Iranian diploma called false

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The license of a Las Vegas physician has been "summarily suspended" by the state Board of Medical Examiners because the board believes he falsified a diploma from a medical school in Iran.

The board, in a press release Monday, said Dr. Mohammad Hassan Fani-Salek is charged with attempting to renew a license by misrepresentation or by false and misleading information.

Lynette Krotske, chief of licensing for the Examiners Board, said Fani-Salek "stole somebody else's diploma." There are numbers on each diploma and the one Fani-Salek submitted actually belonged to somebody else, she said.

Krotske said that while Fani-Salek did attend the University of Tehran, he never graduated.

But Matthew Dushoff, attorney for Fani-Salek, said Monday his client denies the charges and "is adamant that he graduated from the university in Iran."

Dushoff said Fani-Salek received his license initially in Nevada in 2001 to become a resident at the University of Nevada Medical School and then gained his full license in April 2004 with an OB-GYN speciality.

Tony Clark, executive director of the Examiners Board, said the problem was discovered when the University of Tehran medical degree submitted by Fani-Salek was examined and found to be questionable. Clark said when the board's staff members examined the document and compared it with another diploma from the same university they noticed that the seals and signature of the dean were different.

Clark said the dean of the university in Tehran was contacted and he told the board that Fani-Salek never graduated from the school. It appears that Fani-Salek put his name on somebody else's diploma, Clark said.

He said the board called Fani-Salek in and confronted him with the allegations. The board told him to stop practicing for two weeks and to clear up the possible discrepancies.

Krotske said Fani-Salek initially flew to Iran, obstensibly to clear up the problem. But then he came back because his wife gave birth to a child in Las Vegas. She said he then returned to Iran.

Krotke said that while Fani-Salek completed his residency program he actually may have had two more residencies in New York before coming to Nevada.

Krotke said the board allowed for an extended investigation in the case because of problems getting information from Iran and also getting the documents translated.

But Fani-Salek never took any steps to answer the questions of the medical board, Clark said. "We gave him plenty of time," he said. "He has been in Iran since January and he has not been able to clean it up."

The board decided to suspend the license Friday. In this way, the disciplinary action would be reported nationally so Fani-Salek could not practice in another state.

Dushoff said Fani-Salek is "trying to straighten this out." He said, "Iran is not America." It's not like the United States, where a person can go to his or her university and immediately obtain a transcript, he said.