Shohei Ohtani's assistant/interpreter fired for supposedly stealing $4.5m to gamble with illegal bookmaker

[Sanlmar]

I mean if you want to entertain this for your own amusement that is fine. But if you ask anyone in Orange County connected to the illegal sports betting scene they will tell you the simplest explanation is the correct one; and that is Ohtani is just a soccer sports betting whale, which came to light because of a FBI investigation into his bookie that got leaked to the press, and now everyone is in spin control.

That is very possible.

I will ask you about your source's statement, though:

Have the confirmed that Ohtani himself was betting on these games, or just that someone bearding for him SAID it was for Ohtani. Because you can see how the latter can lead to misunderstandings, if the supposed beard is really just a degen himself.

I still think it is more likely this was done on Ohtani's behalf, but I do think my scenario is a possibility. It does not seem that Ohtani ever had direct contact with the bookie, except perhaps to pay off the debt.

Ippei did EVERYTHING for Ohtani. He was his conceirge. Certainly Ippei got Ohtani’s lunch and placed his bets.

A thought just occurred to me. Ippei was paid $300-500k by Dodgers but they played just one game. Ippei was making $80k with the Angels

$80k and a line of credit for $4.5m?

If all concerned had stuck with the first story… Ippei was a degen and Ohtani did the sweet and honorable thing and paid off his debt… Ohtani looks like a great friend and tremendous human being.

Instead they changed the story to theft. Do you know how hard it is these days to make multiple $500,000 withdrawals from a bank? The number of people you would have to deal with? People go to jail for bank theft.

Ohtani’s crew decided to escalate for a reason. They are electing to take on bigger risk.

[Kalam]

I mean if you want to entertain this for your own amusement that is fine. But if you ask anyone in Orange County connected to the illegal sports betting scene they will tell you the simplest explanation is the correct one; and that is Ohtani is just a soccer sports betting whale, which came to light because of a FBI investigation into his bookie that got leaked to the press, and now everyone is in spin control.

That is very possible.

I will ask you about your source's statement, though:

Have the confirmed that Ohtani himself was betting on these games, or just that someone bearding for him SAID it was for Ohtani. Because you can see how the latter can lead to misunderstandings, if the supposed beard is really just a degen himself.

I still think it is more likely this was done on Ohtani's behalf, but I do think my scenario is a possibility. It does not seem that Ohtani ever had direct contact with the bookie, except perhaps to pay off the debt.

Why do you say this? Because everyone's lawyer made a vague, confusing statement implying this was the case to the media? I am not sure you understand how cover-ups work if you just assume lawyers are implying the truth when they make vague, confusing media statements.

Anyways, I didn't press for details. I asked him if he knew what was going on, and he said Ohtani is a known soccer betting whale, and Bower was his bookie. Based on what I know, is it possible Mizuhara was impersonating Ohtani to gamble millions on sports, and then pay the debts from Ohtani's account without Ohtani noticing? Sure; but I think we can both agree that is not the most probable scenario of what happened.

Also, lets keep in mind the FBI doesn't actually care about Ohtani. And as Bower seems to be complying it is unlikely they will even interview or investigate Ohtani at all. So at this point it is all a matter of whether Ohtani's camp can keep MLB or the media from unearthing any further details that incriminate him that they cant just say Mizuhara is responsible for.

[Dan Druff]

That is very possible.

I will ask you about your source's statement, though:

Have the confirmed that Ohtani himself was betting on these games, or just that someone bearding for him SAID it was for Ohtani. Because you can see how the latter can lead to misunderstandings, if the supposed beard is really just a degen himself.

I still think it is more likely this was done on Ohtani's behalf, but I do think my scenario is a possibility. It does not seem that Ohtani ever had direct contact with the bookie, except perhaps to pay off the debt.

Why do you say this? Because everyone's lawyer made a vague, confusing statement implying this was the case to the media? I am not sure you understand how cover-ups work if you just assume lawyers are implying the truth when they make vague, confusing media statements.

Anyways, I didn't press for details. I asked him if he knew what was going on, and he said Ohtani is a known soccer betting whale, and Bower was his bookie. Based on what I know, is it possible Mizuhara was impersonating Ohtani to gamble millions on sports, and then pay the debts from Ohtani's account without Ohtani noticing? Sure; but I think we can both agree that is not the most probable scenario of what happened.

Also, lets keep in mind the FBI doesn't actually care about Ohtani. And as Bower seems to be complying it is unlikely they will even interview or investigate Ohtani at all. So at this point it is all a matter of whether Ohtani's camp can keep MLB or the media from unearthing any further details that incriminate him that they cant just say Mizuhara is responsible for.

I don't think Ippei withdrew from Ohtani's account.

I thought that story was bullshit the entire way.

I'm saying that if Ippei wasn't his beard, he might have just gotten the line of credit via feeding the bookie a line that these bets are really for Ohtani. Then when he got way into debt, Ohtani himself paid it.

It seems almost 100% that Ohtani voluntarily sent that money to Bower. That was the initial statement from Ohtani's camp! They changed it a short time after. The only question is regarding the reason Ohtani sent that money.

Chance of an actual theft is probably near zero point zero.

[garrett]

Ohtani going to speak today about this

[Dan Druff]

This is NOT going to improve matters...

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[Daly]

Ive had friends visiting so i haven't been able to comment.

Imagine someone extending Badguy for 160K. Thats the equivalent here.


Its 100% him. The interpiter was the beard.

Now I am guessing it was all non baseball because for all the same reasons why you wouldn't let someone bet UFC with you when they in the UFC or any other analogy. That said you never know.

Be interesting to see how it all falls out

[Deal]

Pete Rose weighs in:

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[Sloppy Joe]

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Cover up is always worse than the crime.

[Dan Druff]

Shohei Ohtani fanboys and Dodgers superfans are all yelling, "CASE CLOSED!!" after that statement.

There are also some smarmy lawyers claiming that Shohei wouldn't make false allegations against Ippei, so this has to be true.

These people are not gamblers like we are, so they don't understand.

Shohei is only defaming Ippei IF there isn't some kind of prior agreement to do so. If Ippei has agreed behind the scenes to take credit for "theft", in exchange for some major incentive down the road, then there's no defamation and no crime here. It's not illegal to lie to the media, and you can't defame someone who agreed to be the public fall guy.

I always hate when there's a giant piece missing of the story, and we're just supposed to shrug our shoulders and move on.

If Ippei stole $4.5m from Shohei, where is the police report? And if they didn't go to the police, why not? This is always what I ask of poker players at WSOP when they claim their stake money was "stolen", yet they usually refuse to provide any evidence they went to police, because of course they stole it themselves and won't file false police reports.

If Ippei did those wires without Shohei's knowledge, how did he have access to Shohei's accounts, and why did the bank not question any of this?

Until we get these answers, his statements are meaningless.

[Sanlmar]

“I didn’t come all this way around the world just to die on a cross”

-Shogun

[Dan Druff]

[gut]

Aaaaaaaaàaaaand here comes an investigation into player props in NBA lol.

3rd most known Porter right now. Toronto's brother of MPJR.

New world.

[Tellafriend]

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[herbertstemple]

If Ohtani had found PFA and Dr. Peters, none of this would have happened.

[NickyPipes]

That is very possible.

I will ask you about your source's statement, though:

Have the confirmed that Ohtani himself was betting on these games, or just that someone bearding for him SAID it was for Ohtani. Because you can see how the latter can lead to misunderstandings, if the supposed beard is really just a degen himself.

I still think it is more likely this was done on Ohtani's behalf, but I do think my scenario is a possibility. It does not seem that Ohtani ever had direct contact with the bookie, except perhaps to pay off the debt.

Ippei did EVERYTHING for Ohtani. He was his conceirge. Certainly Ippei got Ohtani’s lunch and placed his bets.

A thought just occurred to me. Ippei was paid $300-500k by Dodgers but they played just one game. Ippei was making $80k with the Angels

$80k and a line of credit for $4.5m?

If all concerned had stuck with the first story… Ippei was a degen and Ohtani did the sweet and honorable thing and paid off his debt… Ohtani looks like a great friend and tremendous human being.

Instead they changed the story to theft. Do you know how hard it is these days to make multiple $500,000 withdrawals from a bank? The number of people you would have to deal with? People go to jail for bank theft.

Ohtani’s crew decided to escalate for a reason. They are electing to take on bigger risk.

Agree that’s there’s close to no way multiple 500k transactions came from the account without account owner knowing

So much hassle in wiring large sums of money

When I started in business I thought if you put $1 million in an account you can then just send that money to whoever you want in whatever amount you want, this is not the case

Anyways the bank sent an RFID that has to be used to send wires above a certain amount, I’d imagine there’s something similar with him and doubt his buddies holding onto that for him

[Sanlmar]

The beard in this story might actually be this weird sudden appearance of a wife.

yakuza

[JeffDime]

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[Dan Druff]

The beard in this story might actually be this weird sudden appearance of a wife.

yakuza

That's also very mysterious.

Ohtani was not known to be dating anyone, and all of a sudden, right before spring training, he announced that he just married the love of his life in Japan.

It surprised many people that a public figure such as Ohtani would be able to date someone under the radar, and nobody understood the secrecy. Why would he be ashamed about dating a seemingly normal Japanese girl? Why was this hidden?

Whole thing is so odd.

Would be disturbing if it turned out Ippei was his gay lover, and his handlers quickly arranged a marriage in advance of this whole gambling mess coming out.

[NickyPipes]

just goes to show you how far Asians will go to save face

house of mirrors

you never know whats true or false in Asia, its all lies, even when they are telling the truth

[Sanlmar]

Update...

Speaking of Dodgers scandals….

Ippei confessed to the Fed’s that he stole the money from Ohtani. The amount is likely far more than the $4.5 million first reported.

What a self destructive degen. How could some quick money improve the dream like world he occupied?



$16m

19,000 bets (1700 more than Dr Peters)