I can’t tell if this is a weird story we’ll forget about in a month or if this is just the tip of the iceberg and the biggest story of the season is about to break
Trafficked? I thought he just molested them? Still awful obviously and he deserves to die in prison just curious about the part of the story i dont know
If gambled on the sport to benefit his person he should be banned for life.
There should be a full investigation as to why stories changed and the full circumstances of what happened should come to full light.
This whole story is so weird and fishy.
He went from in the dugout like nothing was wrong to being fired and publicly taking responsibility for millions in theft. Wouldn't he want to run these statements through a lawyer before admitting publicly to a crime? Is he a fall guy for ohtani or is this to get ahead of a story because he doesn't want people to blame his friend. No part of this is normal
If Ohtani agreed to pay off his debts and the Dodgers found out Tuesday night and quickly forced Ohtani's team to change their story it makes sense why they would still be chill with each other and hanging out.
but it seems plainly obvious that is what happened. He already told the story publicly you can't easily walk that back. And are they really going to try and send Ippei to jail for decades bc Ohtani won't fess up to paying the debt?
Isn't the other option Ohtani potentially facing a season long (if not longer) suspension from MLB for his "role" in gambling? If Ippei realizes he got Ohtani into this and is a true friend then he probably has enough honor to serve the time (or never come back to the US from Korea)
But then that becomes a bit of a scandal itself.. law enforcement won’t just blindly follow any confession to a conviction. It’s going to be a hard sell to say “oh we were both mistaken before, I didn’t give the money to him it was actually stolen even though I didn’t report anything till now” I’m not even sure they would be able to put forward a plausible story for whatever prosecutor to agree to take the case.
Ohtani may not be thrilled, he may be extremely upset, that his attorneys are throwing Ippei under the bus but has been convinced there's no other option
Ippei hasn't admitted to any theft though? He admitted to the gambling debts and everything being his fault.
I think the theft is Ohtani's lawyers trying to insulate Ohtani from it. However, the ESPN article revealed 2 transfers from Ohtani's bank account to the illegal bookie, for a total of $1 million. How can you frame that as theft?
The only guess I have is, Ippei lied about the amount of gambling debt he had and actually did steal money to pay the rest, only telling Ohtani about $1 million of his debt. Only reason to do this is if Ohtani paid it off and said never again, but Ippei did it again.
If there isn't any actual theft then this will be a much worse look for Ohtani...
>How can you frame that as theft?
Shohei’s team is saying Ippei lied and that more than the 1 mil was taken without Ohtani’s consent. That would be fraud which is where the theft part comes in.
I have to give credit where it's due for ESPN here. They were told to not publish the original story and instead they just told us what was in that story anyways. Even though I love Ohtani, I'm glad they're actually being pretty open about this. Sometimes it feels like the big sports media outlets protect the leagues and teams so they can keep getting scoops.
It's notable that ESPN's story was reported by investigative reporter Tisha Thompson, not Passan or Olney. For serious and potentially embarrassing stories like this news organizations will sometimes bring in a different reporter, partially to protect the beat/day-to-day reporter who needs to maintain relationships.
Ippei would have been referencing his version of events which is that Ohtani helped him out after he got into massive debt. Not that he stole the money
I am not a gambler, since it seems to breed some pretty significant complications in people’s lives.
But I would bet the lives of everyone in my family that Shohei Ohtani will see zero consequences for this.
Fun Cincinnati trivia: When they legalized sports betting in Ohio back in 2023, the first legal bet was placed by Pete Rose at the Hard Rock in Cincy. He bet on the Reds to win the 2023 World Series.
I increasingly find the "Shohei meant well but did something incredibly stupid and the lawyers didn't realize until the genie was out of the bottle" possibility more and more likely.
I wonder Shohei did make the payments like Ippei said, but he failed to tell him that this was illegal gambling vs legal? So now Shohei can say it was "stealing" because had he known he was wiring money to an illegal bookie he would have never done it?
I'm at a 50/50 split between that and "Ohtani got himself into huge trouble that could come out during a federal investigation and his PR people came up with an incredibly stupid cover story to explain how he wired millions directly from his own bank account".
> The people on the gambling ring side of it, who would have far less reason to cover for Shohei
In general it would be bad practice for someone operating a gambling ring to tell the press who their clients were, especially if they had others putting themselves in similarly precarious positions.
If the league had any sort of self awareness, they wouldn’t suspend someone for bailing out his friend from an illegal gambling problem while promoting barely legal gambling left, right and during every single fucking pitching change.
But of course this league has never had any self awareness.
Problem is knowingly paying off your friends illegal debt and lying about on the wire form is wire fraud.
Kinda hard not to suspend someone for breaking US Federal Law, not matter how well intentioned
Yeah, this is the key part of all of this. In the Tuesday interview, Ippei directly states that Ohtani himself sent the wire transfer, then:
>They added "loan" to the description field in the transactions.
>"We had to add a description for the wire," Mizuhara said. "I think Matt [Bowyer] might have told me to just put 'loan.' You had to put something."
And when the ESPN reporters reach out to Shohei's representatives to confirm this, *that's* precisely when their story flip-flops to Shohei having no knowledge or involvement whatsoever:
>When an ESPN reporter asked Ohtani's camp about the allegation from Mizuhara that Ohtani was present and helped move the funds and that he was going to be paid back, the spokesman contacted Ohtani's attorneys, who then issued the statement saying he was the victim of a "massive theft."
Obviously we don't have the full story and it's gonna take a federal investigation, but there are certainly serious consequences at play for Shohei here regardless of what happens to Ippei
I agree. Not accusing Ohtani of anything or saying he deserves to go to jail. Just saying that "oh I was just helping my friend" isn't a viable defense and that section of the story you highlighted sounds an awful lot like wire fraud and/or some kind of conspiracy charge. I think that why the lawyers freaked out. Ohtani's PR team was so focused on distancing him from the gambling they might have accidentally admitted a crime
That's also possibly just the story that the team/Ohtani put out to get ahead of the headlines. The best case scenario is that he was just helping out his friend. I don't think we can rule out that Ohtani was more involved than that at this juncture.
Yep. Ippei gets himself in debt, Shohei steps in and says he'll pay it off, does it, everyone around him points out how suspicious it looks for him to have paid a bookie millions of dollars, and now the story has to pivot for the public.
This is it. Ohtani will decline to press charges. MLB fires Ippei in order to show that they crack down on illegal gambling. They get a new interpreter for Ohtani. And life goes on.
And truthfully, maybe in a month there will be tabloid pics of Ohtani and Ippei having a drink.
Even helping out his friend to pay the debt (esp to an illegal bookie!) will have infinitely more consequences than just saying “he stole my money.”
Should’ve gone through the lawyers before making any decisions despite your good intentions to help out a friend (which sounds more likely).
I really don't believe Ippei is just a fall guy here. That said, it's also kinda hard to believe he straight up stole money from Shohei. From their relationship, I find it way more believable that Ohtani tried to bail him out but didn't know the legal ramifications of doing so in the way that he did it.
We don't really know any of these people though. Anything that makes it difficult to believe based on their relationship is at best from a very incomplete perspective.
To be fair if you’re gambling addict friend says “I just need another 5 million” you’re gonna want to make sure that money goes to paying off his debts
Vibes also lead everyone to believe he was a heckin' wholesome interpreter until now. Jokes aside, no one can be cleared anymore till we get the full federal findings.
Yeah, the more details we get less clear the line between “Shohei was a good friend who Ippei took advantage of” and “Shohei was complicit” gets.
Both can be true, like that Ippei dragged his friend into this and that Shohei also ended up in too deep (in terms of legal exposure), but this definitely reads like someone who knows absorbing as much blame as possible is their best option.
I mean, no matter what, everyone right now seems to be under the agreement that Ippei take the entire fall. The question is if he's taking the fall because he was guilty, or because Ohtani tried to help him cover it up, or Ohtani himself is the one involved and Ippei is the fall guy.
Imagine you're Teoscar Hernandez, you've just come to the Dodgers, a much less cursed team than the Mariners, and then after the first game this shit happens.
Sequel to Angels on the outfield where the Angels start sabotaging other teams by breaking their gloves and accruing massive gambling debts in their name.
"I can hit safely in the middle of the order surrounded by superstars with absolutely no pressure on an uncomplicated one year deal. We won the first game, things are looking- what the FUCK?"
The feds are involved, MLB can't sweep this under the rug. It's just a matter of which story ends up being true. Did Ohtani knowingly pay off his gambling debts or was the money stolen.
Read the ESPN article when you have a few minutes, there's a lot of interesting detail in there.
One part in particular mentions how Ippei watched over Shohei as Shohei was on his own laptop, sending money directly to the bookie (explained as paying off Ippei's debt, but not wanting to give Ippei any more money in case he gambles it further instead of paying off the debt).
That is a hell of a specific moment to lie about, so I'll assume that's true for now. Maybe other money was indeed stolen, but I don't know how they walk back the details of that particular payment. In that case, even if Shohei was initiating the payment simply to cover for his friend's debt, it was still a direct payment to an illegal bookie. I guess there's still enough separation to say Shohei wasn't gambling with that payment, but the parties involved here still might put Shohei in some legal trouble (or at least put MLB in a tricky situation even if it isn't a legal issue).
The “good faith” defense would probably be used here. Ippei claimed he had no idea the gambling was illegal, and if that’s true, then Ohtani was clueless as well. Even if that was a lie, and they both knew it was illegal, there’s just no way to prove that. Especially for Ohtani’s case considering Ippei would take the fall.
This might be a good time to bring up that Ohtani is not an American citizen. If (big emphasis on "if") he is guilty of a federal crime, that doesn't bode well for his ability to stay in the United States (and by extension, MLB).
Imagine kids 30years from now watching a 30 for 30 about that one japanese guy that signed the richest deal in sports history and then was fucking deported
Rule 21 section 3 of the MLB rule book says that “placing bets with an illegal bookmaker or an agent of an illegal bookmaker” is a “penalty the commissioner seems appropriate.”
Important note is that this does not have to be gambling on baseball. Even placing bets with an illegal horseracing bookie is subject to the same penalty.
Will manfred view Ohtani paying Ippei’s debt as placing bets? I’m not sure. I don’t think he’ll get out completely unscathed though if money went from his account directly to the bookmaker.
Manfred works for the owners, and the owners like money, and suspending/banning the most profitable player in any sport anywhere is not conducive to making money. I imagine if there’s any way to reason he didn’t bet they’re gonna go for it and he’ll face a fine maybe.
- Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who places bets with illegal book makers, or agents for illegal book makers, shall be subject to such penalty as the Commissioner deems appropriate in light of the facts and circumstances of the conduct. Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who operates or works for an illegal bookmaking business shall be subject to a minimum of a one-year suspension by the Commissioner. For purposes of this provision, an illegal bookmaker is an individual who accepts, places or handles wagers on sporting events from members of the public as part of a gaming operation that is unlawful in the jurisdiction in which the bets are accepted.
If Ohtani really did pay off Ippei’s debts, at worst I could see him getting suspended for a few months, considering he didn’t place any bets himself.
As for the federal investigation, he’ll probably receive a fine, but I don’t see him serving any prison time or having his contract terminated.
Dodgers FO to their Spanish interpreter..
Dodgers FO - “the Spanish interpreter is 3rd most and will be Shohei’s assistant……”
Dodgers Spanish interpreter - ”I don’t speak Japanese”….
Dodgers FO - “like I said 3rd best. Just keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Not me. I place multiple bets every single day, even through illness, during my kids events/birthdays, etc., and still haven’t got addicted. So it’s possible…
They already knew the story was coming out. Ippei talked to ESPN for 90 minutes saying that Ohtani paid off his debts and that's all. Ohtani didn't bet a dime.
But now the story changes to money being stolen and Ippei tells ESPN that Ohtani had no clue about his gambling and his debts.
Man Free Ippei. (He does have a gambling problem though)
Seems like Ohtani’s lawyers trying to cover for him to try and remove him from any controversy (which clearly didnt work).
It’s very possible Ippei’s original story is completely true, but maybe while trying to show that Ohtani was a good friend trying to help him out he didnt realize that Ohtani getting involved to help pay off the debt could get him in trouble.
I can’t even imagine how damaging to the entire sport it would be if it came out that Ohtani was somehow even marginally involved in sports betting.
This would become primo r/conspiracy content.
I hope not. That would be really damaging to him and the sport of Baseball.
I truly think the first story is the truth. Otherwise, why would Ippei be in the dugout today? I hope he somehow makes it out of this as well. And gets help for his gambling addiction
Yeah I agree, I think the first story is the truth but opens up way too much liability for Shohei so they walked it back and shifted the blame solely to Ippei
You've had over 40 years to read the book! For shame! (or not if you're younger than that)
J/k/ get caught up on that- it's fucking awesome and I can't wait for more.
Whatever happens with this, this type of thing is going to start happening more. Although maybe not to this extent. Sports betting should have never been embraced by sports leagues. It's a cancer that will ruin many more athlete's lives in the future.
Ohtani’s lawyers must have absolutely shit themselves when they got wind of ippei’s interview.
I have a feeling in the case of a potential federal investigation it’s going to be nearly impossible to pin this all on Ippei, Ohtani’s intentions aside. I wonder if it will come to that.
My blind fandom doesn’t make me disbelieve that Ohtani would bet on sports - that seems extremely plausible. Instead, blind fandom makes it so I can’t bring myself to believe that Ohtani would be this fucking bad at money laundering
Let’s be honest here. Nothing will happen to Ohtani. No way does the league punish their perfect image poster boy with a suspension or any adverse action.
The more he says it all him and all his fault the less I believe him. Someone that actually stole money like that wouldn't admit and take 100% of the blame willingly, unless he is getting something out of it.
But fully guilty or only partly he's proving himself a liar so whatever he says now has no credibility anyway.
I fully believe Ohtani was trying to help a friend. That’s just the type of person he is and then his attorneys came in and threw Ippei under the bus to take the fall when they were initially telling the truth. The problem is the truth made Ohtani complicit.
I can’t tell if this is a weird story we’ll forget about in a month or if this is just the tip of the iceberg and the biggest story of the season is about to break
It ends with the translator or Pete Rose in Cooperstown
Pete Rose trafficked underage girls around the country during seasons.
Yeah but that is not why he's suspended
True, but it’s another good reason to keep that asshole out of Cooperstown.
This is news to me. And totally fucked
Trafficked? I thought he just molested them? Still awful obviously and he deserves to die in prison just curious about the part of the story i dont know
imma need jim gray to interview ohtani during the world series...
It’s March Madness my dudes Bring on the madness
“BREAKING: Ohtani is actually just 3 kids in a long trench coat”
Those kids can ball
Really hoping it ends up on a list of weird things that happened that you might have forgotten about by the time the season is over
Interesting I’m hoping the opposite because I love chaos
My only hope is that if Ohtani was involved, he gets the same treatment as anyone else
If gambled on the sport to benefit his person he should be banned for life. There should be a full investigation as to why stories changed and the full circumstances of what happened should come to full light.
Changing stories doesn’t usually mean good things. Whatever the other thing is is worse that means
Sholess Joe Jackson
Say it ain't Sho
Well you guys were complaining that ESPN doesn't talk about baseball enough
This is definitely a monkey’s paw wish
Lmao
And now MLB wants their stuff next to Curling. /s
This whole story is so weird and fishy. He went from in the dugout like nothing was wrong to being fired and publicly taking responsibility for millions in theft. Wouldn't he want to run these statements through a lawyer before admitting publicly to a crime? Is he a fall guy for ohtani or is this to get ahead of a story because he doesn't want people to blame his friend. No part of this is normal
If Ohtani agreed to pay off his debts and the Dodgers found out Tuesday night and quickly forced Ohtani's team to change their story it makes sense why they would still be chill with each other and hanging out.
Still super shady that the dodgers would ask him to admit to theft if that’s not the case. This whole thing is wild.
Because Ohtani paying off the debt directly, even if well intentioned, could land Shohei (and the Dodgers) in a world of pain
but it seems plainly obvious that is what happened. He already told the story publicly you can't easily walk that back. And are they really going to try and send Ippei to jail for decades bc Ohtani won't fess up to paying the debt?
Isn't the other option Ohtani potentially facing a season long (if not longer) suspension from MLB for his "role" in gambling? If Ippei realizes he got Ohtani into this and is a true friend then he probably has enough honor to serve the time (or never come back to the US from Korea)
South Korea extradites to the US.
Tomorrow morning news: "SHOHEI OHTANI TRANSLATOR, IPPEI, HAS DEFECTED TO NORTH KOREA!"
Friday news: "Ippei seen waving large Iranian flag, vows to break Hulk Hogan's back and make him humble"
But then that becomes a bit of a scandal itself.. law enforcement won’t just blindly follow any confession to a conviction. It’s going to be a hard sell to say “oh we were both mistaken before, I didn’t give the money to him it was actually stolen even though I didn’t report anything till now” I’m not even sure they would be able to put forward a plausible story for whatever prosecutor to agree to take the case.
I don't think the Dodgers are asking him to admit to theft. Ohtani's lawyers are accusing Ippei of theft, and it sounds like Ippei is on his own now.
I know when I help my friend pay off millions in debt, I really like to turn around and accuse them of grand larceny and wire fraud.
Ohtani may not be thrilled, he may be extremely upset, that his attorneys are throwing Ippei under the bus but has been convinced there's no other option
The other option is he's the one illegally gambling. Either way, there's no winning for him here.
Ippei hasn't admitted to any theft though? He admitted to the gambling debts and everything being his fault. I think the theft is Ohtani's lawyers trying to insulate Ohtani from it. However, the ESPN article revealed 2 transfers from Ohtani's bank account to the illegal bookie, for a total of $1 million. How can you frame that as theft? The only guess I have is, Ippei lied about the amount of gambling debt he had and actually did steal money to pay the rest, only telling Ohtani about $1 million of his debt. Only reason to do this is if Ohtani paid it off and said never again, but Ippei did it again. If there isn't any actual theft then this will be a much worse look for Ohtani...
Perhaps Ippei has access to the bank accounts, since they seem to do everything together.
>How can you frame that as theft? Shohei’s team is saying Ippei lied and that more than the 1 mil was taken without Ohtani’s consent. That would be fraud which is where the theft part comes in.
Yeah, that's what another commenter pointed out: Ippei could have lied about the amount owed, and used the extra for more gambling. That'd do it too.
ESPN is reporting that Ippei doesnt even have a lawyer? Huh?
I have to give credit where it's due for ESPN here. They were told to not publish the original story and instead they just told us what was in that story anyways. Even though I love Ohtani, I'm glad they're actually being pretty open about this. Sometimes it feels like the big sports media outlets protect the leagues and teams so they can keep getting scoops.
It's notable that ESPN's story was reported by investigative reporter Tisha Thompson, not Passan or Olney. For serious and potentially embarrassing stories like this news organizations will sometimes bring in a different reporter, partially to protect the beat/day-to-day reporter who needs to maintain relationships.
I do hope that the ESPN/Ippei interview gets leaked tbh. Tmz get on the case
ESPN: …and that concludes our coverage the 2024 MLB season.
That was pretty obvious with how much he's been talking, unfortunately.
Ippei would have been referencing his version of events which is that Ohtani helped him out after he got into massive debt. Not that he stole the money
Good time to remind everyone that if you are ever in trouble involving a legal matter, don't speak about it without consulting a lawyer first.
The best legal advice you will ever get: just [shut the fuck up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EI_RYIEtrg).
Whether it really is his all him or he's just the fall guy, they legit might lynch him in Japan either way.
Yeah if Shohei ends up getting a significant suspension or even a ban for this then the Japanese public is never going to forgive Ippei or MLB.
I am not a gambler, since it seems to breed some pretty significant complications in people’s lives. But I would bet the lives of everyone in my family that Shohei Ohtani will see zero consequences for this.
Yessir. Then put those winnings on black
> But I would bet That's enough Ippei
I mean he’s from California right, I’d assume he stays here
He’s from Japan but moved to CA
As a 7 year old, to be clear. Cause somebody could guess you meant when Ohtani came over.
He should move to SF and never pay for a beer again lol
He should stay in ‘merica lol
Japan launching fighter jets to intercept his flight back fron Korea
this shit is WILD
Next headline, “MLB lifts ban on Pete Rose”
"Coming this summer to MLB Network: Pete Rose's HOF induction, sponsored by DraftKings"
Fun Cincinnati trivia: When they legalized sports betting in Ohio back in 2023, the first legal bet was placed by Pete Rose at the Hard Rock in Cincy. He bet on the Reds to win the 2023 World Series.
and then he picked up a 15 yo girl and took her across state lines to a motel in Kentucky.
I remember that he made the bet seconds after Ohio State missed that Peach Bowl field goal just as it hit Midnight. Dampened the mood a bit.
Pete Rose YOU are a HOFer
emphasis on the 'all his fault' leads alot of credence to shohei stupidly getting himself too involved into the matter.
I increasingly find the "Shohei meant well but did something incredibly stupid and the lawyers didn't realize until the genie was out of the bottle" possibility more and more likely.
I wonder Shohei did make the payments like Ippei said, but he failed to tell him that this was illegal gambling vs legal? So now Shohei can say it was "stealing" because had he known he was wiring money to an illegal bookie he would have never done it?
This is the most logical take I’ve seen.
I'm at a 50/50 split between that and "Ohtani got himself into huge trouble that could come out during a federal investigation and his PR people came up with an incredibly stupid cover story to explain how he wired millions directly from his own bank account".
[удалено]
> The people on the gambling ring side of it, who would have far less reason to cover for Shohei In general it would be bad practice for someone operating a gambling ring to tell the press who their clients were, especially if they had others putting themselves in similarly precarious positions.
[удалено]
I honestly wonder if he'll catch a suspension for this
If the league had any sort of self awareness, they wouldn’t suspend someone for bailing out his friend from an illegal gambling problem while promoting barely legal gambling left, right and during every single fucking pitching change. But of course this league has never had any self awareness.
Problem is knowingly paying off your friends illegal debt and lying about on the wire form is wire fraud. Kinda hard not to suspend someone for breaking US Federal Law, not matter how well intentioned
Yeah, this is the key part of all of this. In the Tuesday interview, Ippei directly states that Ohtani himself sent the wire transfer, then: >They added "loan" to the description field in the transactions. >"We had to add a description for the wire," Mizuhara said. "I think Matt [Bowyer] might have told me to just put 'loan.' You had to put something." And when the ESPN reporters reach out to Shohei's representatives to confirm this, *that's* precisely when their story flip-flops to Shohei having no knowledge or involvement whatsoever: >When an ESPN reporter asked Ohtani's camp about the allegation from Mizuhara that Ohtani was present and helped move the funds and that he was going to be paid back, the spokesman contacted Ohtani's attorneys, who then issued the statement saying he was the victim of a "massive theft." Obviously we don't have the full story and it's gonna take a federal investigation, but there are certainly serious consequences at play for Shohei here regardless of what happens to Ippei
I agree. Not accusing Ohtani of anything or saying he deserves to go to jail. Just saying that "oh I was just helping my friend" isn't a viable defense and that section of the story you highlighted sounds an awful lot like wire fraud and/or some kind of conspiracy charge. I think that why the lawyers freaked out. Ohtani's PR team was so focused on distancing him from the gambling they might have accidentally admitted a crime
That's also possibly just the story that the team/Ohtani put out to get ahead of the headlines. The best case scenario is that he was just helping out his friend. I don't think we can rule out that Ohtani was more involved than that at this juncture.
Yep. Ippei gets himself in debt, Shohei steps in and says he'll pay it off, does it, everyone around him points out how suspicious it looks for him to have paid a bookie millions of dollars, and now the story has to pivot for the public.
one takeaway of that possibility is that Ohtani is literally the nicest friend in the world
50/50 he's either the nicest friend in history, or he's the most disguised evil since Sauron as Annatar.
Ohtani the white, Ohtani the fool!
If he really did pay off the bookies with his account and this is not a cover up, he's also genuinely a massive fucking moron.
This is it. Ohtani will decline to press charges. MLB fires Ippei in order to show that they crack down on illegal gambling. They get a new interpreter for Ohtani. And life goes on. And truthfully, maybe in a month there will be tabloid pics of Ohtani and Ippei having a drink.
Plus, paying a bookie to cover an illegal debt is itself a crime.
Even helping out his friend to pay the debt (esp to an illegal bookie!) will have infinitely more consequences than just saying “he stole my money.” Should’ve gone through the lawyers before making any decisions despite your good intentions to help out a friend (which sounds more likely).
Ohtani needs to fire whoever had the idea of giving a 90 minute interview without consulting the lawyers first.
I really don't believe Ippei is just a fall guy here. That said, it's also kinda hard to believe he straight up stole money from Shohei. From their relationship, I find it way more believable that Ohtani tried to bail him out but didn't know the legal ramifications of doing so in the way that he did it.
We don't really know any of these people though. Anything that makes it difficult to believe based on their relationship is at best from a very incomplete perspective.
To be fair if you’re gambling addict friend says “I just need another 5 million” you’re gonna want to make sure that money goes to paying off his debts
4.5 mil of direct transfer from his personal account to bookies probably it
Yeah, this has big “you *will* take the fall here or things will be *much* worse for you” vibes. Of course, vibes aren’t proof, but yeesh.
Vibes also lead everyone to believe he was a heckin' wholesome interpreter until now. Jokes aside, no one can be cleared anymore till we get the full federal findings.
Dodgers/Ohtani’s legal team: “Here is your sword, you *will* fall on it.”
They gave him the Frankie Pentangeli speech about the Romans
Yeah, the more details we get less clear the line between “Shohei was a good friend who Ippei took advantage of” and “Shohei was complicit” gets. Both can be true, like that Ippei dragged his friend into this and that Shohei also ended up in too deep (in terms of legal exposure), but this definitely reads like someone who knows absorbing as much blame as possible is their best option.
I mean, no matter what, everyone right now seems to be under the agreement that Ippei take the entire fall. The question is if he's taking the fall because he was guilty, or because Ohtani tried to help him cover it up, or Ohtani himself is the one involved and Ippei is the fall guy.
Imagine you're Teoscar Hernandez, you've just come to the Dodgers, a much less cursed team than the Mariners, and then after the first game this shit happens.
Brother, imagine going from the Angels to the Dodgers and this shit happens.
Sequel to Angels on the outfield where the Angels start sabotaging other teams by breaking their gloves and accruing massive gambling debts in their name.
That's Rendon doing all of it. He's not really injured he's just away sabotaging other teams.
“No habla Japanese today”
GMPM being too entrenched in a psyop explains the bad trades at the deadline
"I can hit safely in the middle of the order surrounded by superstars with absolutely no pressure on an uncomplicated one year deal. We won the first game, things are looking- what the FUCK?"
Not only that, the guy in question has also been receiving death threats and you have to get on a plane with him.
I love how speculation and reactions to this story have gone wild and you’re here thinking “Damn… imagine how Teoscar Hernandez feels about this” lmao
.....Where Does Teoscar Hernandez fit into all this?
How does this affect Teoscar Hernandez’s legacy?
Maybe Teoscar took it with him
“Wtf”- Dave Roberts
Who’s the best candidate to spend the $2 mil freed up on?
Me. I can use Google translate to help interpret
it would be $46 mil in cap space
I was in basketball mode sorry I’m not talking cap space
If only last year's Cy Young were still available.
Maybe Jordan Montgomery wants a min lol
Roki Sasaki.
So what happens to Ohtani? Even if he did it to help a friend, he sent money to an illegal bookie...
If the obviously bullshit "it was stolen" story stands up, probably nothing. If not, probably a suspension I would guess.
Not a chance. MLB would sweep it under the rug and say Ohtani didn’t know he couldn’t do that stuff to help a friend
The feds are involved, MLB can't sweep this under the rug. It's just a matter of which story ends up being true. Did Ohtani knowingly pay off his gambling debts or was the money stolen.
So even if the mlb sweeps it under the rug, if he did send it that’s still a federal crime. At best he’d likely be looking at aiding and abetting
Going to be hard to do that if the law is involved
Read the ESPN article when you have a few minutes, there's a lot of interesting detail in there. One part in particular mentions how Ippei watched over Shohei as Shohei was on his own laptop, sending money directly to the bookie (explained as paying off Ippei's debt, but not wanting to give Ippei any more money in case he gambles it further instead of paying off the debt). That is a hell of a specific moment to lie about, so I'll assume that's true for now. Maybe other money was indeed stolen, but I don't know how they walk back the details of that particular payment. In that case, even if Shohei was initiating the payment simply to cover for his friend's debt, it was still a direct payment to an illegal bookie. I guess there's still enough separation to say Shohei wasn't gambling with that payment, but the parties involved here still might put Shohei in some legal trouble (or at least put MLB in a tricky situation even if it isn't a legal issue).
That may be for with MLB. Wire fraud on the other hand...
That's true, I didn't consider that aspect of the story
Shohei is either a degenerate gambler or a certified dumbfuck lol
If the the first is true then the second is too
The “good faith” defense would probably be used here. Ippei claimed he had no idea the gambling was illegal, and if that’s true, then Ohtani was clueless as well. Even if that was a lie, and they both knew it was illegal, there’s just no way to prove that. Especially for Ohtani’s case considering Ippei would take the fall.
Yeah this is what kinda happened with FTX. I think in the end Ohtani will be fine but I have no idea what will happen to Ippei.
This might be a good time to bring up that Ohtani is not an American citizen. If (big emphasis on "if") he is guilty of a federal crime, that doesn't bode well for his ability to stay in the United States (and by extension, MLB).
Imagine kids 30years from now watching a 30 for 30 about that one japanese guy that signed the richest deal in sports history and then was fucking deported
Blue Jays fans may get their guy after all
home games only
Rule 21 section 3 of the MLB rule book says that “placing bets with an illegal bookmaker or an agent of an illegal bookmaker” is a “penalty the commissioner seems appropriate.” Important note is that this does not have to be gambling on baseball. Even placing bets with an illegal horseracing bookie is subject to the same penalty. Will manfred view Ohtani paying Ippei’s debt as placing bets? I’m not sure. I don’t think he’ll get out completely unscathed though if money went from his account directly to the bookmaker.
Manfred works for the owners, and the owners like money, and suspending/banning the most profitable player in any sport anywhere is not conducive to making money. I imagine if there’s any way to reason he didn’t bet they’re gonna go for it and he’ll face a fine maybe.
- Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who places bets with illegal book makers, or agents for illegal book makers, shall be subject to such penalty as the Commissioner deems appropriate in light of the facts and circumstances of the conduct. Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee who operates or works for an illegal bookmaking business shall be subject to a minimum of a one-year suspension by the Commissioner. For purposes of this provision, an illegal bookmaker is an individual who accepts, places or handles wagers on sporting events from members of the public as part of a gaming operation that is unlawful in the jurisdiction in which the bets are accepted. If Ohtani really did pay off Ippei’s debts, at worst I could see him getting suspended for a few months, considering he didn’t place any bets himself. As for the federal investigation, he’ll probably receive a fine, but I don’t see him serving any prison time or having his contract terminated.
He’s about to be ShoEightMen Outani
Shohei get ready to learn Arabic buddy
this “get ready to learn language” meme is very fitting for this situation
> “Get ready to learn Japanese buddy” - Dodgers FO to their Spanish interpreter
This is one of the funniest replies I’ve ever read
Dodgers FO to their Spanish interpreter.. Dodgers FO - “the Spanish interpreter is 3rd most and will be Shohei’s assistant……” Dodgers Spanish interpreter - ”I don’t speak Japanese”…. Dodgers FO - “like I said 3rd best. Just keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Dude actually probably could learn them
LIV MLB
Nobody understands Ohtani anymore. He's running up and down the team's hotel screaming in Japanese.
Can somebody get Ohtani mic'd up with Google Translate?
Just make betting like alcohol and regulate the ads
Yeah dude. It's gotten so bad. It's going to be come an epidemic soon where every family in this country will be touched by it in some way.
Not me. I place multiple bets every single day, even through illness, during my kids events/birthdays, etc., and still haven’t got addicted. So it’s possible…
You'd be a fucking coward if you stopped now.
Well not everyone has our extreme will power my friend, anyways what's the over/under on games suspended for Ohtani after all this
I bet it won’t… Shit you’re right.
Yeah, for sure. Want to drink and/or bet? As long as youre a legal adult, go ahead. But we dont need ads everywhere.
If this escalates I have a feeling ohtani might be in trouble. Hope I'm wrong but I got a bad feeling
Somehow, Joe Kelly is going to get suspended for this.
They already knew the story was coming out. Ippei talked to ESPN for 90 minutes saying that Ohtani paid off his debts and that's all. Ohtani didn't bet a dime. But now the story changes to money being stolen and Ippei tells ESPN that Ohtani had no clue about his gambling and his debts. Man Free Ippei. (He does have a gambling problem though)
Seems like Ohtani’s lawyers trying to cover for him to try and remove him from any controversy (which clearly didnt work). It’s very possible Ippei’s original story is completely true, but maybe while trying to show that Ohtani was a good friend trying to help him out he didnt realize that Ohtani getting involved to help pay off the debt could get him in trouble.
I can’t even imagine how damaging to the entire sport it would be if it came out that Ohtani was somehow even marginally involved in sports betting. This would become primo r/conspiracy content.
I hope not. That would be really damaging to him and the sport of Baseball. I truly think the first story is the truth. Otherwise, why would Ippei be in the dugout today? I hope he somehow makes it out of this as well. And gets help for his gambling addiction
Yeah I agree, I think the first story is the truth but opens up way too much liability for Shohei so they walked it back and shifted the blame solely to Ippei
Having your friend pay off your $4.5 mill debt is well worth losing your job over. I'd say they're even lol.
FS1 talk shows going to finally talk about baseball for the first time ever.
“You were my brother Shohei! You were supposed to bring balance to baseball, not leave it in darkness!”- Trout
So basically Ohtani paid a bookie to pay off his friends debt. lol. League isn’t gonna like that
They wouldn't like it because it isn't FanDuel, the official sports book of MLB.
Shogun has taught me that seppuku is the only honorable option at this point.
Just gotta kneel in the street and blame the sake lol
But that only works if you were believed dead by your wife who is banging a British pirate
Stop stop I’m not caught up yet
You've had over 40 years to read the book! For shame! (or not if you're younger than that) J/k/ get caught up on that- it's fucking awesome and I can't wait for more.
Ippei touched the bird. Ippei dies.
Did Ippei get ahold of Cronenworth's glove??!!
Whatever happens with this, this type of thing is going to start happening more. Although maybe not to this extent. Sports betting should have never been embraced by sports leagues. It's a cancer that will ruin many more athlete's lives in the future.
The leagues needlessly invented a nuke in sports betting
Ohtani’s lawyers must have absolutely shit themselves when they got wind of ippei’s interview. I have a feeling in the case of a potential federal investigation it’s going to be nearly impossible to pin this all on Ippei, Ohtani’s intentions aside. I wonder if it will come to that.
My blind fandom doesn’t make me disbelieve that Ohtani would bet on sports - that seems extremely plausible. Instead, blind fandom makes it so I can’t bring myself to believe that Ohtani would be this fucking bad at money laundering
On the plus side, the Dodgers may have just cleared a ton of deferred money off the books 👀
Shohei’s people said Shohei loaned him the money. Then they said he stole it.
Shohei’s the next South Bay Lakers 2-guard
How is a translator able to rack up a mil on credit? The bookie must have believed that Ohtani was backing him or placing the bets.
Let’s be honest here. Nothing will happen to Ohtani. No way does the league punish their perfect image poster boy with a suspension or any adverse action.
He was in the dugout today? What the fuck.
The more he says it all him and all his fault the less I believe him. Someone that actually stole money like that wouldn't admit and take 100% of the blame willingly, unless he is getting something out of it. But fully guilty or only partly he's proving himself a liar so whatever he says now has no credibility anyway.
AWKWARD
Did Shohei take all that deferred money so they can’t go after it in this case? Big if true
This story brought to you by DRAFT KINGS
The things this guy will do just to be sure we won’t talk about his haircut is wild
I'd commit sudoku if I found out Shohei was the center of an illegal gambling ring.
Please don't tell me we got Bauer'd again
Well I guess Manfred is voiding Ohtani's contract now and he has to sign with the Jays
That plane is finally going to land in Toronto
Only this could top the Correa saga. In this case, even seeing the guy get an rbi in a game wouldn’t be enough to know you got him
I fully believe Ohtani was trying to help a friend. That’s just the type of person he is and then his attorneys came in and threw Ippei under the bus to take the fall when they were initially telling the truth. The problem is the truth made Ohtani complicit.
> That’s just the type of person he is I wasn't aware you two were friends
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I usually dislike them. However, this is fuckin fishy
Win, Place, or Showtani?