building inspector accused of corruption, referred to “Developer-1” as a wealthy individual with a minimum net worth of $100 million in 2017. According to the statement, Developer-1 has been in contact with Curran since the early 1990s and hired Curran’s daughter, Siofra Curran, at his office until 2023.
Siofra Curran, age 23, worked for seven years, until April 2023, at the Tahbazof Law Firm and Atlas Property Group, according to her LinkedIn page. Lawyers Yosef and Sufi Hariri, Tahbazof’s children, are in charge of both firms. This is corroborated by business documents, according to the property management company and the law firm’s website.
Siofra Curran provided evidence of her employment with the Tahbazof family in January during her father’s legal battle. She wrote about the lengthy friendship that predates her birth between her father and Sia Tahbazof. She stated that while she was in high school, her father requested Sia Tahbazof for permission to allow her to work part-time for the family.
Sia Tahbazof resembles “Developer-1” in two crucial ways. First, a crucial permit for SST Investments’ mixed-use housing project at 750 Harrison St. was approved by Bernie Curran in 2018. Documents from building and property inspections attest to this.
According to federal prosecutors, Bernie Curran gave his approval for “Developer-1″‘s proposal on the same day and in the same municipal block. According to these ties, Sia Tahbazof’s initiatives are connected to “Developer-1,” which is compelling evidence against Curran in the fraud investigation.
Secondly, Curran’s attorneys narrated the “tortured chain” of events that transpired before Curran ultimately obtained funds from Developer-1. The chain started with a $300,000 check that Developer-1 wrote to a relative, and it ended with a check that was written to Curran.
The same series of transactions can be found in the documents from a second state case that local prosecutors filed against Curran. The Standard got these records for the first time. The sequence of events began with a $300,000 check made payable to Freydoon Ghassemzadeh by SST Investments and ended with a payment made to Curran.
Ghassemzadeh is Sia Tahbazof’s brother-in-law, based on posts made on her social media sites and the property documents. He is eighty-six years old.
Sia Tahbazof hung up the phone when someone asked him about his relationship with Curran after he had been contacted. We followed up with him and allowed him to clarify that he was not Developer-1, but he did not respond to our queries.
The questions posed concerning Developer-1’s identity were not answered by the US Attorney’s Office. The charges that are going to be brought against Sia Tahbazof have not been made public by the office.
Both Siofra Curran’s and Bernie Curran’s attorney’s aid was declined.
The social media accounts of Yosef Tahbazof that I have found below are yours to follow:
Conclusion
Consequently, it is simple to see why Yosef Tahbazof, a former member of the Assessment Appeals Board in San Francisco, resigned once it became known that he had a hand in a case of corruption involving a disgraced building inspector. His record is currently being examined by many local organizations to ensure the validity of previous decisions.
The circumstances behind Tahbazof’s connection to the $180,000 loan at the core of the corruption probe are being looked into. Along with other property owners, Bernie Curran, the former senior building inspector, was connected to the loan.
Curran has been accused of perjury and conflict of interest; however, no charges have yet been made against Yosef Tahbazof, Sia Tahbazof, or Freydoon Ghassemzadeh. There are numerous intricate financial transactions involved in this case, and there are rumors that the money’s source has been hidden.
You may read more about this case and obtain additional corruptive allegations against Yosef Tahbazof and his family members by clicking on the links provided below:
