Jury convicts fired S.F. building inspector who approved family projects

A former San Francisco building inspector who inspected projects linked to his family — including construction on his own home — was found guilty by a jury this week of two misdemeanor charges for breaking conflict-of-interest rules.

Van Zeng, 36, was fired from the Department of Building Inspection after the San Francisco Standard reported in November 2023 that he had conducted a series of ethically questionable inspections on properties owned or under construction by his family.

Zeng’s father, Kelvin Zeng, is a building contractor who, according to court documents, allegedly arranged illegal payments for Bernie Curran, a disgraced former building inspector at the center of a larger corruption scandal. His parents flip houses and his sister is a real estate agent.

The revelations led District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to charge Van Zeng with three misdemeanors over inspections he conducted on a duplex he owned with his parents in the Sunset District and on remodeling projects done by his father’s construction company.

His father has not been charged with any crimes.

After a days-long trial last week, jurors on Monday acquitted Zeng of the charge stemming from the inspection on his own home, but convicted him for the two other inspections.

“San Franciscans entrust public employees to do their jobs responsibly with integrity and not engage in self-serving behavior,” Jenkins said in a statement. “When public employees engage in this kind of behavior they erode the public’s trust and confidence in government and must be held accountable.”

Zeng worked for his father’s company, Mutual Seiko Construction, until shortly before the city hired him as a building inspector in March 2020. City records show he inspected construction on the duplex, which he would later share with his sister, in April 2020. Then in September and November 2020, he inspected other remodeling jobs his father was working on.

San Francisco law bars employees from making decisions in which they have a financial conflict of interest, including those benefiting their recent past employers.

Those conflict of interest rules “are meant to ensure there’s no appearance of an inside track to obtaining City government services,” Assistant District Attorney Erin Loback, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement on the verdict.

Zeng’s attorney, Randy Knox, argued at trial that his client should be acquitted for the inspection on his own home because he disclosed to his supervisor that his father was working on the project and because his supervisor ordered him to inspect it.

At the time, the city was rushing to shut down construction at the start of the pandemic and was short on inspectors, according to Knox. The attorney said Zeng was inspecting other properties in the area and was not planning on moving into the duplex.

“His boss told him to do it,” Knox told the Chronicle.

Knox also argued that the two inspections that resulted in guilty verdicts were minor kitchen and window remodeling jobs.

“Neither he nor his father received any benefit,” Knox said.

Knox said Zeng, who he described as a “stellar” inspector, was devastated by his firing and the criminal case against him.

“That was his dream job,” Knox said. “He wanted to show that he could make it on his own without his dad.”

Zeng faces up to 12 months in jail as a result of the guilty verdicts, according to Knox. However, his attorney does not expect he will spend time in custody.

Knox plans to ask a judge to sentence Zeng to community service and ethics training, even though Zeng no longer works for the city.

Zeng is due back in court for sentencing April 23.

Reach Michael Barba: michael.barba@sfchronicle.com