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

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BCR

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daly

Ok i am willing to admit i may have gotten this one wrong.

Maybe. Im still not convinced. But…..

I am told that the Feds have voice recordings of the interpitor from the bank impersonating Ohrani to get the money transfers approved.

---

What does that fundamentally change? It’s not like most of the guys who cheat with PEDs get it directly. It’s some trainer as middle man.

Theoretically, if you believe Ippei was placing wagers for him, he’d almost certainly also be the one paying them. Especially with Shohei having issues with English.

Something is off. That a bank would just take a phone call where they ship off half a million suggests some type of arrangement approved of by Ohtani. It’s not like anyone could fake an accent and give his mothers maiden name and ship $500k to some random American.

Feels like where a technically would come into play. I technically did call and convince them to send the money, but he was sitting right next to me. Ohtani had to be part of it at some point. I can believe he stole from him somewhere down the road. But that’s not where it began, which is the only relevant thing to did Ohtani have a gambling problem? No one cares if Ippei had a worse one. No one gives a fuck if that dude goes to jail.



I have to quit posting on my phone. These idiotic emojis

---

If Ippei is working on a guilty plea - what on earth does he have to offer?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BCR

What does that fundamentally change? It’s not like most of the guys who cheat with PEDs get it directly. It’s some trainer as middle man.

Theoretically, if you believe Ippei was placing wagers for him, he’d almost certainly also be the one paying them. Especially with Shohei having issues with English.

Something is off. That a bank would just take a phone call where they ship off half a million suggests some type of arrangement approved of by Ohtani. It’s not like anyone could fake an accent and give his mothers maiden name and ship $500k to some random American.

Feels like where a technically would come into play. I technically did call and convince them to send the money, but he was sitting right next to me. Ohtani had to be part of it at some point. I can believe he stole from him somewhere down the road. But that’s not where it began, which is the only relevant thing to did Ohtani have a gambling problem? No one cares if Ippei had a worse one. No one gives a fuck if that dude goes to jail.



I have to quit posting on my phone. These idiotic emojis

---

If Ippei is working on a guilty plea - what on earth does he have to offer?

---

No idea. I assume this was caught because of some larger investigation into the bookie? I haven’t read as much on it as some here. Tax evasion and such? I assume he’ll testify to something against their original target in exchange for leniency on his theft.

Whole story is so strange.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BCR

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

If Ippei is working on a guilty plea - what on earth does he have to offer?

---

No idea. I assume this was caught because of some larger investigation into the bookie? I haven’t read as much on it as some here. Tax evasion and such? I assume he’ll testify to something against their original target in exchange for leniency on his theft.

Whole story is so strange.

---

I actually keep forgetting about the bookie. Yeah, cause sports wagering is a serious crime.

When you read about the sums wagered Upwards of $200m for one account alone…. yeah, taxes. Really gave that no mind to that yet. Al Capone

Bank theft and sloppy bank admin is a big deal too

I don't think it's about taxes because Ippei was a huge loser. There was no income on that gambling!

They are probably negotiating a guilty plea and associated sentence. Ippei probably doesn't have anything to "offer", because presumably they have that bookie dead to rights anyway.

An acceptable sentencing range is part of any guilty plea. No point to plead out if you're going to get the same sentence had you tried to fight it. So this is probably something like Ippei admitting he stole $$ from Ohtani, in exchange for the feds asking for a sentence of between X and Y years.

And if I might put on my conspiracy hat for a moment, notice how blazing fast this is occurring. The actual illegal bookmaking investigation is moving at its usual snail's pace, and yet a side character like Ippei is on the verge of making a plea deal, just weeks after his thefts were discovered.

I have to imagine that MLB put some pressure on the feds to make this happen. Adjudicate the Ippei matter quickly, make it clear that Ohtani isn't a sick gambler, and this way our sport's golden boy quickly exits smelling like a rose and moves forward.

It wouldn't even surprise me if the (likely) fact that Ohtani sent the initial $4.5m is covered up, as it's not all that relevant if Ippei actually stole $11.5m above that.

Why would the feds do this for MLB? Because MLB could pledge extra cooperation down the road about any other matter, next time the feds need it.

Never underestimate this kind of dealmaking which occurs behind the scenes, when it involves powerful entities.

I picture Ohtani picking up Ippei upon his release from jail like Mike McDermott did Worm in Rounders

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

I picture Ohtani picking up Ippei upon his release from jail like Mike McDermott did Worm in Rounders

---

Love the visual.

I’ve been mulling over how much time an average 39 year old Japanese guy would do for $50 million payout to take the fall. Certainly 5-7 years. Japs live forever and he’ll be playing handball in West Virginia with guys who embezzled from their firm.

I think I’d need to see 15 to start to believe he’s solely responsible.

Why was Homeland Security involved?

Where is Ippei getting the money to pay for a former Fed prosecutor to defend him? He was allegedly broke and in debt to the tune of millions.

I 1000% do not believe baseball wasn’t wagered - this is absurd. Helps explain who is footing the legal bills

Saw a story Ippei bought $326,000 worth of baseball cards

Go quietly into the night Ippei

everyone is a lying, crooked, self-absorbed, piece of shit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Where is Ippei getting the money to pay for a former Fed prosecutor to defend him? He was allegedly broke and in debt to the tune of millions.

I 1000% do not believe baseball wasn’t wagered - this is absurd. Helps explain who is footing the legal bills

Saw a story Ippei bought $326,000 worth of baseball cards

Go quietly into the night Ippei

---

Yeah something doesn't smell right with this whole thing.

Too many Dodgers fans are screaming, "CASE CLOSED!!!!11" upon the news that Ippei is about to plead to the thefts.

Case isn't closed at all. There are so many details left to be uncovered. Yet they probably won't be.

I will say that it's possible Ippei's lawyer is doing this pro bono, or for a very reduced rate, in exchange for the publicity. If a public villain like Ippei ends up with a favorable sentence, this guy could get loads of high-dollar business in the future. So the expensive lawyer doesn't necessarily mean Ippei is sitting on cash.

However, it's very possible that someone or something is footing the bill for him, and that does raise questions.

I enjoy the healthy skepticism on this forum.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Where is Ippei getting the money to pay for a former Fed prosecutor to defend him? He was allegedly broke and in debt to the tune of millions.

I 1000% do not believe baseball wasn’t wagered - this is absurd. Helps explain who is footing the legal bills

Saw a story Ippei bought $326,000 worth of baseball cards

Go quietly into the night Ippei

---

Yeah something doesn't smell right with this whole thing.

Too many Dodgers fans are screaming, "CASE CLOSED!!!!11" upon the news that Ippei is about to plead to the thefts.

Case isn't closed at all. There are so many details left to be uncovered. Yet they probably won't be.

I will say that it's possible Ippei's lawyer is doing this pro bono, or for a very reduced rate, in exchange for the publicity. If a public villain like Ippei ends up with a favorable sentence, this guy could get loads of high-dollar business in the future. So the expensive lawyer doesn't necessarily mean Ippei is sitting on cash.

However, it's very possible that someone or something is footing the bill for him, and that does raise questions.

I enjoy the healthy skepticism on this forum.

---

It’s pretty obvious that the Dodger propaganda machine is feeding us a bunch of horseshit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tellafriend

everyone is a lying, crooked, self-absorbed, piece of shit.

---

And this is why i know the story is complete horse shit.

At the other end of a sportsbook account is a scumbag who is praying on someone who doesn't realize they cant win. The guy running the account is worried about two things and two things only.

1. Is the guy one if the 2% that will beat him. (And truth be told anyone running sports can tell inside of a week if its a bad account or not)

2. Can the guy pay. (Every relationship ends with the guy not paying. Might be a week, a month, a year or 50 years but it always ends with the guy not paying).


Ohtani or his beard wasnt 1. They figured that out early.

2 just tells me they knew it was ohtani. Because there is no way they offered him that much credit unless they knew he could pay. Otto the interpiter didnt have that much $$.

Is everyone completely retarded here now?

Of course Ohtani is a whale who knew exactly what was happening and Ippei was the beard/fellow degenerate. Zero chance no one else (agent, manager, etc) didn't flag that $16m was out the door.

I could imagine Ippei getting away with blowing through a few hundred thousand before anyone raised a flag, not this much.

MLB wants this to disappear and there maybe no smoking gun but obv Ohtani is a degen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

Is everyone completely retarded here now?

Of course Ohtani is a whale who knew exactly what was happening and Ippei was the beard/fellow degenerate. Zero chance no one else (agent, manager, etc) didn't flag that $16m was out the door.

I could imagine Ippei getting away with blowing through a few hundred thousand before anyone raised a flag, not this much.

MLB wants this to disappear and there maybe no smoking gun but obv Ohtani is a degen.

---

The problem is how this has become federal criminal charges.

Sure there's some degree of corruption between the feds and major corporations (as well as same-party politicians -- just dig up Harry Reid and ask him), but this would be a pretty egregious case of corruption if the feds knew none of this was theft, yet they actually charged and convicted a beard of doing it. This would still be a huge scandal even if the beard were somehow cooperative with taking the fall.

It was very believable to me that Ippei was willing to take the public fall and become hated, in exchange for big financial rewards down the line. It is not so believable that he'd plead guilty to a major financial felony and do prison time. It's also not believable to me that the feds would do such a huge favor to MLB as to go along with such a sham.

What is more likely?

Ippei was possibly the beard for Ohtani and placing bets for him, and also allowed to use some limited money to place bets for himself, in exchange for being that beard. Then he stole a ton extra because he became a super degen, and when Ohtani realized it, he had to change his story.

This would make it both true that Ippei was a beard AND that he stole 8 figures.

Maybe this plea bargain will include Ippei simply copping to stealing everything, with a soft agreement to not mention that he was bearding for Ohtani for the first $4.5m. In exchange, he'll get a more favorable sentence.

As Ippei himself said to the text to the bookie regarding stealing from Ohtani, "Technically, I did steal from him."

Ohtani hires the same crisis PR firm as Alec Baldwin, Harvey Weinstein and Hillary Clinton.

Law firm has represented Danny Masterson, Armie Hammer and Prince Andrew.

These are not people you hire when you didn't do it.


in my opinion, the biggest tell will be if Ohtani fails to sue CAA. Suing CAA in LA/Hollywood will make the cover of Variety so there is no chance we will miss the news or lack of news.

The following article gives us insight into the staff. If the accountants weren’t on Fentanyl they woulda noticed some irregularities that would have set off alarms demanding personal meetings with their client (not the interpreter).

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.co...-shohei-ohtani

This is pretty entertaining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtFjhF30p-U

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by David USF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtFjhF30p-U

---

Los Angeles has the greatest population of a Japanese Americans in the US. There is no excuse for CAA to have had a communication failure with Ohtani.

Ohtani was going to be the golden goose for fees generated through endless opportunity and endorsements. Failure to communicate was just lazy, inept or they knew perfectly well what was happening

Passan is the sort who would have written in wonderment at the athletic achievement during the PED era. Oh wait, ESPN is the MLB

Nvm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

Is everyone completely retarded here now?

Of course Ohtani is a whale who knew exactly what was happening and Ippei was the beard/fellow degenerate. Zero chance no one else (agent, manager, etc) didn't flag that $16m was out the door.

I could imagine Ippei getting away with blowing through a few hundred thousand before anyone raised a flag, not this much.

MLB wants this to disappear and there maybe no smoking gun but obv Ohtani is a degen.

---

The problem is how this has become federal criminal charges.

Sure there's some degree of corruption between the feds and major corporations (as well as same-party politicians -- just dig up Harry Reid and ask him), but this would be a pretty egregious case of corruption if the feds knew none of this was theft, yet they actually charged and convicted a beard of doing it. This would still be a huge scandal even if the beard were somehow cooperative with taking the fall.

It was very believable to me that Ippei was willing to take the public fall and become hated, in exchange for big financial rewards down the line. It is not so believable that he'd plead guilty to a major financial felony and do prison time. It's also not believable to me that the feds would do such a huge favor to MLB as to go along with such a sham.

What is more likely?

Ippei was possibly the beard for Ohtani and placing bets for him, and also allowed to use some limited money to place bets for himself, in exchange for being that beard. Then he stole a ton extra because he became a super degen, and when Ohtani realized it, he had to change his story.

This would make it both true that Ippei was a beard AND that he stole 8 figures.

Maybe this plea bargain will include Ippei simply copping to stealing everything, with a soft agreement to not mention that he was bearding for Ohtani for the first $4.5m. In exchange, he'll get a more favorable sentence.

As Ippei himself said to the text to the bookie regarding stealing from Ohtani, "Technically, I did steal from him."

---

Your position makes sense, I still smell a rat and think Shohei will be exposed here or elsewhere for gambling.

Feels like a mostly clever operation with one or two loose ends that will cause the whole thing to unravel.

I don't think heres some grand federal cover up, like Jeffrey Epstein clearly being swept under the rug. He's ultimately just an athlete, not whatever the fuck Epstein was.

But where there's smoke there's fire. Book it

Only thing that makes sense to me now with such a huuuge and wealthy Star is he got husled, trusted his friend. Who assumed he would be able to get by with a lot of these things, and tried. The audacity on such a close friend could have been very audacious. He has too much to care about to be hiding things and trying to Tax scam,

him or his Asian pal like most Asians loved gambling and, got caught up, in over their heads, now got the Feds involved lol....



:applause

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sanlmar

Ohtani hires the same crisis PR firm as Alec Baldwin, Harvey Weinstein and Hillary Clinton.

Law firm has represented Danny Masterson, Armie Hammer and Prince Andrew.

These are not people you hire when you didn't do it.


in my opinion, the biggest tell will be if Ohtani fails to sue CAA. Suing CAA in LA/Hollywood will make the cover of Variety so there is no chance we will miss the news or lack of news.

The following article gives us insight into the staff. If the accountants weren’t on Fentanyl they woulda noticed some irregularities that would have set off alarms demanding personal meetings with their client (not the interpreter).

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.co...-shohei-ohtani

This is pretty entertaining

---

CAA has around $18 billion in contracts just on athletes. I can’t imagine them ever letting it get that far.

The problem is how do you navigate this? That might have been your point. Bad spot to be in.

You either hang your client out to dry with the truth he’s a degen, or you look incompetent. I can’t imagine how many calls they’ve already fielded from existing clients where they are telling them it’s not what it appears.

Ohtani is such big business it’s almost more similar to a political issue. I think CAA leaking the truth to some journalist, one they have no ties with and deniability, might be the only way we find anything out of truth.

Their whole team around Ohtani missing this is a really bad look. Still, they probably have to just weather the storm as hanging a client out to dry may be a worse look.

I still suspect a deal amongst a bunch of parties, Ippei getting 36 months, doing 28, riding off with $50 million, and we never know is still the chalk imo. Just too much at stake for truth.

https://x.com/darrenrovell/status/1781732416584900642

Ippei to plead guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...-pleads-guilty

And now a new name enters this whole thing...

Ryan Boyajian, 47, was the person listed as "Associate 1" in the indictment against Ippei. Boyajian was the associate of bookmaker Matthew Bowyer who received money from Ippei.

In turn, Boyajian would forward the money directly into front money accounts of his at Resorts World and Pechanga. He would then gamble at high stakes, either losing it all, or cashing out if he won. Bowyer would also gamble with some of this money. It was believed that this was a money laundering operation, where the illegal bookmaking proceeds would then be seen as "clean" funds coming from the casino.

Disgraced former Resorts World CEO Scott Sibella is believed to have looked the other way while Boyajian did this.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...gambling-money


And apparently this entire situation has shone a spotlight on the entire issue regarding illegal bookies laundering money though Vegas casinos, especially Resorts World: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...e-vegas-casino

Surprised to find out he is 30 thought early 20s , man lot of degens though.

The full breadth of this Ohtani/Ippei scandal is not gonna be contained

Idk maybe this is out of jurisdiction

Have they hired Micon's attorney yet?

It seems the anti gambling laws for pro athletes is a bit over the top.

BUMP

Damien Laforbes, aka DJ, who appeared a lot on PokerGo and Hustler Casino Live has pled guilty to helping Matt Bowyer launder money at Resorts World.

https://x.com/ToddWitteles/status/1828824124866904299

There was an update on this story on the news tonight- starting federal prison sentence tomorrow. But I can’t find a new link on this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by desertrunner

There was an update on this story on the news tonight- starting federal prison sentence tomorrow. But I can’t find a new link on this.

---

Not tonight, but there was an update in February.

Mizuhara got 57 months: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...n-ohtani-fraud

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by desertrunner

There was an update on this story on the news tonight- starting federal prison sentence tomorrow. But I can’t find a new link on this.

---

Not tonight, but there was an update in February.

Mizuhara got 57 months: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...n-ohtani-fraud

---

But there was an update on the KTLA news tonight on this story. Thats how I knew to search for and bump it up.

yeah he is to surrender himself today and start the prison term...

Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, is scheduled to surrender to authorities Monday and begin his federal prison sentence on charges related to stealing nearly $17 million from the Dodgers star baseball player to pay gambling debts.

https://mynewsla.com/crime/2025/03/2...ntence-monday/

BUMP

Related matter, now dogging Fontainebleau, involving DJ Leforbes: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...-quot-Leforbes

I used to see DJ around Gardens casino a lot. He didn't play very much poker that I saw. Just kind of walked around and socialized a lot, pretty much exclusively around the high limit games. Guess him being a high end bookie explains what he was doing.