How did the investigation begin?
In June 2020, we found an advertisement about getting degrees from New York University. The advertisement offered to get certified by the Iranian unit of New York University in exchange for a fee.
This advertisement was published on the social media of Pars Pendar Nahad, based in Isfahan.
“NIUTM is in New York. This university is one of the best private universities in the United States. There are more than 3000 colleges and universities in the United States. NIUTM is one of the well-known members of the university unions, attracting hundreds of students every year for their educational programs. Notably, the registration has surpassed 50000 students studying on the main campus in New York and long-distance learning centers in Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, Europe, and Australia. Thus far, many students have joined this university worldwide to build their skills.”
Advertisements on the social media of the Pars holding.
“NIUTM has turned into one of the main higher education institutions of the country, as well as being a well renowned and dynamic research institute, having a world-leading academic reputation. Universities are among the most long-lasting institutes found by humans. Universities mostly owe their lasting reputation to their abilities to reflect on long-term goals and readjust their focus on long-term global concerns. These initiatives shape the university to help scientists, students, and employees drive the university forward. NIUTM is a global network of locations, people, academic resources, and research projects that offers professional personal business in the world’s dynamic cities. It looks for opportunities for managers and employees to increase the infinite occupational possibilities.”
Advertisements on the social media of the Pars holding.
We called this company, and they claimed that Pars Pendar Nahad is an agent of the New York university NIUTM. They provide Ph.D. degrees in exchange for money, and they can also give certificates of official degrees from Iranian universities, in exchange for 28,000,000T, without needing to attend at all! This would mean they would register you for a bachelor’s degree in a university certified by the Iranian ministry of science. After 4 years, the degree would be sent to you without needing to attend or interact with the university.
The scheme
If you look up NIUTM on LinkedIn, you will realize that many people have bought degrees from the fake New York NIUTM university. With a search on the internet, you will find a lot of translated certificates provided by this group and approved by the Judicial system of Iran.
Research & Investigation
Part of the fake New York university website had a “Directory listing” technical issue due to wrong setting inputs, so we could download the website’s pictures. The files’ names contained the identity of the individuals in the pictures. The names and pictures of more than 480 individuals who have received niutm[.]us fake certifications from 2016 to 2018 were accessible in this folder. This website is currently out of reach, but you can see the website’s archive here.
After a more detailed evaluation of the fake New York university, we found another flaw on the website caused by the weak design. National codes of the individuals who had received certifications were visible in the source code of the license authentication section! (Archive)
488 names, along with the received certificates and I.D. photos, were extracted, all of whom were Iranians. Some are well-known individuals, three of whom are representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran. We have made a list of all the names on the Telescam website.
The full version of names and photos: http://telescam.info/niutm/
Meisam Shekarisaz (the CEO of the corporation) and his father (Gholamreza Shekarisaz) have registered tens of companies in England. Registering companies in England is simple and inexpensive; fraudsters use this deceit to endorse their operations. The target has been validating fake and valueless licenses and certificates in this case. Search here.
The list of the registered enterprises:
Gholamreza SHEKARISAZ:
UK QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CERTIFICATE LIMITED (10766891)
DER NEUE VERTRIEB AUSTRIA LTD (10851824)
UK QAL REGISTER CERTIFICATE LTD. (10926068)
ROBERT GORDON INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT LIMITED (10779171)
TCKIT GERMANY CERTIFICATE LTD (10728066)
NEWYORK INTERNATIONAL UNIVER OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT LTD (10541103)
OXFORD UK CERTIFICATE LTD (10712603)
UK MICROSOFT INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY LIMITED (10925302)
TUV GERMANY LTD (10756246)
DER NEUE VERTRIEB AUSTRIA LTD (10851824)
NEWYORK INTERNATIONAL UNIVER OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT LTD (10541103)
ACADÉMIE INTERNATIONALE DE TECHNOLOGIE ET DE GESTION DE PARIS LTD. (11453704)
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIAT OF ENGINEERS (IAENG) LTD (10843496)
SANTA MONICA INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION LIMITED (10841362)
Meisam SHEKARISAZ:
SPED TECHNICAL, WELDING INSPECTION AND MONITORING LTD (10841373)
PARS PENDAR NAHAD LIMITED (12018808)
COLLÈGE DE DAUPHINE LTD (11471868)
SANTA MONICA INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION LIMITED (10841362)
TECH BASED COLLEGE LIMITED (11862883)
MIDDLE EASTERN HANDICRAFTS LIMITED (11548748)
UK QAL REGISTER CERTIFICATE LTD. (10926068)
UK MICROSOFT INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY LIMITED (10925302)
SPED TECHNICAL, WELDING INSPECTION AND MONITORING LTD (10841373)
ACADÉMIE INTERNATIONALE DE TECHNOLOGIE ET DE GESTION DE PARIS LTD. (11453704)
The address of the registered enterprises is as follows: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom
Looking at the information submitted on the domain of the NIUTM fake university, take notice of the submitted address. It is the same address in London! (Archive)
The story gets more interesting when we realize the fraudster Meisam Shekarisaz (who has changed his name to Makan Arya Parsa aka Macan Arya Parsa) started censoring the websites which exposed his deeds in 2018 by block-filtering their URLs! And he even proudly announced this as an achievement on his website!
Today, the judicial system should be responsible for explaining their association with this individual and how the block filtering committee has blocked those websites solely based on this person’s claims without conducting any investigation.
Meisam Shekarisaz’s response and comment after being exposed by Webamooz
“We have been to court several times and were proven not guilty. We do not own the NIUTM website and are solely responsible for administrating the courses; hence, we have received the certifications from an individual called Amirreza Sabet.”
Amirreza Sabet was officially charged and proven guilty in the “Aftab Holding” case in 2019, known as the “King of fake certifications.” It is interesting to know that Meisam Shekarisaz was an advisor to the judicial system in this case and has even been praised by authorities! This is. Meanwhile, he was active in the selling of fake certifications!
The pictures below have been taken from Shekarisaz’s website, which is made to counteract Webamooz’s investigations.
Shekarisaz’s website archive
The fraudster Makan Arya Parsa (Meisam Shekarisaz) later posted a video(https://shekarisaz.com/legal-documents/) and admitted to selling certificates but stated that he had only been the salesman, and the mastermind behind this scheme was Amirreza Sabet!
He also claimed that he had verified the validity of NIUTM university by inquiring from the ministry of science in Iran. The letter he presented is signed by Fatemeh Dadashian, the former chief manager of the non-governmental higher education section of the ministry of science. Still, the university’s name has been removed, and it is unknown if the letter is about NIUTM! Dr. Dadashian was a participant and a speaker at the management and entrepreneurship Hall of Fame summit in 2017, held and organised by Shekarisaz’s operation.
We contacted Ms. Dr. Fatemeh Dadashian, she denied this confirmation and emphasized that no institution has a license to sell university degrees!
Contradictory to the claims of Meisam Shekarisaz (Makan Arya Parsa), you can clearly see in the archives(https://web.archive.org/web/20180402192629/http://irniutm.com/) of the Iranian website in charge of advertisement of the fake certifications, irniutm.com, that the Pars holding is the sole provider of the fake certificates of the NIUTM.US university.
The deplorable part of the story is that, apparently, these fraudsters have supporters in the judicial system, to the extent of filter-blocking Webamooz while being in the investigation stage, not allowing our solicitor to defend Webamooz, and unlawfully sending a letter to the director of Press and Publicity Affairs, asking them to delete any content associated with the name “Mohammad Jorjandi.” Mohammad Hossein Kamali, the investigator of branch 29 of the public and revolutionary court of justice of the Isfahan province, has ordered the deletion of any content mentioning the name of “Jorjandi” anywhere, even if the content has nothing to do with Shekarisaz! This level of violation is a shame to justice.
Furthermore, Mohammad Hossein Kamali, the investigator of branch 29 of the public and revolutionary court of justice of the Isfahan province, has stepped further to exclusively send letters to media outlets and social media platforms, to delete all contents of “Mohammad Jorjandi.” For example, here is the letter sent to the Aparat video-sharing platform, which led to the deactivation of the Webamooz page in Aparat!
Besides, after reviewing the official specialist agent of the juridical system’s opinion, published on Shekarisaz’s website(Archive) we can see that this specialist agent’s judgment is not self-determined, and he has only restated the fraudulent operation’s declaration, as an expert opinion, to the court. Many instances support this argument; for example, another official expert of the ministry of justice replied to the investigator’s inquiry regarding whether NIUTM university exists in the United States:
“There is a university called the New York university in the United States, which was established in 1831, and it is one of the most reputable universities in the United States and the world. Notably, the website of this university is nyit.edu”
The official response of the expert of the ministry of justice,” Alireza Mashhadi Eyvaz,” with referral code: 6514
In another example, the investigator pressured Ensaf news to delete all the content regarding illegal gambling, where Jorjandi researched; “How does Radiojavan transfer illegal gambling funds to the United States?” ( Archive)
The provocation caused the content to be deleted, and afterward, Ensaf news reacted to intimidation: Source
Meisam Shekarisaz (Makan Arya Parsa) tried to stop Jorjandi’s research into his scheme and prevent him from publishing his proofs by threatening Jorjandi to sue him to the FBI for defamation and blackmail, using a Canadian lawyer (Shekarisaz has dual citizenship from Canada). But this fraudster will never do so because he does not have the support of Mohammad Hossein Kamali, the investigator of branch 29 of the public and revolutionary court of justice of the Isfahan province in the United States.
How is Makan Arya Parsa scamming today?
Fraudster Meisam Shekarisaz (Makan Arya Parsa) immigrated to Tehran and, with his sister’s help, established “Parsi Canada.” They make fake documentation for immigration applicants to Canada. It works as follows; Parsi Canada is licensed by the ministry of science to certificate individuals with MBA, DBA, and MDB, none of which are considered higher education, clearly stated in the correspondence letter from the ministry of science. However, Parsi Canada registers these degrees as higher education (Bachelor’s & Master’s degrees) in the World Education Services (WES) . By doing so, he charges individuals $16,000 and submits degrees for them in the WES system instantly; as the WES system trusts Iran’s ministry of science, they accept the mentioned degrees as higher education. Hence the individuals get the required score to immigrate to Canada. Parsi Canada also certifies individuals with TOEFL certifications in exchange for $6,000.
“On no account will the period of teaching held to result in an “equivalent,” “on par,” or a “similar” degree as to higher education, and the institution is only allowed to certify the completion of courses.”
By looking at the advertisement section of the Fanpardazan (corporation owned by Shekarisaz) website (Archive), we can see that the fraudster Meisam Shekarisaz (Makan Arya Parsa) has referred to his fraudulent paid certifications as a pathway of immigration to Canada. At the same time, a certificate license does lower points to the ranking system of the Canadian immigration system and Meisam Shekarisaz issued certificates immediately – Parsi Canada (immigration company) and Fanpardazan (certification company) both are belong to Meisam Shekarisaz.
The fraudster Meisam Shekarisaz has been able to represent Fanpardazan as a legitimate institute in WES. This institute can equip individuals with bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees (like a higher education university). And by doing so, the certifications he endorses are considered legitimate bachelor’s and master’s degrees in WES.
A user named Amir Hossein tweeted about Makan Arya Parsa’s (Meisam Shekarisaz) recent fraudulent business of certifying fake degrees to ease Canadian immigration. He states that Makan Arya Parsa (Meisam Shekarisaz) and his new company “Parsi Canada,” have introduced the “Express Inter” Canadian immigration program, where they certify individuals with bachelor’s and Master’s in Management (approved by WES) in one day, in exchange for $16,000. They also certify individuals with IELTS 6.0 in exchange for $6,000! (Tweet Archive)
Case report via YouTube Livestream
Few of the well-known individuals have received a fake degree using this fraudulent corporation
The full list of names and pictures: http://telescam.info/niutm/
Mr “Dr.” Mahdavi Abhari, 3 times representative in the Islamic Consultative Assembly
Mrs. Effat Shariati Kohbanani, Zarand and Koohbanan’s representative of the 11th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. She was also the representative for Mashhad and Kalat in the 7th and 8th terms! In response to Borna news’s journalist question regarding her fake Ph.D., she said that she does not have a Ph.D. and that her highest educational level is a Master’s. (Source)
She uses the Doctor title for her election campaigns and media presence. The screenshots have been taken from her official telegram channel and archived.
Mr. Amirabbas Soltani, representative of the 9th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly
Hamidreza Ghomi, head of Islamic Shora of the Yazd province
Mohammadreza Abarghouei, former chancellor of the Azad university, Anar, and Mehriz units. After getting exposed to Webamooz, his son emailed Webamooz and stated that because everyone called his father a doctor, his father bought a Ph.D. so people could easily call him a doctor!
You can see the complete list of 488 individuals who received fake degrees from NIUTM here out of whom there are many government officials, executives, and even M.D.s and lawyers.
It is hoped that Webamooz’s investigations regarding Meisam Shekarisaz’s (Makan Arya Parsa) fraudulent network will lead to justice.
