Shohei Ohtani spoke to the media Monday night in his first appearance since news broke of the bizarre and swirling gambling scandal that bears the Dodgers star’s name. A series of statements and accusations finally revealed that former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was involved in theft and fraud, suspected of stealing $4.5 million from Ohtani to pay off illegal gambling debts. did.
This explanation from Ohtani’s lawyer raised more questions than answers, and Ohtani’s statement Monday solved nothing. Opting not to answer questions from the media, the Dodgers star instead issued a statement that is nearly identical to what we’ve heard before.
“I have never bet on baseball or any other sport, and I have never asked anyone to bet on my behalf. And I have never used a bookmaker to bet on sports. I didn’t know this was happening until a few days ago. Just check the results. The bottom line is that Ippei is stealing money from my account and is lying. […] Ippei told the media and my agent that I had repaid the debt on behalf of my friend. Upon further interrogation, I discovered that Ippei actually owed money and that I had told his agent that I was repaying that debt. This was all a complete lie. […] Obviously, I never agreed to pay off the debt or pay the bookmakers. ”
The fundamental problem is that this account doesn’t actually make much sense. This version of events was intended to completely insulate Ohtani from any wrongdoing, requiring him to ignore dozens of checks and balances, leaving no one with the means to catch the massive fraud, and allowing his longtime friend to A certain Ippei stole money from Ohtani and was so egregious that he did not hide it.
Ohtani and his lawyer won’t answer any questions about the case, citing the investigation, so here’s what we want to know.
Why did Ippei have access to Otani’s bank account?
Aside from the fact that Ippei was a close friend and Otani’s translator, it is quite strange that he would have extensive access to the funds needed to initiate the wire transfers. This person was not Ohtani’s personal assistant and was never listed as a financial advisor of any kind.
It’s unclear how or why Ippei had control over athletes’ finances, which is usually reserved for high-level bankers and exclusive legal representatives.
Why didn’t anyone manage this money?
Ohtani is represented by CAA Sports, one of the world’s largest agencies.Amount of access to wealth managers, financial advisors and bankers purely His expressiveness is second to none.
Ohtani is surrounded by people with experience in managing players’ money and finances. Apparently someone advised Ohtani about the backloaded contract he signed with the Dodgers. So why, with so many people in the room, did Otani give this role to Ippei rather than literally anyone else?
Why didn’t Ohtani realize that his money was stolen?
Part of Shohei Ohtani’s mystique is the myth that he is always focused on baseball, with an aloof attitude toward everything else in life. Whether that’s true or part of the brand behind him, it’s really inconceivable that he didn’t realize his $4.5 million was draining from his bank account. .
To be clear, Ohtani is very wealthy, but not yet stratospherically wealthy. To date, he has earned approximately $42 million from his MLB, with other funds coming from endorsement deals and income in Japan.
Not realizing that $4.5 million is missing is another story. billions of millions But the nature of Ohtani’s backloaded contract with the Dodgers requires him to manage his money more closely than most athletes. It is very difficult to imagine that this kind of amount could flow out of his account without anyone noticing.
Why did Ohtani’s agent take Ippei’s words to heart when he released his initial statement to ESPN?
When media outlets contacted Ohtani’s camp for comment on the gambling controversy, the initial response to ESPN was that Ohtani was paying off Ippei’s gambling debts. That would have been a huge expense, but understandable given their relationship and the great friend Ohtani is.
Now, when it comes to the serious issue of payments to illegal bookmakers, why doesn’t Ohtani’s representative just take the interpreter’s word for it rather than immediately find out from Ohtani what happened? The big difference between “paying off my friend’s debt” and “he stole $4.5 million from me” is worth checking with Ohtani himself, but we don’t know exactly what happened.
Where does this leave us?
The investigation is ongoing and could take a significant amount of time. When it comes to MLB’s internal review, want I’m going to drag this. Major League Baseball has a vested interest in Ohtani staying on the field and being marketable for the entire season.
Everything exists on a spectrum when it comes to this story. On the one hand, it’s Shohei Otani, who was totally innocent and really got robbed, and on the other, Otani is a gambler who uses Ippei as his fall guy.
Neither of these extremes makes sense. There are large holes in each. So, like most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It’s entirely possible that Shohei was helping a friend out of a horrific gambling debt, but he had no idea about the illegality surrounding payments to illegal bookmakers.
This would best explain how damage control intervened, why the statement was reversed, and how Ippei, not Ohtani, now has to take the hit. However, there are still problems with this theory. Because that means Ippei could potentially go to jail for his friend.
The only thing for sure is that this is all a mess and it will be a while, if ever, before we find out what actually happened.
