A woman, originally from Iran who claims to be a an oral and maxillofacial and global educator, has been in a battle for freedom since she was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Shohreh Ghasemi, who claims to be working toward permanent residency in the U.S., is fighting deportation. Ghasemi, who says she was imprisoned for political reasons in Iran in 2023, worries that she will be persecuted if she is returned to Iran.
But Ghasemi is not only embroiled in this legal battle; some claim that she faked her professional credentials.
In July, Ghasemi, 42, was detained in Vermont after reportedly illegally crossing the border. She entered the U.S. via Vermont after being denied entry in Canada. She reportedly had been in Toronto to speak at the launch of a new biotechnology company.
U.S. prosecutors claim that Ghasemi should be deported because she engaged in years of fraudulent misrepresentations, including practicing dentistry in Georgia without a dental license and falsifying her age on identification documents, according to news stories.
Ghasemi is in U.S. custody while her case moves through the court system. She is seeking to have her deportation deferred under the Convention Against Torture treaty. It allows a judge to stop Ghasemi from being sent back to Iran, where she may be tortured.
Ghasemi's alleged sketchy credentials
On her personal website, Ghasemi claimed to be a faculty member at the Georgia School of Orthodontics. However, it was revealed that she was never a faculty member. A faculty member and a lawyer at the school told state dental board investigators that Ghasemi gave one lecture to students there, according to a story published August 12 in Seven Days.
During the ensuing investigation, it was revealed that an employment contract Ghasemi gave to investigators reportedly had a forged signature from a faculty member, according to Seven Days.
Additionally, Ghasemi claimed that she had trained as an oral surgeon at the International University of Catalonia in Barcelona. A faculty member at the school said she only finished one year of the three-year oral surgery program, according to Seven Days.
An investigation into Ghasemi began in 2023 when a med spa, where she worked at the time, allegedly reported Ghasemi to Augusta University's board of ethics (Ghasemi was an adjunct professor), the Georgia Board of Dentistry, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations. Ghasemi's contract was not renewed after investigators gave school administrators a purportedly falsified note on university letterhead, according to the story.
A physician assistant at the med spa reached out to these organizations after witnessing Ghasemi perform a less invasive type of facelift. The assistant noted that it was obvious that Ghasemi was unfamiliar with medical care standards in the U.S. and that she was a danger to the public, according to the Seven Days story.
The assistant became suspicious when she learned that Ghasemi appeared to have no active medical or dental license in Georgia. Furthermore, in her communications with the agencies, the assistant alleged that Ghasemi had a history of misrepresenting herself as an oral surgeon and licensed dentist, according to the story.
Ghasemi was fired from the med spa.
On her social media, which has tens of thousands of followers, Ghasemi lists herself as having a PhD in oral and maxillofacial surgery and trauma and craniofacial reconstruction. Just three months ago, Ghasemi posted on her LinkedIn page that she was set to present her abstract about allograft techniques for implant therapy at FDI World Dental Congress 2026 in September.
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
