In a letter to Kelu Chao, the head of the United States World Media Organization (USAGM), a number of Republicans in the US Congress have asked her to explain why she was re-hired by the VOA. The deputies demanded a list of those who appointed Setareh Derakhshesh to the job.
In the letter, dated Wednesday, October 27, Michael McCaul, James Comer, John Curtis, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Lee Zeldin and Jeoff Duncan asked Chao, why despite the accusations leveled at Setareh Derakhshesh on “financial exploitation” and “distortion of information” that led to her dismissal, she has been re-employed?
The Congress Foreign Relations Committee contacted officials from the Sorbonne University in France, as well as the Higher Education Office of the French Embassy. Finally, they confirmed that the document she presented to the USAGM as a higher education degree was not a university degree, but only a confirmation of the courses he had taken at home. The Sorbonne University in France has confirmed that Derakhshesh has not received any doctoral degree from this university.
In another part of the letter, the delegates of the Congress questioned the “honesty”, “competence” and “comprehensiveness” of the investigation into Setareh Derakhshesh and emphasized that there was no choice but to have the necessary transparency and cooperation from the French authorities in this case. Understanding the behind-the-scenes facts has been hampered by the fact that the illegal actions of the people involved in the case have not been exposed.
“Letting fake or distorted credentials to get a job is a crime,” the letter said. She has presented herself on the “Iranian women’s movement from constitutionalism to the Islamic Revolution,” but follow-up shows she does not have a doctorate from the Sorbonne, and evidence shows that what she presented is fake, and the Sorbonne’s judicial office is investigating whether she did Wrote a thesis or not!
The House Foreign Affairs Committee tried five times to get the results of the investigation into the Setareh Derakhshesh, but failed. In the end, the report they received was full of contradictions.
The deputies demanded that it be announced who and in what process decided to re-hire Setareh Derakhshesh on VOA, as the US World Media Organization investigated her in 2020, which eventually led to the termination of Derakhshesh’s contract with VOA.
There were several reasons for the termination of the contract, including “distortion of personal information” and “misuse of financial resources”. However, the Recruitment Committee (USAGM) decided to hire her again in early February 2020!
The recruitment committee, in justifying its decision to re-hire Derakhshesh, claimed that the initial investigation into her was incomplete and assured that she would have no problem re-hiring her, after which a more detailed and thorough investigation into the allegations against Derakhshesh would be conducted.
The letter from the delegates to Kelu Chao emphasizes that there are serious problems in the second phase of the investigation into the status of Setareh Derakhshesh, including that the investigation is entrusted to exactly the same people who conducted the first phase of the investigation. Incidentally, an examination of the content of the report of the second phase of the investigation shows the extent to which the second report is incomplete and has substantial omissions.
The signatories to the letter stressed that “the very brief explanations provided in this report show that it is merely general and lacks thematic coherence, and that it has many shortcomings compared to what led to the removal of Derakhshesh in the 2020 report.”
On the other hand, the report does not provide any reliable information on the role of Michael Peck, former director of the United States Media Organization.
This issue is currently being pursued through the Judiciary Office of the Sorbonne University.
“Our impression is that you [Kelu Chao] played a role in her re-employment with VOA because of your personal relationship with Setareh Derakhshesh,” seven members of Congress wrote in the letter.
The delegates also demanded that the correspondence from several directors of the United States World Media Organization and VOA be provided on specific dates to investigate the details of this suspicious recruitment.
