A trail of deceit has produced fake 2014-15 contracts for several American basketball players for the Aomori Wat's, The Japan Times learned during a one-month investigation of alleged fraudulent agents.
This was known first: The Wat's, a second-year franchise that had a winning record and earned a playoff berth in their first season, posted an Aug. 1 news release, written in both English and Japanese, on the team's website. It provided the first public notification about the problem. The headline appeared this way: "(WARNING) Important notification to overseas players."
Grey Peterson, with a listed phone number from Britain, and Anthony Newhouse were cited as "fake agents." Emails for both individuals were listed along with what the team reported as a phony email address used for false representation of the team.