Mahsa Parviz
An honest assessment/review
March 11, 2022
by Andrew G. Watters
Her false c.v., which she sent to me in May 2021. 
Mahsa Parviz, aka Mahsa Parviz-Khyavi, aka Mahsa Parvis, is quite simply the worst person I have ever met in my life-- narrowly taking the crown from my former business collaborator Ben Cannon. While the harm to society caused by Ben is objectively worse considering that Ben has an entire fake telecom company that has scammed people out of possibly millions of dollars, the difference is that Mahsa is someone I was emotionally involved with in my personal life and at one point cared very much about. Anyway, Mahsa is a diabolically clever sociopath, a pathological liar, delusional, suffering from an undetermined mental illness, and is also now an approximately nine-time convicted felon. Most recently, she was convicted of two felonies in Federal court after a jury trial in December 2021, which arose from her falsifying a passport application in order to kidnap her estranged daughter to a non-extradition country (case no. CR 21-293-DMG in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California). I am so glad I didn't have to testify in her trial, but that's only because I made it clear to her lawyer's investigator that I would be speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth-- not covering for her or vouching for her as she asked me to do. Despite making my views clear, despite recently marrying my dream girl (which Mahsa bizarrely congratulated me for), and despite my repeated demands that she stop sending me letters, texts, and emails, and stop calling me, Mahsa still keeps reaching out to me for reasons unknown. I mean, damn, I didn't know I was all that, but in any case, I'm sure I'm not alone in being the victim of her fraud and the subject of her continuing attention.
I decided to post this web page because I have no other way to deter Mahsa from continuing to contact me, and because it really pissed me off that she was impersonating a Harvard Medical School graduate (and I believed her). I am posting this web page with the full support of my wife, who understands my reasons. Hopefully I will shame Mahsa into silence with the truth, and also provide fair warning to other people who fall victim to her lies and fraudulent schemes (just like I have with Ben Cannon). So let me make one thing clear at the outset: until February 2, 2022 when I discovered the truth, I fully believed that Mahsa, who still signs her emails as "Dr. Parviz" or "Mahsa Parviz, M.D. Ph.D.," actually held those degrees from Harvard due to her fake Harvard web page that she somehow posted on the official Harvard website, as well as her actually functional Harvard email address (mparviz@fas.harvard.edu). "Dr." Parviz, it turns out, was never a student at Harvard Medical School. She was in the Extension program at Harvard, which she did not complete, and has never earned any degrees there. I discovered this when I found a declaration from a Dean at Harvard explaining that Mahsa's frivolous lawsuit against Harvard for the return of her (non-existent) transcripts was totally and completely without merit. It appears from her application that she attended a junior college in Texas, followed by the University of Texas, which she may or may not have completed. So she at least has a high school diploma or GED, as admitted in her pre-sentencing objections...great.
Let's start at the beginning, which was April 2021. I had posted a profile on a major online dating website. I found Mahsa in a search for tall, attractive, athletic women under 35 with graduate degrees (lol). Yeah, she was seriously attractive-- a 5'9 dark-haired Persian statue, basically. Unfortunately I deleted all those photos when it became clear that she was a beautiful psycho. Anyway, we met in April 2021 (she was 45 minutes late for our first date, and I nearly left). We hit it off great and were talking about how great we were for each other. Everything seemed great for 24 hours, but then I googled her. In addition to her Harvard persona, her mug shot from one of her cases came up and I was confused. Wait a second...did I just...you know...with a multiple felon who was pretending to be someone else? Oh my freaking god.
"Every nerve ending, all of my senses, the blood in my veins, everything I had was screaming, 'Take off, man, just bam, get the fuck outta there!' Panic hit me like a bucket of water. First there was the shock of it--BAM, right in the face! Then I'm just standing there drenched in panic." --Mr. Orange, Reservoir Dogs (1992)
But wait...was this really the same person? That's where it got confusing. She had talked about wanting to complete the Law Office Study Program offered by the State Bar of California in order to...become a lawyer. A lawyer who pled guilty to attempted kidnapping, evading the police, apparently forging a judge's signature, and other felonies? Impossible that this was the same person.
It was the same person. Mahsa Parviz, at that point a seven-time convicted felon, actually asked me to study law in my office so she could become a lawyer. I told her that if those things were true, then she had zero chance of ever becoming a lawyer with that record, and it was a complete waste of effort that I was not willing to undertake. I asked her to explain her possible multiple felonies, and she initially said those had all been dismissed. But that's not what the dockets showed-- the dockets showed that her appeals had been dismissed as part of her guilty pleas. What the hell was going on? I explained this to her and she steadfastly denied ever being convicted of these seven felonies. Was I supposed to believe or not believe her without independent proof? I have no idea. Obviously, now I know the truth, but at the time it wasn't clear. By the way, she said she was not married (also a lie-- she was briefly married to the father of her child and apparently still is because her nullity petition in L.A. County was dismissed for lack of prosecution).
Let me be clear on another thing: I never was hired as Mahsa's attorney, nor did I ever appear for her in any case or file papers for her. I did help out with a couple legal issues as best I could while dating her, which is perfectly legal. At no point in this essay do I reveal anything confidential, which in any case (i.e., like Ben Cannon) would be covered by the crime/fraud exception, in that Mahsa was committing crimes, was a fugitive from justice on a Texas warrant, and was otherwise scamming me into helping her get her daughter back (her parental rights had been terminated in Texas). She was obsessed with this crusade to the point of extorting me into providing legal help by threatening to end the relationship if I didn't comply. Of course it seemed less sick at the time when I was blinded by the possibility of having finally met someone great for me after a long drought.
This email that I sent to the Harvard IT department in February 2022 sums it up well:
Dear Mr. Dash, You're listed as the Administrative Contact in the harvard.edu domain name record, and you seem to be the appropriate recipient for this inquiry. I am a lawyer in California. I have been following the case of USA v. Parviz, which is a Federal criminal case in Los Angeles, CA against Mahsa Parviz. Ms. Parviz was recently convicted of filing a false passport application and aggravated identity theft in connection with an attempt to abduct her estranged biological daughter from foster care. Ms. Parviz and I were in a personal romantic relationship in Spring 2021. When I learned that she was (at that time) a seven-time felon, was suffering from poorly treated or untreated mental illness, and was a compulsive liar, I ended the relationship. What I didn't know until yesterday 2/2/2022 was that she never attended Harvard Medical School and never earned a M.D. or Ph.D. there, contrary to her continuous representations-- at least as of October 2021, she continued to sign her emails with both of her non-existent degrees. At the beginning of the relationship, I tried to do my due diligence by Googling her, and my search produced the following legitimate-looking Harvard web pages: https://scholar.harvard.edu/mparviz https://collaborate.med.harvard.edu/display/~MP284/Parviz%2C+Mahsa She also had a valid Harvard email address that she used to accept email-- which is still valid as of today, as verified by connecting to the Harvard email server via Telnet: mparviz@fas.harvard.edu Finally, Ms. Parviz has several purported publications, and even courses she supposedly taught, listed on her Harvard web pages. The collection of Harvard web pages and related materials made me believe that she had the degrees she represented, and I didn't feel the need to look further. The fake Harvard persona tipped the balance between dating her and not dating her, as well as believing her or not believing her, as I'm sure it has for other guys as well. It turns out that Ms. Parviz was enrolled in Harvard Extension School for a time, according to records filed in a lawsuit in 2017 when Ms. Parviz sued Harvard to release her non-existent Harvard Medical School transcripts. Please see attachment, which is the declaration of the H.E.S. Dean explaining the circumstances, and attaching Ms. Parviz's application for Harvard Extension School that clearly shows Ms. Parviz's situation. I have no idea why Ms. Parviz would sue Harvard knowing that she never attended Harvard Medical School and could not possibly have any transcripts there, but perhaps that is due to some type of mental condition. Anyway, Ms. Parviz appears to have hacked or at least misused her Harvard Extension credentials to create a fake identity on the Harvard website and make people think that she was an accomplished medical researcher and graduate of Harvard. Her Harvard web pages readily appear on Google when people search for her name, although her criminal cases have taken precedence at this point. I am counting myself lucky to have not (so far) had permanent fallout from this toxic relationship, other than a continuous stream of harassing and inappropriate emails, letters, and texts. But I would like to ask Harvard to at least consider deleting Ms. Parviz's web pages and disabling her email address for violations of the Harvard acceptable use policy so that her substantial fraud does not continue. The imprimatur of Harvard is a big deal and is worth protecting from frauds and cheats. I'm cc'ing the prosecutors in Ms. Parviz's case because I think Ms. Parviz's fraudulent Harvard persona is relevant to her sentencing, which is coming up in March 2022. She's at least rational enough to know that impersonating a Harvard M.D./Ph.D. is wrong, and I hope that this awareness and her bad behavior factor into her sentencing in some fashion. Best, Andrew Watters
So...you be the judge. Was I reasonable in believing her when she steadfastly, repeatedly, and consistently claimed to have Harvard degrees that appeared confirmed by her official-looking Harvard web pages? I don't know. She had photos and other evidence showing that she worked at the hospital at Harvard in some capacity, and lots of credible-sounding stories. But let's continue with the story.
Colorful highlights of this awful experience include, but are not limited to:
- She once asked me to reload a prepaid American Express card for her while she waited in the car, and it's still unclear to me whether the hundred dollar bills she handed me were authentic or counterfeit. I had this thought and realized the risk while the 7-11 clerk was counting out the bills and then hesitated (while looking at me a little funny) before handing them back to me when Mahsa's AMEX prepaid card was declined to be reloaded. I shrugged, then I bought a few small items in the store and acted as normal as I could while the clerk was staring at me. I was absolutely sweating bullets as I walked out of that store because I knew that I would be the one to get in trouble for handing the clerk an envelope of possibly fake bills without actually looking at the bills first...yeah, what a dummy for trusting her. Thank god the card was declined, which on a reload could only mean one thing...Mahsa was on the run (turns out she had an active warrant in Texas). In all fairness, I did glance at the bills after the reload failed, and I didn't see anything suspicious, which is why the relationship continued. But my point is that this is how easily I could have been arrested and possibly lose my law license because of Mahsa manipulating me. Wow, she is truly diabolical and has absolutely no regard for other people.
- She was legally homeless (she claimed to be searching for a place after recently moving back to the area from Texas) and bounced around from hotel to hotel depending on whichever hotel would let her stay there with a prepaid card. Her parents gave her a lot of money, which is how she supported herself while being unable to work a normal job.
- She was charged with grand theft in state court for allegedly stealing a guy's jewelry and Adderall. The case has languished in Santa Clara County, presumably due to her Federal charges and conviction.
- I witnessed her commit at least one petty theft when she deliberately entered a gym without paying after she told me her membership had expired, and then abused their generosity by using the entire facility for hours, even after they closed and I was waiting for her in the parking lot for about 45 minutes.
Don't get me wrong-- there were some positive things in the relationship after she assured me she was not a seven-time felon and also swore that to the extent she had legal problems, it's because she was framed by her former brother-in-law, a lawyer in Texas. I thought that maybe this was my destiny: a beautiful, superintelligent young woman who was a possibly reformed criminal but who adored me, and that this was my chance to finally have someone in my life. What could I do?
Okay, so fast forward to early June 2021. After yet another argument where she threatened to dump me if I didn't help get her daughter back, and another series of erratic, bizarre SnapChat audio messages at 3 a.m., I decided that I had had enough. I dumped her and sent her a Dear Jane email. I blocked her on SnapChat, phone, and email, and promised myself that I would never make the same mistakes again.
After about five weeks of not hearing from her, I felt a sense of relief, but also a sense of curiosity. Why hadn't I heard from her when she had been so vocal in her desire to rekindle the relationship? I googled her again and was shocked to see USA v. Parviz, the Federal criminal case regarding the false passport application. I confirmed that she was in custody using the Federal inmate locator, and that answered my question. Part of me felt bad for her and the other part of me felt glad that she was behind bars. So I felt conflicted...and keep in mind, at this point I still thought she was an accomplished medical researcher with M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard. So what did I do? I wrote her a letter stating how I felt, as well as my concerns about her competency to stand trial in a Federal criminal case. Whoops...this appears to have prompted the ongoing campaign of harassment I have experienced.
First, she started writing me letters-- about twenty pages of letters, many of which talked about the future in an endearing fashion. Then she starting calling, texting, and emailing. I was still developing the situation, so I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to talk to her on jail calls, and I didn't want to get texts from her. So I let her send emails. Honestly it was an engaging correspondence for about a month and a half until I finally blocked her after yet another inappropriate series of messages. I can't recall exactly what she said, but it was something about being taken care of financially by someone else who she was talking to. I thought, wait a second-- you send me letters talking about a future with me and then you threaten to pick someone from a purportedly deep pool of suitors? Sick, which is how she thinks.
So yeah, by then I had met my now-wife and the rest is history. But I still keep getting calls, texts, and emails from Mahsa and/or her mom. The last straw was yet another time-wasting request where Mahsa asked me to send her "file" to her attorney, who her mom confirmed was the longtime family attorney. The problem is, when I reached out to confirm the request with the attorney, he said he didn't represent Mahsa-- and he didn't respond to my subsequent email asking if he still wanted anything I had gathered while helping out Mahsa with her legal problems. I then blocked Mahsa's latest phone number (somehow she keeps sending texts from jail), complained to the Bureau of Prisons, and made it clear that if I get a single additional communication from Mahsa, I will finally get that restraining order I talked about previously. I am not sure what that would accomplish considering that Mahsa is already in jail, but it would be a symbolic gesture at least. I am finally taking this complaint online because I have nothing else I can do at this point to stop her harassing communications for good.
What did I learn from all this? Well, some people are just so screwed up that they can't help but commit felonies. Mahsa appears to be one of those people. In retrospect, I just have to recognize that I am the victim of a scam and go from there. At least I don't appear to have any lasting effects from this toxic relationship, other than emotional trauma from the roller coaster I experienced. I am eternally thankful that I was able to resist the temptation of someone so wrong but so attractive, in order to meet someone so right (and just as attractive), who I am with now.
If further proof is needed, just check out the summary of the trial evidence from the government that's in their opposition to Mahsa's motion for acquittal. Sad. The motion for acquittal was obviously denied. And she hasn't even tried to appeal her conviction!
To be continued...not bad for one day of effort! I have way more things to share, but I will start by adding more supporting documents as I find the time so that this is finished once and for all and is unassailable proof that this walking disaster of a person needs to disappear for the length of her sentence, which I estimate at five years given her lengthy and serious criminal history. Looks like May 3, 2022 for sentencing.
Update March 14, 2022 - the Harvard information security department is looking at the web pages and they sent a polite email back.
Update March 19, 2022 - Harvard deleted her fake web page.
Update March 21, 2022 - I've heard from a couple other victims, as well as one person who wants to post counterpoint-type mitigating factors on here. After much consideration, I've decided that I'm going to host a counterpoint/mitigation section below with comments and supporting documents from persons who want to defend Mahsa in some fashion-- as long as they take responsibility for whatever they post on here with their names and contact information. It's only fair to permit that since I have a megaphone here while Mahsa is in prison and can't respond.
Update April 4, 2022 - I had a very interesting conversation with another victim who says Mahsa tried to take him for a million dollars. Wow.
Update June 19, 2022 - Mahsa's sentencing will be in July 2022. Meanwhile, she followed through on her extortionate threat to report me to the State Bar if I didn't remove my web page. I received a letter of inquiry, to which I responded within 20 minutes. I have nothing to hide and I categorically deny doing anything improper. As a thank-you for her extorting me, I am going to post an email I received from one of her Boston-area friends, who says he sent the following email to Mahsa's family in an effort to conduct an intervention. Here it is, verbatim:
Dear Mr. Parviz, My name is Andrew Taylor; I have been a friend of your daughter Mahsa for a few months now. Mahsa is an intelligent, hard-working, lovely young woman in whom I see tremendous potential. However, as I’m sure you’re aware, she has led a lifestyle here in Boston that is causing me and the rest of her friends great concern. We wish to intervene and help her make better decisions but we don’t quite know where to start; I am writing today to solicit your input. Among her concerning behaviors: -Compulsive drinking. Mahsa, despite being legally underage, consumes significant amounts of alcohol on a daily basis, despite having endured an alcohol-induced miscarriage during her relationship with Mark as well has having been arrested for DUI. Her alcohol consumption has reached the point that we cannot take her to a restaurant that serves alcohol without her ordering several drinks, regardless of her ability to afford them or any events on her agenda that would require her to present a polished image; there have been several instances where Mahsa’s alcohol consumption has resulted in her missing job interviews and classes at Harvard. I have personally witnessed her using her sister’s driver’s license numerous times as a means to enter liquor stores and drinking establishments. -Compulsive shopping and financial irresponsibility. Mahsa owns numerous clothing articles from very reputable name brands (Gucci, Prada, etc.) and continues to buy many more, yet she has no clear means of affording them. Visits to her apartment have resulted in her friends, myself included, finding notices from Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and Walmart, demanding immediate payment for significantly large credit balances Mahsa owes them; Mahsa recently disclosed to her boyfriend [redacted] that her credit score is only slightly higher than 500, which doesn’t qualify her for a loan of any sort. To illustrate her lack of financial responsibility, this semester, she complained to her boyfriend, [redacted], that she was unable to afford her tuition for the semester. [redacted] immediately suggested that she return some of her very expensive clothing items, in response to which she threatened to divorce him if he ever suggested such an idea if they were to get married. Further, she has bragged to several of her friends, myself included, that nothing gets her parents to send money to fuel her shopping habits more quickly than the phrase “Mommy, I’m hungry!”. -Poor language. Mahsa doesn’t hesitate to use obscenities when addressing her friends, especially if she is upset. I recently inquired with her about why her Facebook and LinkedIn profiles suggest she is a PhD candidate at Harvard, when I know first-hand that she is attempting to get into the ALM (Master of Liberal Arts) program in finance at Harvard. Her response was the following: “Hey fat fuck! Yeah I'm getting my masters and my phd. Go stick it up your butt buddy [redacted]'s ass and don't speak to me again. I don't talk to your kind loser. :)...you have no friends you depressed fucking loser” I wish I could tell you that outbursts like these are rare but unfortunately, they are quite common. Mahsa routinely talks like this to anyone here in Boston who has the nerve to refuse her demands, most commonly for alcohol and money, or when the truth in her statements comes under question. -Sexual promiscuity. Mahsa has disclosed to [redacted] that she has had numerous sexual partners, many of whom with which she has had unprotected sex. She has had numerous relationships, all of which have been terminated as a result of her being sexually unfaithful to her partner; her most recent relationship with [redacted] ended as when she came to Dallas for a wedding, she had sex with a surgeon she met at the wedding. Mahsa received a birth control shot shortly after she moved to Boston, presumably with money provided by you, and has used this as an excuse to have unprotected sex with men she typically has known for less than a couple of weeks. We are worried that when the shot’s potency inevitably wears off, her sexual habits will continue which, combined with her egregious alcohol consumption, will result in Mahsa enduring a second miscarriage. Mr. Parviz, I’m not writing to you today with the intention of ratting her out, I’m writing because I and all of my mutual friends with her know that this pattern of irresponsibility will result in imminent consequences for her. We wish to intervene before it is too late but she has resisted our efforts and continues to habitually make poor decisions. Any sort of encouragement or advice you can provide to me would be greatly appreciated. With warmest regards, Andrew Taylor
And here is my email exchange with the State Bar of California. What a sick joke-- this is the thanks I get for trying to help.
Update July 2, 2022 - Mahsa's State Bar complaint was dismissed, as expected. Meanwhile, the Government filed a pre-sentencing report recommending a sentence of 81 months (6 years 9 months) in prison due to Mahsa's extensive criminal history and flagrant disregard for the law. I was disappointed to see the Harvard angle omitted from the report, but I guess they had enough ammunition without it. According to Mahsa's defense counsel's own psychiatric evaluation of her, she has Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder. I am not surprised in the least by that, nor am I surprised by her trying to get out of a stiff sentence by claiming that her mental health problems caused her to offend. Mahsa deserves to go to prison for a long time, and her sentencing is on July 12, 2022. Will update this with additional documents in the near future, including my restraining order filing that I've finally gotten around to completing.
Update July 3, 2022 - I heard from [redacted], who left me a voicemail stating that he cannot be associated with Mahsa in any way. I debated for a while before redacting his name from Mr. Taylor's email. On the one hand, redacting information is inconsistent with my policy of radical honesty. However, Mr. Taylor vouched for [redacted] and said he knew [redacted] is a good guy. That was enough for me, setting aside privacy concerns. So there you have it, I balanced privacy and radical honesty appropriately in a difficult case. Also, by request, here is the Government's pre-sentencing report, and Mahsa's response. I laughed out loud at her response, especially in the "acceptance of responsibility" section.
Update July 14, 2022 - Mahsa has been sentenced to 61 months in prison (five years, one month) followed by three years of supervised release during which she has to obtain mental health treatment. I am also ready to pull the trigger on the restraining order, I just need to sign the forms. I guess that's a wrap for now.
Update May 25, 2023 - I was wrong that this is over. Mahsa wrote me a letter threatening to file a frivolous Domestic Violence action against me in San Mateo County, where I practice, specifically to trash my reputation among the local judges-- unless I take down this web page. In case it wasn't clear, I do not censor my website for any reason. Extorting me into removing the web page, which is intended to protect the public from Mahsa's diabolical, illegal schemes, is the last straw. So I filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Washington, where Mahsa is incarcerated. Any interested persons can follow along on PACER using the case number.
Update July 24, 2023 - Well, Mahsa sued me for Domestic Violence due to this web page, of course leaving out the fact that she is in Federal prison and doesn't need any type of protection. Thankfully, the Temporary Restraining Order was denied. I'll post updates as I find the time.
Update December 2, 2023 - the DV case was dismissed in August, but so was the Federal case I filed against her. The Federal case is now on appeal in the 9th Circuit. Mahsa continues to harass me and I can't seem to escape this nightmare.
Update July 12, 2024 - I was provided a link to the oral argument in Mahsa's appeal, which is on YouTube courtesy of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Check this out: YouTube link. I didn't realize oral arguments were live streamed, but that's great. I think AUSA Seiden basically crushed it, although this was an interesting issue as demonstrated by the justices' questions to her. What do you think? There's no decision yet, but it's been two months since oral argument. You can infer they want to get this one right.
© Andrew G. Watters
Last updated: July 12, 2024 07:46:03