Arash Derambarsh

In 2008 Arash Derambarsh claimed to have been appointed president of Facebook and wanted to "speak to the world"[4] but it was found to be a gross exaggeration and distortion of reality meant at gaining quick celebrity.[5]

Derambarsh enrolled in a PhD degree in 1998. In December 2015, after having been rejected from University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas in his PhD studies, he obtained a PhD in Law from University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. This allowed him to join the bar without passing the bar exam, which he had previously failed twice.[6] The PhD was made secret to the public until 2047, because it allegedly had top secret content.[7]

An anonymous Twitter account nonetheless obtained the PhD and argued that 95% of the thesis had been plagiarised and that hundreds of pages did not have any footnotes. It led to an enquiry from the disciplinary section of the academic council of the University of Paris 1. On 10 July 2020 it found that most of the dissertation was plagiarised and that he improperly used the status of allegedly confidential information to conceal his offence, and that at least 76% of the thesis was copy-pastes without quotation marks. Derambarsh produced falsified versions of the thesis before the Disciplinary Section of the Academic Council. The disciplinary section also found that the jury was illegally composed because there was only one full professor of law. The jury was found also improper since none of the members, including the thesis advisor, were remotely specialists of the subject of the dissertation. Moreover, the president of the jury, Frédéric Lefebvre, is a politician from the same party of Derambarsh and was himself caught for plagiarism for a book published by a publishing house owned by Derambarsh. Bruno Dondero, the thesis advisor after Derambarsh was rejected from University of Paris II, told the disciplinary section that the rules had been followed and that the mandatory summary of the defence (which legally had to be given to the academic record) was in a computer that had been stolen.[8][9][10] The doctorate of Derambarsh was nullified and he was forbidden to apply to any university for 5 years.

Unless he successfully appeals this judgement, it will most likely result in his expulsion from the bar.[11]

After being informed of the huge pile of food expired and dumped in the cities by supermarkets and people, he tried to give the food that is still usable to the poor. Derambarsh successfully gathered 210,000 signatures, with the help of his group, to bring a bill to the parliament. Eventually a bill was passed, requiring supermarkets that are larger than 400 square meters to give usable expired food to the poor or a fertilizer company for animal food instead of dumping it.[12][13][14] Schools are also required to train children to consume food in the right way.[15] For his work against food waste he was awarded the WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award and SEK 1 million in 2019.[16] His debut book, Manifeste contre le gaspillage alimentaire is the story of a parliament representative who tries to keep large supermarkets from dumping their usable expired food. He won the Edgar-Faure award for the best political book of the year.[17] He was named as one of the one top hundred thinkers of the world in 2016 by Foreign Policy.[18] He wrote the book Tomber 9 fois, se relever 10 - Échec scolaire, ne jamais lâcher in 2019.[19][20]

However, Arash Derambarsh's actual contribution to the French legislation on food waste has been repeatedly challenged: in April 2016, Libération republished a long article from Les Inrockuptibles insisting that Arash Derambarsh and the buzz around his action was just "a fraud" ("une imposture").[21] In July 2017, Arash Derambarsh consequently sued Laurent Joffrin, Libération's chief editor; however, on November 30, 2018, the complaint against Laurent Joffrin was discharged as Arash Derambash's lawsuit was considered to be null and void.[22] The then Minister for the Food Industry, Guillaume Garot, had previously expressed his concern about Derambarsh's "unquenchable thirst for recognition by the media",[23] as well as the concern of some associations about the dangers entailed by Derambarsh's "superficial" proposals.[24]