SAN FRANCISCO – Companies who bribed former San Francisco Public Works director Mohammed Nuru are barred from doing business with the city, City Attorney David Chiu announced Tuesday. 

The debarment prohibits Alan Valera and William Gilmartin — president and vice president of civil engineering and construction firm ProVen Management Inc. — from receiving city contracts. The two previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.  

Valera has been sentenced to two years in federal prison, and Gilmartin has yet to receive his sentence.

According to an investigation by the FBI, ProVen provided Nuru expensive dinners and farming supplies for his ranch to win more public contracts. The company was vying to operate an asphalt plant on land owned by the Port of San Francisco, Chiu said. 

The San Francisco City Hall Public Works scandal surrounding Nuru’s actions led to numerous convictions.

The executives were two among others who attempted to bypass the city’s competitive contracting process, as revealed by a federal investigation. Nuru pleaded guilty to fraud in 2021 and is serving a seven-year prison sentence.

Other companies allegedly affiliated with the Nuru scandal that have also been debarred include Baylands Soil Processing LLC, Comsa Emte USA Inc., Egbert Enterprises LLC, and Proven Comsa JV. 

Chiu has also initiated debarment proceedings and suspension orders against Azul Works Inc. and its vice president, Balmore Hernandez, Nick James Bovis of SMTM Technology LLC, and Florence Kong and her companies SFR Recovery Inc. And Kwan Wo Ironworks Inc.

The city also secured a settlement worth $1.7 million that prohibits Wing Lok “Walter” Wong and his companies W. Wong Construction Co., Inc., Green Source Trading LLC, and Alternate Choice LLC from doing business with San Francisco for the next five years.

“Anyone who attempts to compromise our public contracting process will face consequences,” said Chiu. “The City Attorney’s Office remains committed to rooting out corruption wherever it exists and maintaining the integrity of our city government.” 

Debarment is traditionally a lengthy process, though Chiu utilized 2020 legislation that suspends bad acting contractors from city funding immediately. Varela, Gilmartin and their company was previously suspended in 2021 prior to the debarment.  

The debarment order secured Tuesday will be in place until March 2026 — five years after ProVen was suspended from working with the city.

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CNN
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The conservative archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may no longer receive the holy sacrament of communion in the archdiocese, because she supports abortion rights.

In a letter to Pelosi released Friday afternoon, the archbishop wrote that he had informed the California Democrat that “should you not publicly repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

“As you have not publicly repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come,” he continued. “Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be ‘concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”

CNN has reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment.

Last year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly to approve a document that fell far short of refusing Holy Communion to President Joe Biden or others who support abortion rights, something conservatives in the Church have pushed for in spite of guidance from Pope Francis.

Biden, while visiting Italy last year, said Pope Francis told him he was happy he was a “good Catholic” and said he should continue receiving Communion.

Biden, who is a lifelong devout Catholic, was denied Communion in 2019 at a Catholic church in South Carolina over his support for abortion rights.

Pope Francis has spoken out against the moves by some American bishops to permit individual bishops to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights. The Communion refusal movement is driven by a more conservative wing of the Catholic Church.

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