San Francisco’s Rodrigo Santos Settles Lawsuit

A disgraced San Francisco Building Inspection Commission president is paying his debts to society — literally.

Two years after being sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for fraud, Rodrigo Santos, a former structural engineer and permit expeditor with the city, has reached a $1.4 million settlement with the San Francisco City Attorney, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The case dates back to 2018 when the city attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against Santos, Albert Urrutia and their construction engineering firm, Santos & Urrutia. The lawsuit claims the firm and its associates defrauded the city by submitting false plans and endangered residents by excavating under homes without permits.

They did so to “circumvent oversight and speed up the building process, illegally giving Santos and his associates a competitive edge over other law-abiding businesses,” according to city attorney David Chiu. A five-year-long investigation found “unpermitted excavations, forged documents and reports, use of an unlicensed contractor, outright lies to city agencies and check fraud.”

In addition, Santos reportedly bilked more than $420,000 from his clients by telling them to sign blank checks intended for the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection and other city agencies to pay for permits or other fees. He would later fill in the dollar amount and deposit the check into his personal checking account. More than 200 checks were used personally over a three-year period.

Santos was charged with various crimes including bank fraud and interfering in a federal investigation, and pleaded guilty in federal court in 2023 to bank fraud, honest services fraud, tax evasion amounting to $1.6 million and falsifying records, according to KQED.

As part of the settlement, Santos and his associates must pay $250,000 within 30 days then make 35 monthly installments of $33,571 over the next three years.

The 66-year-old Santos is also barred from holding an engineering license for five years. He was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in 2023 and served less than 20 months. Urrutia was also sentenced to 30 months behind bars and was included in the city’s settlement, though the remainder of his prison sentence wasn’t immediately clear.

“Rodrigo Santos defrauded his clients and the city,” Chiu said in a statement. “Santos aided and abetted unauthorized excavations, creating safety hazards and putting his clients and their neighbors at risk. And, Santos profited significantly off of all of this illegal conduct.”

In response to criticism from the judge at his sentencing, Santos’ attorney Randall Knox argued that the fraud wasn’t especially harmful because he took money from well-off clients and provided services and mentorship to less fortunate customers.

“Rodrigo Santos is not Robin Hood, but he is not Bernie Madoff,” Knox said, per the Chronicle. “Rodrigo Santos is a good man who did bad things.”

The federal corruption investigation took down other high-profile figures, with former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly and a former public works chief, Mohammed Nuru, also being convicted.

— Chris Malone Méndez