Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is in negotiations with federal investigators about pleading guilty to charges of stealing from Ohtani’s bank account, according to a report from Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times. Ohtani has publicly accused Mizuhara — a longtime friend — of stealing from his accounts to pay off gambling debts which the interpreter had accrued.
A few weeks ago, ESPN reported that more than $4.5MM had been wired from Ohtani’s account to an illegal bookmaker in Southern California. The New York Times now reports that federal prosecutors have found evidence indicating that Mizuhara siphoned more than that initially reported $4.5MM figure, in part by disabling notifications that Ohtani would have received from his bank about account transactions.
The gambling debts first became public in late March while the Dodgers were playing the Padres in South Korea. Initially, Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani had wired the money to the bookmaker to cover the debt. Mizuhara subsequently retracted that statement, telling ESPN the next day that Ohtani had been unaware of the entire situation. The two-time MVP said the same, releasing a statement accusing Mizuhara of stealing the money and referring the matter to the authorities.
Both Ohtani and Mizuhara have stated that the two-way star did not place any bets. Mizuhara indicated that the bets were his alone but denied that he ever placed a bet related to baseball.
Tonight’s report from Arango and Schmidt adds context to the conflicting stories. According to the New York Times, Mizuhara and Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo of CAA, initially tried to manage the public relations fallout without informing Ohtani. The Times writes that Mizuhara first told Balelo that Ohtani had covered debts for an unnamed teammate. He then changed his story and admitted the debts were his own but still claimed that Ohtani agreed to pay them, which is the version of events he initially told ESPN.
According to the Times report, Mizuhara then provided that same account when speaking in English to the L.A. clubhouse. Ohtani, who was present for that clubhouse address, told reporters two weeks ago that he confronted his friend thereafter. At that point, according to Ohtani, Mizuhara admitted that he had stolen the money. The Dodgers fired him at that point.
The version of events laid out in the Times report aligns with Ohtani’s public declaration that he was unaware of Mizuhara’s activities and played no role in the gambling scheme. Of course, neither the legal process nor MLB’s investigation have been completed. Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor anyone from MLB has commented publicly since Ohtani’s statement on March 25. Arango and Schmidt report that Ohtani has met with authorities in recent weeks.
Wow the web of fraud we weave.
Poor unassuming victim ohtani
Seriously all i hear is ohtani got caught laundering money to cover his gambling debts to the mob
We’re never going to know the true story here.
Will it be the coverup?
Or will he roll over?
My guess is the former.
And the cover-up often causes more problems than that which is being covered up.
BAN OHTANI MANFRED.
Who’s “Ohtani Manfred?”
Baseball’s ultimate evil villain. Give him a white cat and you’ve got a movie.
Do sone Fed time, get a bag of cash for taking the fall.
Case closed!
why does everyone assume the truth can’t just be Ippei is a degenerate gambler and that’s it? ever heard of Occam’s Razor? guarantee if Ohtani wasn’t a Dodger this wouldn’t even be a scandal in the first place.
This is a big, nay, GIANT deal regardless of Ohtani-san’s employer. Besides, my assumption is most, if not all, bets were placed when “they” were Angels employees. Don’t get a false sense that this is an anti-Dodger thing…
Gotta disagree with you.
Him being on said team certainly plays a factor – the Dodgers one of the largest markets in all of baseball after all – but he is such a high profile player that I find it hard to imagine it not being a scandal even if he was on a different team.
@This comment section is a disaster
Why did you bring up Occams razor to scold the comment section? Just
To give an improper example.
The simplest is that it is newsworthy because it is something.
Not the conspiracy because he is a Dodger.
It’s possible that Ippei is soley responsible here… but so are the other scenarios that people are suggesting. Ohtani is important to the game, to the MLB and there is a lot of money that follows him. If he did bet, and bet on baseball, we may never know. It isn’t like Pete Rose when your career has ended and you’re no longer selling tickets/putting butts in seats. MLB and others have good reason to cover things up is what everyone is suggesting.
sure, to both you and other responders… my point is moreso that sports gambling is so widespread these days. i find it easier to believe that Ippei was responsible as a guy we know nearly nothing about (he’s hardly a public figure other than his role as Ohtani’s interpreter) just being a gambler, as opposed to Ohtani who nothing about his life indicates he would be the culprit. He’s definitely a big name but if he was on the Athletics (lol) or something I think people would more easily believe the conclusion that it was Ippei all along… though it’s true with what other commenters said that we will never know what exactly happened between them
@Oldhalo for anyone who works for MLB, trying a cover-up when there’s a federal investigation in play takes it from a “the league makes a bit less money” situation to a “you go to jail for obstruction of justice” situation. It’s really not a good idea.
Which, people do stupid stuff all the time, so not impossible. But for anyone who finds the official story hard to believe because how could they be that clumsy and incompetent—all the potential explanations are like that.
In what world would a bookie give an interpreter a 5 million dollar ceiling
Now ohtani on the other hand could get it
@adj1970 Ippei had access to Shohei’s bank account. It was needed to wire the money. That’s how the bookie gave the interpreter a ceiling. He was probably regularly good for it, up until the end. Did you think bookies cut you off once you’ve lost a certain amount of money? How kind
These harebrained conspiracy theories go no deeper than about 1mm below the surface…then it all falls apart…
The interpreter controlled the information flow. He could have had Ohtani “agree” to backing him right in front of his face and Ohtani would’ve been none the wiser.
He also had control of his bank accounts and could’ve sent the bookie a sizable amount as upfront proof he had cash.
The bookie also admittedly used Ohtani as a book builder, letting everyone (wrongly) know he had a relationship with him.
Your argument is the one that holds the least water.
Look at the time line we’ve gotten in reporting:
First, a player is a national figurehead back home, but, his interpreter reports about multi-millions in transfers as gifts, in a different lamguage/country. He *has* to know word gets back from all the player’s home country contacts about what happens, right?
Then, that story gets retracted and we are told it was actually theft and unauthorized transfers that nobody got word to the account holder about. Never mind the complexities of account access or authorization requirements to send wires of that size, or, how accountants, etc wouldnt say a thing or raise a flag about the rate of expenditures?
Then we’re told, wait, this is like charitable expenses donating gloves and things like that, which, is how they hid it…. BUT, someone would notice its always the same account, all the ither issues, blah blah blah. Leave all that mess aside for the sake of argument though.
Now, we’re told the player’s actual AGENT conspired with the thief, AFTER it was known it was THEFT, to hide the circumstances and fallout from his client, the player? Seriously?
It just keeps getting weirder and more unbelievable. *WHY* would the agent try to hide it from ohtani? Thats a guaranteed way to lose every client, your entire career, and destroy the agency. So *WHY* would you do it? What did the agent have to gain?
It makes no sense!
Of course it has to do with Ohtani and being a Dodger. You’d believe a Padre or Giant fan? There is also so much Dodger hate that many of these clowns believe anything negative about the Dodgers. You could probably convince them Ohtani was involved in the assassination of JFK even though he wasn’t born yet.
Not everyone, just the cynics and nihilists who believe everyone is just unprincipled as they are.
Lol at this guy. I’m sure if he were a Yankee or red Sox, no one would care. Victim status denied
Still better than seppuku!
That should be the consequence which will then allow the family to maintain their honor so it’s a win-win.
Yeah this smells real fishy. I guess it will come down to the plea he can get. If it’s near nothing he does it, if they try and give him 20 years his story will change again.
What did Simm say that was self-obsessed? He spoke his thoughts, and maybe he’ll be proven correct. Get over yourself, OJ.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” – OJ Enjoyer’s mom
You should have listened to your mom.
Gwynn
Muted
OJE
Muted
@filihok They still weren’t talking to you but OJE’s comments appear to have been “modded.”
He’s going to miss the boocockee now.
Pete Rose said it best, “I wished I’d had an interpreter…”
“I thought she was 16!”
Ahegao.
Needs an interpreter coz Pete’s watching too many pre teen Japanese anime
Rose is Patrick Reed. Always digging more. Could have come clean and shown humility, but a tool
If you could get Ohtani in “the box” to be interrogated by one TV detective, who would you choose?
Ohtani has made a lot of money playing baseball. But it’s hard to believe he could lose 4.5 million and not be aware of it. I’m sure he has accountants that handle his money. I doubt he keeps it in a coffee can under the bed. The story just doesn’t add up for me. It’s too much money.
Well, if you have hundreds of millions….
I doubt he has hundreds of millions liquid. I seriously doubt it.
Maybe arithmetic is not your strong suit.
By all means, explain it.
I want to know why someone with a staff of accountants gave access to his bank accounts to his interpreter. This story is highly unlikely. At a minimum, Ohtani knew he was paying his friend’s gambling debts. To me that’s the least damaging explanation to this story.
Why is it so hard to understand? Ippei wasn’t just simply an interpreter to Ohtani, they did just about everything together training, working out, eating, and probably slept under the same roof more often then Ohtani did with his own wife. If you wanted something from Ohtani there was very big chance that Ippei would involved in some way.
And yeah I would definitely say that Ohtani placed more trust into Ippei than he did to his accountants.
So you’re saying Ohtani is a complete fool. I don’t think that’s true. I’m a trusting person. No one who isn’t certified and bonded is getting access to my money even if they have the same last name as me.
Ohtani is no fool. He’s the one that came up with the contract structure the greatly benefits the Dodgers and himself, tax wise.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said in his debate when running for governor of California, that ‘loop hole is so big, I can drive my Hummer through it’.
So you’re saying that he spends more time with the guy than his wife – BUT over multiple years, and multiple money wires worth of losses adding up to $4M+…. He never saw the pattern of him checking on multiple games across multiple sports thinking it strange enough to ask why he cared? Never saw his mood change or was told by his best friend in the world about a big win or a bad beat? If you can buy that, you’ve never lived with an addicted gambler. I know people that would lie to their spouse about not being at the horse track, and still tell enough people about their wins that day to be found out a week later, multiple times. That’s addiction
To the people screaming “tin foil hat”
This is what critical thinking looks like!
Read the ESPN story. Feds detail it all….
Yeah, well Ohtani is also the ballplayer who in Japan continued to live in the team dormitory long after he could afford to move out. He wanted no distractions in his life so he could focus totally on baseball and accomplish his personal goals in the game, and they are very specific. He’s basically a baseball savant who needs trustworthy people around him to look after the other stuff.
I’m not sure why some find this is so hard to accept, but all the actual evidence we’ve seen so far points to him having picked the wrong person to trust. Call him naive if you like, but that sure doesn’t make him a bad person. So it all adds up, unless you really don’t want it to add up.
Agree
I was fleeced by my stealing lying ex-wife. Was too late once I figured it out. I am a well-educated hard-working professional, I didn’t spend much on myself and I assumed we’d never go broke because I earned and saved so much. I was working hard and dedicated to my job and my family so I didn’t have time to “waste” watching account balances (lesson learned, but too late).
Ohtani hasn’t had to worry about money, so maybe he didn’t (or didn’t until this lesson), and from all accounts he’s not a big spender He’s not the first athlete to be the victim of entitled hangers-on.
I was skeptical of this story at first but I’m starting to believe Ohtani is a completely innocent victim here. Just because he’s way richer and more talented than most of us will ever be doesn’t mean he’s a villain.
You must not realize how much money even 1 million is. He makes 60+ mil a year in endorsements. That’s part of why he wanted to defer his entire salary. He doesn’t need or use the money. People this rich don’t have any clue how much money they really have because they don’t look at their accounts regularly. This guy eats, sleeps and breathes baseball. English is not his first language. He was likely having Ippei do all of his American accounting. You have to change your mindset because its completely different for young wealthy athletes compared to the rest of us.
It depends on the person. People who made their fortunes through business or finance probably know their net worth on any given day right down to the penny, because being good at managing their money is how they got so much of it in the first place.
We shouldn’t expect someone who made their money by hitting and throwing baseballs to have financial skills or knowledge because it has nothing to do with how they made their fortunes. In fact it’s pretty common for athletes who made a lot of money at their sport to end up broke. Lottery winners often do too. If you have a lot of money someone is going to try to take it from you, and if you are unprepared, they will probably get it.
We already know that Mizuhara fabricated at least part of his own biography. We know that he has a gambling problem. We know that he lied. We also know that Ohtani made the mistake of trusting him. That’s the story so far.
Fall guy!
Agreed. Interested to see how MLB responds to the findings here. I say at minimum Ohtani has to be held accountable to the fact that millions of his dollars ended up in the account(s) of an illegal business.
To me, the optics here look really bad. MLB, owners and the PA, should impose more than a slap on the wrist? How about suspending him from playing the rest of this year? He comes back next year ready to both hit and pitch.
The findings have yet to be found. But I wonder, in what way do you imagine Ohtani should be “held accountable” if someone did in fact steal his money?
BTW, an important fact to know here is while this bookie has been under investigation for years, he has yet to be charged with any crimes.
Held accountable because his money went to a business, legal or not, that can take down baseball. Using this incident, MLB sends a message to all players to use the best in judgement when you or those around you may enjoy partaking in gambling and gaming activity. This cannot get out of hand.
It’s clear that those making accusations that Ohtani is guilty have zero idea how technology works. Banks keep logs of devices that connect to their networks. It’s trivial to look those up and determine which devices were used and at one time. If he deactivated the notifications so Ohtani wouldn’t see, to me, that’s a clear sign of guilt. Everyone seems to be guilty without due process anymore.
Yep. Trial by social media is the new norm.
The thing is…. And this is where it’s a bit muddy…the story didn’t say he disabled *all notifications*, just certain ones that seemed to enabled him to siphon more than the $4.5MM initially reported.
I am curious as to which notifications because that would tell its own story. Then, it begs the questions: how/why did Ippei have access to millions of dollars.
I’m not suggesting there isn’t a reason, but it does leave a lot of room for questions about Ohtani’s knowledge, or lack thereof.
No one cares what we think and speculation is to be expected on a website with comments. Riddle me this… Ohtani has to have “people” managing his money, how did his money people not notice 4.5 million being siphoned off? There certainly seems to be more to this story but not sure it ever comes out.
You need to be allowed due process in a court of law. Not real life.
Real life allows shortcuts, reasonable thinking, versus jobs for laws to tell you what is ethical. If you think law=ethics then stop reading.
Yes, it might me reasonable to say, I don’t know all the facts, so no comment.
People generally don’t want to stay quiet and revisit a news story five years later when all the facts are gathered from every source.
If someone you saw beats your daughter. Welp. Can’t make a decision until due process. May as well also wait until the court decides also, because until then, nothing happened. It is possible to not use the courts, and to use our brain.
Explain how an interpreter got a 5 million dollar line of credit from a bookie?
I could see where Ippei lied to the bookie and said this is all for Ohtani? Idk jus saying.
Ippei can’t grant himself access to Ohtani’s bank accounts. I’m needing an explanation for that access.
Absolutely plausible explanation: Ohtani granted him access because he trusted him and wanted someone he trusted to handle day-to-day transactions. Super-rich people do not go through the same thought processes as you or I when it comes to their finances. I absolutely find it believable that he would put the accounting in the hands of a friend he trusted so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it himself, and didn’t notice the missing money because a) when you have so many contracts and endorsement deals, it’s hard to keep track of exactly how much money is supposed to there, and b) when you are worth $100 million+, it genuinely wouldn’t matter to you if your balance was a few million less than it should be. The money is not Ohtani’s primary concern, and he’s shown that that throughout his career. Baseball is his primary concern.
Bookies that can handle 16 million in bets on credit always take random japanese interpreters word at face value and have zero recourse in vetting their clients.
None.
Read the espn.com story….
4.5 Million missing for over 6 months and Ohtani never knew it. Hmm
He’s the fall guy. I would say Ohtani’s representation doesn’t even know the whole story. You know the old saying three people can’t keep a secret.
I would say the truth is probably ohtani likes betting on sports. He probably didn’t bet on himself or against the angels a book wouldn’t take action like that inowbirs ohtani.
Ohtani loves to gamble they didn’t want that getting out interpreter took the fall
Yup hes the cash cow, his image and marketing reach are literally worth over a billion dollars
Its not hard to see whats going on here
The amount of haters that want nothing more than Ohtani to be guilty of this blows my mind. Ask yourself this question, if Ohtani was on your team, would you want the same? If the answer is no, you’re just a hater, if the answer is yes, then you are a liar.
If Ohtani was betting they’d discover it. The government doesn’t care about Ohtani’s baseball reputation.
^ finally, someone who gets it
But would they? You just need to sever *one* link in the chain – the interpreter.
Think about it. If ohtani never spoke directly to the bookie, it doesn’t matter if the bookie thought it was ohtani betting or not. That’s not proof ohtani bet.
If every bet went in from ippei, and, ohtani *only* told ippei what when and how to bet. Then, if ohtani didn’t tell anyone else he was betting…. if you make it worth ippei’s time to keep his mouth shut and claim responsibility….. dead end.
You just need ohtani to have kept his mouth shut about betting except to ippei, and, buy ippei off.
All the rest never gets past reasonable doubt.
But the govt does care about baseballs reputation
How did Ohtani’s interpreter gain access to his bank accounts? That is a very fair question. Someone needs to answer it.
Power of attorney that was supposed to be used for charitable donations/procurements purposes? Banks could rely on it expecting ohtani to monitor the holder of the power.
Interpreter given power of attorney instead of his accountants? Really?
@CardsFan57 You’re assuming Ohtani has a “team of accountants” or some group of people that watches his money. I have never seen that stipulated anywhere. Just because you’re a multi-millionaire doesnt mean you have all these things in place.
@CardsFan57 Reporters have interviewed former interpreters of Japanese players and some have said that it’s plausible for someone like Mizuhara to have some access to their bosses’ financials bc they often act as personal assistants as well. Ohtani and him were also bffs. You can find these interviews yourself.
$4.5 dollars access? My adult children would never have that kind of access until I’m dead or declared incompetent.
Are they at your beck and call 24/7 and drive you to work every day and stay to help you do your job? If one of them did so for years on end, you may offer them a debit card perhaps?
Things have gone awry when your guilty plea might well be perjury.
Remember that didn’t stop Greg Anderson, he chose to be incarcerated than to testify against Barry Bonds and it was multiple times. Comes to mind also the guys from the Pittsburgh trials of the 80s.
I’m still having a very hard time imagining a bookie letting the interpreter get that deep in. Bookies don’t let you get into that kind of debt just because you have rich friends. They need to be able to collect the money without you having to pull off a robbery.
You can if you keep introducing rich friends to the bookie to make bets and give them more favorable odds than legitimate betting outlets. I’ve mentioned this before that he was so bad at gambling from the get-go that he was never going to see a net dollar hit his own bank account. If he keeps introducing other whales, why cut him off?
Admittedly I’m no expert but… Don’t bookies function like legitimate sports betting where they try to balance out the action? If there’s winners on the other side of that 4.5 million someone paid them. All that being said I’m sure bookies do appreciate new rubes being brought to them, just not sure how much extra rope that would get you.
It’s likely he had history of substantial loss payments to the bookie. Each time he made a payment, his credit line would get increased. Every time he introduced a new client, he would earn referral betting credits which would not be valid towards negative balance repayment. Unlike legit betting outlets, bookies can limit cashout amounts to control their own cash flow. Winning bettors are OK with that arrangement bc they won’t need to report and pay taxes on their winnings.
Biggest crock of s*** of all time
Manfred is a f’in joke
The sport is a f’in joke
This poor interpreter is forced to take the fall
To save ohtani & his public image/career
Ohtani is a degenerate gambler. Deserves permanent ban like hit king & jail time!!!
Absolutely unbelievable!!!
Or bring Pete back & let him into HOF!
They might as well as MLB is in bed with gambling now.
Johnny U. You are a fool.
And an angry one at that……
Check the Japan records of who was betting amongst the two. Sometimes addictions just don’t go away with a change of scenery.
I think Ohtani was doing the gambling, and I don’t care. As long as he wasn’t betting against his team, I don’t care at all.
And you know he wasn’t betting against his team how?
I don’t “know” but I don’t think he was. I’m just here to watch the guys hit a ball with a stick.
I believe Ohtani.
While I don’t like his contract because it will cost cities and states huge amounts of tax revenue that they’ll never collect based on his salary structure, money they all desperately need, more than Ohtani does, tax scam aside, I do think he’s the victim of theft and he never knew about it.
Because our politicians use our tax dollars so judiciously.
Yes, definitely more so at the city and state levels, don’t kid yourself here. Every baseball city and state needs all the tax revenue they can get. Plus, why should he be able to avoid paying taxes that you or I or anyone else has to pay? Seems unfair to me, doesn’t it seem unfair to you too?
I’m not particularly concerned with the concept of fair. There’s so much government bloat and waste that any penny someone can avoid sending to the government I say more power to them. If our government had less money to waste, perhaps we could stop lining the pockets of politicians, stop fighting needless wars, and start taking care of the homeless and needy lining the streets in every baseball city.
Since something insane like 25% of our monetary supply has been created in the last 4 years… They should just fire up the presses and print our tax dollars. We’re doing that right now for a proxy war.
Well that’s one way to turn $700m into $460m
Uh huh
I want to believe him. Lying about the home run ball meeting makes that harder.
Foppert2-
He legit lied about meeting them? Good lordy.
All you idiots who tried to blame Ohtani and even now keep trying to avoid admitting you were stupid and let your distrust of non white people plus hate of dodgers blind you to fact that Ohtani is honest and a victim should shut up and apologize
This is the dumbest and most immature post I have ever come across. Hopefully, you are under the age of 21
Right and Greg Anderson never gave Bonds steroids. We will never know the full truth but there are 4.5 million reasons for this guy to fall on the sword for Ohtani. The first story still seems to make the most sense; Ohtani was covering the debts for a very close friend and didn’t realize he was breaking the law, so now that friend will do the time to protect Ohtani.
This is the least damaging and still believable explanation to this story. I find it incredibly hard to believe that the interpreter was granted access to Ohtani’s bank accounts.
Pete Rose, 1 interpreter shy of the HoF
Would any other player under this circumstance be put on administrative leave? Can’t remember when a player under investigation by the league, yet alone the FBI, wasn’t.
There’s gotta be plausible reason to think he’s guilty of something – not clear even the feds suspect him.
Under investigation = plausible to me
I love the sleuths it doesn’t add up for, even if it does for the actual Federal Investigators.
Are the federal investigators supposed to be some high standard? You must be 12.
I’m sorry for thinking of them more highly with all of their training and experience vs. you dudes on the toilet with your cellphones and critical tthinking. Humble apologies from this 12 (+36) year old.
#justiceforohtani
the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle .. ippei was probably making the easiest half million a year to help his meal ticket .. says a lot about ohtani if someone that close was able to pull the wool over his eyes repeatedly
Nobody is buying this story MLB
It’s very weird how baseball fans want MLB’s last chance at a global superstar in prison and banned from the sport.
Oh yeah def very weird for the gullible who only see him as that….not blaming the local blackouts and laughably rising costs to attend a game while attendance and ratings fall and 9 figure players salaries become the norm…while the local netwkorks file for bankruptcy. .lmfao let me put my blinders on tenfold and place a bet
Are you saying that people should want different laws for different people because of our own selfish reasons? You are right though. I wonder how many more worldwide athletes are more recognizable than the 2nd most famous MLB guy(judge?)
You’re telling me you have more info than the FBI that implicates Ohtani of a crime? Present your facts if you do
This post was brought to you by FanDuel. Or draft kings. One of the two.
Nothing is gonna happen to Ohtani, regardless of whether or not he was ignorant or complicit in all of this.
The best thing to do is move on with your lives.
Also – Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame.
Was it reported that Shohei had a key man clause and that Ippei may have been one of those key men?
If Ohtani’s intrepreters bookie had an all access pass to the bank roll of Ohtanis funds why would he need the interpreter? Don’t be foolish or that naive it is what it is at this point..
Literally blacked out from Cubs@Padres games despite being more than 1200 miles from either city……i sincerely wish mlb could explain that atrocity
They think the padres double-A team here in San Antonio has that big of a following? I’ve been here for 15 years they are horribly misguided to say the very very least
Disabling the Notifications?
Did he disable the Notifications to Ohtani’s accountant
Or was the accountant taking a snooze?
None of this makes sense to me
Plus what about all those bank wire fees that accumulated? Beneficiary Deductions?
Something smells here still
Something smells in your thinking. Time to take it to the trash.
latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-11/ohtanis-fo…
Well, this article does not say all that much
Well, this article says pretty much everything, especially if you watch the video. You will know that Mizuhara became Ohtani’s intermediary on everything and succeeded in keeping his finances private, even from his agent, and when he needed to deal with the bank he impersonated Ohtani. It’s all there, it’s all documented, and Mizuhara has confessed. Why this is so hard for some to figure out or accept puzzles me no end.
The accountant gets monthly bank statements
16 million bucks just leaving the account is horrific
You don’t actually know who got what. It was an embezzlement. He skimmed for years. Nobody is saying it was good.
Can’t wait for MLB to look the other way when Jackson Holliday’s interpreter is involved in criminal activity.
Fall guy.
So Pete Rose gets investigated by multiple parties, but Saint Ohtani says he knew nothing, and case closed.
This is exactly what I’d expect from society today. We have morals and standards…until money is there to be made. If this is a bench player on the Dodgers, dude’s banished yesterday.
So this case is obviously far from “closed” but those of us with memories remember that Pete Rose actually gambled on baseball, including on a team he managed. For years he denied it, then tried to excuse it by claiming it was okay because he never bet against his own team. To this day he has never come clean. I mean, speaking of morals and standards.
If there were no bets placed on baseball, this is in a completely different category from what Rose was doing.
The true story, the guy who plays baseball is paying the guy who doesn’t play baseball to take the hit for him
How do you know this to be true? You seem to be reacting emotionally rather than factually.
Everything here is just opinions, it’s literally called MLB rumors not facts dude
The number of rock stars actors and other celebs that have been bilked to the point of near bankruptcy by their managers is a long list indeed.
Hey I’m curious if any of the Shobaes can text me when their God takes his morning dump. Seeing as you have Google alerts set for everything else about him. Thanks.
I will never believe Ohtani had nothing to do with the gambling. Nothing adds up and it seems nothing was done to investigate it. Hero to zero.
If they can prove Ohtani was involved but there was no betting on baseball.. is this a big deal? Sure, there is probably a league suspension and some legal issues but it hardly seems like a career ending event.
Possible dodgers clubhouse issues here?? Urias,Bauer, ohtani, ownership hahaha
Since we’ll probably never hear all the evidence, I’m interested more in what the bookie says. We KNOW he’s guilty. He is facing jail time. So, which story does he say is true?
I think what’s lost in this is that $4.5M+ of Ohtani’s money disappeared and he didn’t even notice it. Either that amount is chump change for him, or that he needs to pay a little more attention to his finances.
Maybe he did notice…then a story had to be made up to explain it all…hope no one involved has any relevant texts, call logs, or emails!!
Let’s be honest, someone who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has a accountant, a agent, a marketing team, and probably a few people doing things for him as well, and the interpreter out smarted them all and prevented the banks from contacting him, criminal mastermind who is also stupid making bets to the tune of 4.5 million spread out over multiple payments, sounds reasonable
So let me get this straight. He disabled Othani’s mobile banking alerts and that’s all it took to take over 4 million dollars?? I get it that he was Othani’s number 1 but really?? Either this guy is falling on the grenade for Othani or Othani needs to learn that you can’t trust anyone when it comes to money.
A few months ago he had incredible business savvy , deferred money to keep team competitive, make sure certain front office people aren’t let go, looked into the dodgers minor league system strength, multiple opt outs , setting up the financial ramifications of a ten year contract spread out over 2 decades nobody notices a consistent sizable money drain , sorry dude knew all along
Yeah, now the federal investigators are covering for him…. Because they’re big baseball fans?
The 700 million dollar cover up.
Ford Fairlane Rock and Roll Detective
Money Money Money ….
I’m not really sure what to make of a guilty plea bargain. Does that mean the Feds have evidence that it truly was the interpreter? Or is that just falling on the sword? I really don’t know. I’d like good info.
What I do like is that the Feds and IRS have the bookie. That’ll help either truly clear Ohtani, or implicate him further.
While I can potentially see the interpreter taking it for the team. It’s HIGHLY unlikely the bookie will roll over.
High roller bookie. His computers are going to have some potentially damning info on some people. I believe Puig was already caught up. Any bookie handling 4.5M in bets, or debts, has some high profile business clientele. Even if Ohtani is cleared….this will be interesting.
I hope Ohtani IS cleared. MLB needs more bad PR like I need a broom handle enema.
The feds have a 95%+ conviction rate during trials. They’re not charging and arresting without overwhelming evidence for an eventual slam-dunk win. The bookie is 99% rolling over to plea down charges and jail time.
The word of the bookie under threat of prison time will mean a little more to me than the interpreter pleading. I’m not trying to be conspiratorial at all. But pleading out for him would be part of the entire cover up for Ohtani should that be the case. Ridiculous we’re in a world with zero trust in people and institutions.
I guess 10 years from now we’ll see if the interpreter makes any usual purchases that seem a little above his means. I believe that’s what tipped the Lufthansa Heist. Some of that mob crew started flashing cash around.
In all sincerity I hope Ohtani comes out with a reasonable amount of public innocence. MLB has enough issues either bad PR.
Covering up for Ohtani is entirely possible but the feds will leave no stones unturned before accepting Mizuhara’s plea bargain. I personally know of someone who took a state gun charge for a still famous rapper and spent two years in prison. He was given seed money to start an urban clothing line when he got out.
If there’s hard data that Ohtani was involved. It’s in the bookie system. His word might not be enough. I think if I WAS making book for celebrities I’d have a paper trail.
Ippei gonna get PAID
Negotiating with the Feds or with Ohtani?
filihok, this comment section is a sad, sad metaphor for what we see regularly in this country. Facts that undermine the credibility of false narratives explained away with conspiracy theories and even more fantastical false narratives.
I’d like to know IF this is the actual events, what did the interpreter tell the bookie to get a line of credit like that. He ain’t making that much coin to get at minimum 4.5 million credit line.
hey just any one on here willing to share there bank account with me especially if you have millions in there
So ohtani shared his bank account with this guy which has millions in there anyone on this I want to do that for me please you know it’s to pay the debts off
Fanboy-ism and joke-making aside, it is at least plausible Ohtani trusted his interpreter with his affairs and did not scrutinize what was going on.
Mizuhara will enter this guilty plea, and that will probably be the end of this story, much to MLB’s relief.
If it were just MLB investigating and not the Feds, I’d have more concerns there is more to this. But if the story is good enough for the Feds, it is more likely to be true.
It’s not impossible Ohtani knew more or was involved in more, but proving someone innocent 100% is impossible in most cases, hence the need to prove guilt instead.
I will make the humble suggestion Ohtani pay closer attention to the goings-on with his bank accounts.
He certainly wouldn’t be the first celebrity to get scammed by a trusted individual.
Ippei potentially would have been in a unique position to do such a thing because he could control all the communication going to and from Ohtani. Any communication between Ohtani and his financial advisors likely would have gone through Ippei.. and he could have adjusted the message however he saw fit.
Certainly doesn’t prove anything but it makes the story a little more believable to me.
That’s handy. I wonder how much Ohtani had to pay for him to take the fall?
Ohtani bet this would happen.
Have the interpreter show exactly how he transferred the money without Ohtani’s help. That might clear things up once and for all.
New year’s resolution: stop reacting to trolls.
As of now there’s no reason not to believe Ohtani other than natural skepticism. The story sounds plausible and if the feds believe him so be it.
And if he is in fact a gambler, his addiction won’t just disappear. It’ll show up and he’ll get caught. Addicts can’t stop so easily.
In the meantime, even in the worst case scenario he wasn’t accused of a heinous crime a la OJ or Wander Franco or even something that tarnished the integrity of the game.
Gambling is prohibited in MLB’s constitution because it tarnishes the integrity of the game, that’s why Pete Rose was banned even though the investigator declared he wasn’t able to find any evidence of Pete gambling in baseball.
We could argue that MLB was right when Pete declared almost 30 years after his suspension that he indeed gambled in baseball but the facts back when he was suspended was that there wasn’t evidence.
Sure nowadays people love to use their moralism to retroactively judge what Rose was doing in his private life in the 70s to confirm that what MLB did was right, but that just goes to show how modern society has changed their moral values, we live in an extremely conservative society morally wise in some aspects. What people did in the 50s-60s-70s doesn’t fly right now.
Saludos.
Maybe Ohtani knew or was complicit in the gambling. However, I think it’s very plausible that he didn’t know. In my line of work, I’ve found that a lot of people don’t understand what you’re doing when you give someone joint access to your account.. I think it’s very possible that Ohtani knowingly allowed Mizuhara to access his money.
With his endorsement deals, I figure a few million is nothing more than fun money to him. You’d think Ohtani would know, but consider that being a friend of Ohtani’s, he might have trusted Mizuhara to be honest with the spending.to the point of being naive. That would explain why Ohtani isn’t filing charges against Mizuhara and seems relatively unaffected by the spending.
It’s early days so we don’t know what charges will be filed or by who. In fact we don’t even know if Mizuhara is in the United States currently. Last we knew he was in South Korea and did not return with the team. I wouldn’t read anything into what Ohtani has done so far. If Mizuhara is pleading to federal charges Ohtani doesn’t need to press any himself.
Meanwhile, as of today Ohtani is leading MLB in doubles (eight), tied with teammate Mookie Betts for the league lead in total bases (40) and tied with another teammate, Will Smith, for second place in the NL in hits (21). Shohei seems completely distracted doesn’t he?
I’d be satisfied to see him keep being ‘distracted’ throughout the year! The man has laser like focus.
For those of you who would care to obtain more facts about this case as opposed to mindless conjecture, watch the Federal prosecutors’ video here: latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-11/ohtanis-fo…
Let us not kid ourselves into believing that facts will make any difference to those who prefer mindless conjecture.
@Blue I am under no such illusion
But you wish you could, right?
I’m not either, btw. 🙁
fighting the good fight Blue.
Mojo
Your comment will get very few replies
@ filihok sure. but if one troll sees the light…I can dream can’t I?
Mojo
Fight the good fight
where Ohtani came from is two MVP awards. He will be “back to where he came from” with a third MVP shortly.
All of this brings to memory what happened in the Pittsburgh Trials of the 80s: why would a bunch of guys take the blame and wouldn’t incriminate their clients further?
And of course a bit of what happened with Greg Anderson who opted to be incarcerated for obstruction of justice, when he refused to testify against his client Barry Bonds.
Smells fishy and for those wondering what would MLB gain… there have been instances where MLB has done some sketchy things.
Remember that MLB banned Angel Presinal from all MLB parks and training sites, and went hard for all players Angel trained…. except for David Ortíz who even build him a training facilty in the DR where Canó, Melky Cabrera and Miguel Tejada trained because Presinal had the reputation of being David’s personal trainer.
Manfred went as far as saying publicly that Ortiz was clean from anything anybody might have suspected and thus should be elected to the HoF. When somebody has ties to a known dealer who was caught…. what did MLB gain? was he a whistleblower or simply too big for MLB to go for him? MLB’s prime target were always Bonds and Alex Rodríguez (including acquiring evidence retrieved in a illegal manner that would normally be rejected in a court).
So… yeah, MLB has had so much controversies, coverups and conspiracy theories that makes them look like they belong to a pulp magazine.
My take in all of this? Ohtani knew, MLB doesn’t want to know and will be happy if it all ends like this, the fed gov will go hard against the interpreter and in a year all of this will be forgoten**.
**unless Ohtani does something extremely bad in 5 years like yelling to his wife… but only if he is not productive anymore and ditching his salary works well for the owners.
Saludos.
This is 100% fried baloney.
This is a well put together post about the dark stuff that has gone on.
And yes, David Ortiz was a shameful thing with his ties to Anegl Presinal. People also ignored the Mike Piazza was part of Presinal’s “training” program back when he would train at Miami Dade College. And there were whispers of Pedro Martinez and Vladi Guerrero being clients as well.
And let me not get started on the Pittsburgh Drug Trials when word got out about Willie Mays and his “special red juice”. And talk about MLB fairness. Keith Hernandez is not a Hall of Famer because of that trial and his off the field issues, but other guys are?
Players in the 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials were given immunity.
Yes, I remember that about the immunity of the drug trials. But still as of today, Keith Hernandez is not a Hall of Famer, and people still talk like Willie Mays was a clean player, despite the known thing about his “special red juice”.
Oh, it absolutely tarnishes public perception. John Milner named Willie Stargell for the juice too. Amphetamines just weren’t seen as a horrible thing quite. Dr’s Rx’d them. Coke was dirty.
Yeah, that’s right. I forgot about Stargell being named too.
Doctors didn’t give Willie what he had. I remember something about it being a home cocktail of sorts that he and Bobby Bonds used to use (I wonder where Barry learned).
If we were to get into amphetamine history in the game…We’d have to include a LOT of players. They were so prevalent. When they were banned a decade ago..whenever that occurred, we actually seemed to see a dip in production…if I’m not totally off-base.
Coke was a social taboo involving criminal elements in a society that was much less jaded then…and one that certainly didn’t deal with substance abuse as a potential disease…didn’t deal with mental illness, etc.
I wouldn’t call amphetamines “beer level” of acceptance, but halfway down the totem to coke and heroin
My take is that Ohtani was used in a long term con game. He became aware at some point that his “friend” owned 4.5M in gambling debts. That he might not have been aware if the greater extent of 16M being stolen from him. Perhaps.
But that he DID help him pay off the 4.5M. And that’s enough to secure a one year suspension from MLB under the CBA. Anyone naive enough to let one person handle their finances. They’d pay off an illegal bookmaker not realizing it broke RICO statutes for wire fraud.
And this is what I believe if Ohtani is “innocent”. I’d buy this much. But I’m not sure he wasn’t part of this.
They always say that the truth often is closest to the time of the incident. This was first reported that Ohtani helped him. When the lawyers got involved that was retracted.