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Chelsey Lee Forged Documents!

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Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Chelsey Lee

Former Rutgers player and current member of the Washington Mystics training camp roster, Chelsey Lee, played as a “half Korean” player this past season in the Korean League. The WKBL allows all team to sign two foreign players with only one foreigner allowed in the game at a time. In addition to the two foreigners, the WKBL allows for people who are half korean or quarter Korean to count as full Koreans on the roster. Therefore they can be in the game along with the other American player. In a move that many were skeptical about, Lee apparently provided documents to the league that proved that her late grandmother was half or full Korean. The exact details were never made available to the public but there was speculation throughout the season that Chelsey Lee was not part Korean. During her season with Hana Bank, Lee helped to lead them to the Korean League Finals where they eventually lost to the defending champions Woori Bank. It was a turnaround season for Hana Bank as they had missed the playoffs the past several seasons.

It was not until the Korean National team attempted to naturalize Chelsey Lee which is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country that the documents were found to be suspicious. This is an ongoing investigation but the preliminary findings are that the birth certificates that were presented by Lee and her representatives for verification had been forged. If the allegations are found to be true, it will taint the results of the entire 2015-2016 WKBL season. We will have more information as it is released.

Reports on the matter in Korean;