US basketball player suspected of forging documents
Chelsey Lee
Seoul prosecutors said Wednesday an American basketball player who recently played in the local league is suspected of forging documents to play in South Korea.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said Chelsey Lee and her two agents are accused of forging her and her father's birth certificates last year to play in the Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL).
Under the league's regulations, foreigners who have South Korean parents or grandparents can play in the league as overseas Koreans. The WKBL teams can each have up to two foreign players, but overseas Koreans don't count toward that quota.
During the 2015-2016 season, Lee, who said she has a paternal grandmother who is Korean, played for Bucheon KEB Hana Bank in the WKBL, averaging 15.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game to win the Rookie of the Year and help her team reach the championship series.
After the season, the 26-year-old center was recommended for special naturalization by the Korea Basketball Association and the Korean Olympic Committee, so that she could help South Korea qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.
The Ministry of Justice, however, asked prosecutors to investigate her in April, saying some of the documents provided by her seem to have been doctored.
After a months-long investigation, prosecutors concluded that the certificates were forged, and the person listed on the death certificate Lee provided as her grandmother's had no relationship with Lee. The prosecutors added that the birth certificate Lee submitted as her father's was also fabricated, saying the person on the document doesn't even exist.
Prosecutors said they asked the U.S. authorities for cooperation as Lee and her agents, who are known to be in the United States, have not responded to prosecutors' calls for investigation.
Following the prosecutors' announcement, KEB Hana Bank immediately released a statement apologizing for the incident.
"We will take stern legal measures against Chelsey Lee and her agents," it said, adding the owner of the club, Chang Seung-chul, will resign from the position if the documents are ultimately found to be forgeries.
Since the probe was launched, KEB Hana Bank suspended contract renewal talks with Lee and placed her on the restricted list. Under the current circumstances, she cannot transfer to another team without the consent of the original club.
The WKBL also apologized in a statement, saying it will cooperate with the authorities until the court makes the final verdict. Yang Won-jun, the league secretary-general, said it will soon have a board meeting and convene an arbitration committee to discuss the matter.
"We have gone through every possible screening process of the documents that we can do here," Yang said. "But we have to check what went wrong. We will discuss our policy on mixed-blooded players." (Yonhap)