I saw that MLB is not doing anything to Ohtani. He essentially helped pay a friends debt. I saw somewhere that the confusion with his statement was from misunderstanding of the question which makes sense. I also saw a reporter posted that he talked to Angels players and they said Ohtani pretty much lives baseball and doesn't really watch any other sport so it would be shocking if he was betting on games in any way. I think Ohtani is in the clear BUT you never know these days.
It was on the MLB tv ticker but I didn't see anything more on it because I didn't watch much sports news. Like i said, "... you never know these days."
The story is still evolving, but the last I read about this from a Korean source and more information that has came out. The reason why the story changed (from Ohtani's camp) is that Ohtani used a different interpreter to understand Ippei's speech about gambling, then he found out that his money was missing and then ordered his lawyers and team to redact the story (as Ippei lied to ESPN about how much Ohtani knew about this and misled him). Interestingly the wires that were documented by ESPN was when Ohtani was getting surgery, so perhaps he told Ippei to manage his financial affairs. I guess his English isn't still that good and he's relied on Ippei a lot, even with negotiations about the big contract. Essentially, that's why its being called "fraud" by Ohtani's lawyers now. As puffy mentioned, I think this isn't a big deal at all and Shohei will be fine. Perhaps it'll lit up a fire in him after I've seen other fans call him worse than Bauer and other nasty things. Can we trust anything that comes out of Ippeis mouth with also this?
What seems logically inconceivable though is any bank letting one, let alone nine wire transfers of 500g go without checking with the owner of the account? Especially in Los Angeles area when they’re paranoid about money laundering (per the radio station).
Shohei’s going to address the public tomorrow before the game so I would expect we’ll get the true story and explanations if it happens to change again. This is too easy to check with the bank and he can’t afford to stick with anything but the truth here if it was an innocent mistake helping a friend. Easy enough to imagine he might not have known the operation was illegal or anything about the federal offense of wire fraud because of that. I’ll be surprised if this really was embezzlement. Bank couldn’t not check with Ohtani for those sized money wires and all the same amount allegedly.
Unfortunately, he doesn't answer how the payments weren't flagged or how Ippei had access, but strongly denied knowing anything about Ippei's gambling, debts, and denies ever agreeing to paying his bookmaker. Before coming here, his parents basically managed his money, so he never really cared about how much money he had. He probably then trusted Ippei to manage one of his many accounts. I mean, not the first time this has happened to a rich athlete. Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan lost millions after being defrauded by his agent. If this is true, Ippei fumbled the bag. Get to be the best friend of the best baseball player in the world and make 300k to translate? SMH.
Wow. So zero knowledge and was embezzled. Hokay, I hope that’s what all the investigations wind up concluding! Someone at the bank, or the bank itself was UNBELIEVABLY and UNCONSCIONABLY lax.
I know it sounds crazy, but multiple interpreters have come out and said they helped open bank accounts for their players:
I find it hard to believe no bank flagged any of this. But I also don't find it hard to believe that an athlete coming from Japan and lacking fluency in the language has no idea how to handle US financial transactions. And I can 100% see them handing it off to someone they trust to settle those things.
Interpreter is facing up to not 1 …. not 5 …. not etc …. 30 years if convicted. This sucker stole 16M. Had unique access to Shohei’s account due to the trust factor after setting it all up and allegedly would “call” the bank as needed, claiming to be Ohtani, to let them know OK to let these large transfers go. Still seems freaking unbelievable this could have happened but that’s what is being reported now just heard on ABC news.
And the winnings went into his account instead of Ohtanis. Just messed up. he knew ohtani since he was a teenager in Japan and did this to fumble the all time bag.
Detailed The Athletic reporting on the case. https://theathletic.com/5409393/202...fidavit-takeaways/?source=user_shared_articleIppei Mizuhara’s affidavit takeaways: The most startling claims against Ohtani’s interpreter
