I definitely didn’t see this story coming out. The Los Angeles Dodgers have made HUGE news by firing Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter…for stealing from the megastar pitcher and racking up illegal gambling debts.
This is a very, very strange story.
The Dodgers are in a whole world of controversy right now as Shohei Ohtani’s translator, Ippei Mizuhara, has been accused and fired for allegedly stealing approximately $4.5M from Shohei Ohtani’s bank account to pay off gambling debts to an illegal sportsbook. And, to be honest, I think there’s WAY more to this story than the “official” story.
What the hell is going on with this story? Just what the hell?
So, if you don’t know, Shohei Ohtani’s long-time translator, Ippei Mizuhara, has been fired from the Dodgers and completely blacklisted from the Ohtani camp over allegations he stole $4.5M from Ohtani to cover illegal gambling debts. This case has the US Attorney’s office, the IRS, and Californian state officials all over it for Mizuhara and his bookmaker are in deep, deep trouble. And so to might be Shohei Ohtani.
Now, this case does seem pretty black and white on the surface with the official story from the Ohtani and Mizuhara camps being that Mizuhara has a severe gambling addiction.
With this addiction, he racked up over $4.5M in debt to some Southern California illegal bookmaker on different sports (but not baseball). However, being just a translator (although a well-paid one), Mizuhara did not have enough money to come up with the debt, so he stole out of Ohtani’s $700M+ bank account, gave the debt to the bookmaker, and then was caught in the act by officials and fired by the Dodgers.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Nearly all forms of sports gambling are illegal in the state of California, and Mizuhara admitted to stealing millions from his client and lifelong friend Ohtani. How does that make Ohtani guilty of anything more than a poor judge of character?
Well, in an utterly STUPID move if one wishes to keep their involvements secret or hopefully nonexistent, the Ohtani camp issued a statement to ESPN detailing how the $4.5 million was not stolen from Ohtani by Mizuhara, but rather WILLINGLY GIVEN through a bank wire by Ohtani to pay off his friend’s gambling debts. And then in a 90-minute interview with ESPN, Mizuhara himself admitted that Ohtani knew about the debt, willing agreed to fork out millions of dollars to cover the debt, and even wired the money in the form of a loan to the illegal bookmaker through his own bank account.
This is Mizuhara’s own quote according to ESPN, “Obviously, he [Ohtani] wasn’t happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. He decided to pay it off for me.”
Now, I do find it admirable that Ohtani was willing to dish out nearly $5M dollars to settle his friend’s debts with an illegal and most definitely seedy bookmaker, but everything Mizuhara and Ohtani’s representatives originally admitted to are a federal and Californian state crimes!
You cannot in any fashion illegally gamble or pay off illegal gambling debts in the state of California, which is where Ohtani has played baseball ever since he moved to the US back in 2018, while you cannot wire money to an illegal enterprise. You know, like illegal sports gambling!
And what’s worse is that the wire transfer the federal and Californian state authorities found when they investigated this illegal bookmaker all had Ohtani signed legal name on it!
Obviously, someone in the Ohtani camp must have figured out they just admitted to a federal crime in the United States and ones in the state of California, so they retracted the story, disavowed Mizuhara, and are asking for investigations of theft into Mizuhara. Reversely, Mizuhara has now come out and said that everything he admitted to was wrong and a lie, and Ohtani had nothing to do with the transfer of money at all.
What?!?!?!
Like I said, I don’t think (it sounds like Ohtani isn’t illegally gambling, but maybe Mizuhara is just a front man for Ohtani’s own gambling debts; just speculation as I have no idea) Ohtani is guilty of a malicious crime here, but it sounds like he might be guilty of breaking federal and Californian law. Sports gambling laws…that are bound to reverberate back on the MLB and commissioner Rob Manfred.
The MLB has statues in place where no player, regardless of stature, can be involved or associated with illegal sports gambling rings due to the history of the MLB and sports gambling (aka: the 1919 Black Sox, Pete Rose). And now the biggest star and highest paid star in baseball might be charged with federal and state crimes for paying off illegal sports gambling debts!!!
THIS STORY IS A DISASTER FOR THE MLB!!!
If everything Mizuhara is lying in his second story and everything about the first story is proven true, then I don’t see a universe in where Manfred is not forced to ban Ohtani for a SIZEABLE timeframe from the Dodgers and the MLB (if not for life!). It’s just too bad of a look to have YET ANOTHER superstar, “face of the league” player/team go through illegal gambling issues.
I guess time will tell, but this story sounds like it’s only going to get uglier…
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