Ohtani - Developing Story - Translator Fired over Gambling Debts or Theft?!

[LawMan]

There is a wild, rapidly changing and developing story surrounding Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara right-now.

The story involves gambling for significant sums. The initial story was that Ohtani had "transferred" the funds to cover his translator's gambling debts. Then, as ESPN was preparing to publish the story, the story from the Ohtani camp changed. Now, Ohtani's story appears to be that up to $4.5 million was "stolen" from him by the translator. In either case it is not a good look for Ohtani, Mizuhara or the Dodgers. a cynic might dig into this story and say that the gambling debts were Ohtani's and that Mizhuara was the fall guy!

Much more to come I'm sure.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...er-fired-theft

[GinFizz]

He may be in a world of hurt with this blunder.

Does MLB dare treat him like Pete? We shall see

[PenguinHunter]

I wonder if his translator put down big money on Ohtani going to Toronto... and that's where the big rumour started?

[senryu]

Based on nothing, I speculate that

Ohtani is doing the gambling, not the interpreter. I think that the bets are in Ohtani's name and the money came from Ohtani's account. How does the interpreter get the money he's gambling to win? Unless it is just the thrill of gambling someone else's money.

Unlike with Rose, MLB will do whatever it can to do nothing about this. They do not want the sport's marquee player and bridge to East Asia be undone in this manner. The only question for me is whether the federal investigators handling the investigation into the bookmaking uncover and release information that makes the interpreter story unsupportable.

[2014olympicgold]

I think it's:
- Interpreter was gambling. He makes roughly $500k/yr from the Dodgers, so you'd think his salary with the Angles was less. $4.5m in debt is big for him, this wouldn't have happened for Ohtani.
- Ohtani was trying to be an elite friend and paid the $4.5m if the interpreter was done with gambling. Since $4.5m is like 5% of the New Balance deal Ohtani gets for this yr, it's nothing for him.
- Because Ohtani sent the money from his account, his name is on the stuff under Federal Investigation. The booking has said he never dealt with Ohtani
- Interpreter and Ohtani told the truth initially. Then, someone in the MLB/LAD told Ohtani he can get suspended if he's tied to this because of the MLB CBA, so they switched the story

Just how I see it. If the interpreter was just the fall guy, you would have it set up better for an illegal gambling ring for payment. You set up a guy to bet for you, you would set up a payment plan from Ohtani to the interpreter to the booking.

There's also theories that the interpreter told Ohtani he needed $4.5m in loans and Ohtani thought he was transfering the money directly to the Interpreter and not to a bookie. So that's why there's a flip in stories because Ohtani thought he was doing his friend a favour, then found out that the favour was actually not what Ohtani thought. Thus the flip to theft.

There's also many stories over the last few yrs that his interpreter isn't actually a good interpreter. He routinely leaves out what Ohtani says, miss interprets, and adds in things that Ohtani just laughed off and trusted he was doing the right thing. Sounds like maybe this guy isn't the smartest.

[Kofax]

There’s an article on the athletic that discusses Mizuhara (interpreter) bio/resume he used to get jobs in the mlb.

Apparently he claims to have graduated from U of California, Riverside, but the University refutes that he ever went there.

He also claims to have been Hideki Okijima’s interpreter for the Boston Red Sox in 2010 and the Yankees training camp in 2012, but the Red Sox indicate he was never employed by them and the Yankees indicate he was released before spring training began.

So basically there’s a lot more smoke around Mizuhara than was initially known. I initially found it hard to believe Ohtani was unaware of this, but now I’m a little more inclined to wait for the facts.

[Axeman33]

His statement from today:

https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/...WHCvFxLvg&s=19

Shohei Ohtani: “I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked someone to do it on my behalf.”

[2014olympicgold]

There's 100% stuff lost in translation here too, and not being able to ask questions muddies the water. Some reports are saying Ippei told Ohtani prior to the team meeting and then contacting the team and his law firm. Some reports say Ohtani found out at the team meeting with everyone else.

I've always found any news conference without answering questions dumb. There's no point.

[Kofax]

Based on reports coming out (I've read some on the Athletic and elsewhere), it seems that Mizuhara is being charged with theft of around $16 million or so from Ohtani and is currently working on a guilty plea deal.

Sounds like he helped Ohtani set up all his accounts and manipulated things in a way that he wouldn't be aware of it. Will have to dig a little deeper, but sounds like Ohtani has been telling the truth.

To be that ignorant of your finances though is another thing.

[2014olympicgold]

Based on reports coming out (I've read some on the Athletic and elsewhere), it seems that Mizuhara is being charged with theft of around $16 million or so from Ohtani and is currently working on a guilty plea deal.

Sounds like he helped Ohtani set up all his accounts and manipulated things in a way that he wouldn't be aware of it. Will have to dig a little deeper, but sounds like Ohtani has been telling the truth.

To be that ignorant of your finances though is another thing.

No person making the amount he does in a foreign country is caring about their financials or paying their credit cards. They have someone doing this. Ohtani just trusted someone who was a con-man.

[Kofax]

No person making the amount he does in a foreign country is caring about their financials or paying their credit cards. They have someone doing this. Ohtani just trusted someone who was a con-man.

I disagree as I am sure there are plenty out there in similar situations who pay attention. There are enough horror stories that act as lessons in a situation like this.

He did, however, proceed as you indicated by not paying attention and trusting the wrong person.

[Axeman33]

Missing $4M is ridiculous and scary to think you wouldn't notice that much money missing. $16M is just unfathomable, even for the wealthy.

[2014olympicgold]

I disagree as I am sure there are plenty out there in similar situations who pay attention. There are enough horror stories that act as lessons in a situation like this.

He did, however, proceed as you indicated by not paying attention and trusting the wrong person.

Maybe "no one" was too strong of a statement, but plenty don't watch this stuff and trust someone else. Usually it's family, or a spouse, or a hired person (agent, accountant, assistant, private bankers). And wasn't it reported the $16m would be like $1,000 to a normal person? That is a lot of money that if someone looked at their accounts would see, but if you aren't living paycheque to pay cheque, you wouldn't get a "insufficient funds" notification when buying something.

[LawMan]

Based on reports coming out (I've read some on the Athletic and elsewhere), it seems that Mizuhara is being charged with theft of around $16 million or so from Ohtani and is currently working on a guilty plea deal.

Sounds like he helped Ohtani set up all his accounts and manipulated things in a way that he wouldn't be aware of it. Will have to dig a little deeper, but sounds like Ohtani has been telling the truth.

To be that ignorant of your finances though is another thing.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...hara-stole-16m

This article makes it sound like Ohtani had nothing to do with it and everything was the interpreter playing him.
Feds apparently went thru years of texts looking for evidence of Ohtani's involvement and found nothing.
Still a bad look for Ohtani but looking more like it will indeed blow over.

[2014olympicgold]

Ippei apparently used $325k of Ohtani's money to buy 1,000 baseball cards? wtf lol.

How much money does Ohtani have