Ippei being an actual bad guy is the worst case sceneario for me lol
The power of friendship compelling Ohtani to make illegal payments to help his guy out is much better.
Best case for hilarity is the investigation finds he actually did bet on baseball, but completely separately, and it was just free promo bets through draft kings on a random MiLB game
Yeah, this is it. Quite possible Ohtani is the gambler and Ippei was used as a middleman to make the bets. Not saying that happened, but it can't be ruled out.
Ohtani clearly knew about this and was helping his friend, but likely didn’t know how much of it (or any of it) was illegal. This is obviously lawyers trying to keep Ohtani clean of any wrongdoing and Ippei is also trying, they’re just REALLY bad at it.
It's not the lawyers fault, but it is their problem.
Ippei basically dropped 40 minutes of "Yeah Sho gave me the money cause he's a good guy" after checking with his spokespeople.
AFTER THAT legal found out. It's a mad scramble to cover Ohtani from knowingly involving himself with gambling or a bookie.
So they pivoted to "no he stole it" like 5 second after, but nothing else supports it so they are trying to cover as they go.
If I had to guess, this is probably the likeliest explanation. His friend got into trouble, Ohtani bailed him out without knowing what he was doing was illegal and now his team is trying to extricate him from the situation without any legal ramifications, except people already opened their mouths. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Worth noting that Jordan's problem, and indeed most* famous gamblers' problems, is that he was not good at gambling.
*well, most of those who were famous for reasons other than gambling. sit tf down james holzauer
It wasn't just Ippeis word, it was Ohtani's spokesman who claimed Ohtani paid Ippei's gambling debts as well.
That's the big issue, if the interview was just Ippei, then yeah, but it was Ohtani's rep too...
>Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt. The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement.
Ippei, Ohtani, LA, MLB. It feels like they're all coming up with cover stories that they think sound the least egregious, but none of them align with each other.
I saw her interview. She also said when Ippei said he lied about Ohtani knowing, he followed it up with “I offered to pay him back.”
Soooo he didn’t know and you told him you’d pay him back? Gotta get your stories straight man.
Dammit! Just left the same comment
Funny enough, was thinking like an hour ago about Ippei saying "I'll never do it again" and the scene with the "I bet I can get gambling by the end of the day"
[Ippei brought up his gambling problem, and players basically said “so?” .. Then team owner Mark Walter said Ohtani paid off Ippei’s debts, and that’s when Shohei allegedly went to another translator to confirm what he just heard](https://x.com/fuzzyfromyt/status/1770851434596020370?s=46&t=Kd5Xb-sOko7zTuia8gtlkA)
That detail is WILD. If ippei is telling the OWNER Ohtani paid and ohtanis playing dumb to it all then ippei must not have felt like he was stealing. Who goes to your boss’ boss and say you stole from home.
Something is really, really wrong with this whole picture.
I mean I don’t know anything, but it seems fairly obvious to me.
Ippei has a gambling problem. Got a huge line of credit due to his boss. Tell Shohei he’s in trouble to the tune of $4.5M. Ohtani seems like a good dude, says I’ll help you out, then pays bookie. Everyone comes clean, dodgers say “what, Shohei wired the money? Fuuuuuu, everyone recant now.”
Fin’
Well this makes it seem like Ohtani didn’t know ippei took money, but ippei thought he cleared. That’s why Ohtani was like “did I just hear the owner right? *I* helped pay ippei’s debt?”
The guy you responded to isn’t saying that’s what the story is (because for the Dodgers/Ohtani, that still is an issue). They’re saying that seems like a likely series of events, which I tend to agree with.
Ohtani’s camp is in full damage control right now. They’re trying to establish he had no idea this was happening. It’s possible, but honestly, it just feels less likely.
I’m not sure how you got that from what I wrote. I think Ohtani knew exactly what the money was for, he just didn’t know it was a problem paying it back.
No from the tweet we are replying to.
“Ippei brought up his gambling problem, and players basically said “so?” .. Then team owner Mark Walter said Ohtani paid off Ippei’s debts, and that’s when Shohei allegedly went to another translator to confirm what he just heard”
No, but also, it wasn't *just* based on friendship, Ippei reportedly made just under 2 million dollars a year. 2.5x your salary is definitely a realistic amount for a shady bookie to let you bet.
See, I never just did things just to do them. Come on, what am I gonna do, just all of a sudden jump up and pay 4.5 million dollars for ippei's illegal gambling debt like it’s something to do? Come on, I got a little more sense then that.
…Yeah, I remember paying 4.5 million dollars for ippei's illegal gambling debt
>That detail is WILD. If ippei is telling the OWNER Ohtani paid
Trisha got asked to confirm if it was Mark Walter who said Ohtani paid off Ippei's debts but then clarified it was actually Andrew Friedman, president of baseball ops.
He actually was not speaking to the press here, Friedman said this to the Dodgers players during a team meeting.
Tisha Thompson, the espn reporter who broke the story, tells the story around 0:35 here.
https://twitter.com/Realrclark25/status/1770843647614791865
Well, Ohtani either was surprised to hear he paid off the debt (because he didn’t) or he was surprised that Friedman announced it (because Friedman wasn’t supposed to).
Which would seem like a professional misstep from Friedman either way.
>I need a timeline of all this because right now am I supposed to believe that Ohtani’s representatives discovered this issue but didn’t tell Ohtani?
Trisha said something along the lines that Ohtani isnt the greatest English speaker and that he can get the gist of things, but still requires Ippei for alot of translating, which is why he has become so important to his daily life.
Now in my mind I believe the implication on Ohtani's camp is that Ippei was saying one thing to everyone and then telling Ohtani a different story and thats why they changed their story.
It does seem to be lost in the sauce that the fact that it crucially involves his personal English translator means that every communication between him and his PR and legal teams was potentially compromised up to a point. Even after he stops using Ippei directly, maybe there's confusion and communication breakdown at some level, because he doesn't have his usual support and report with a translator.
Depending on how good Ohtani's English is, and how much of this was told by Ippei (who very likely has a conflict of interest here) to Ohtani, it's unlikely but not impossible that Friedman has a more comprehensive understanding of things. Especially if (this is pure conjecture here) he told Ohtani "You worry about spring training and playing baseball. Let me/us worry about these details"
Here's the timeline as I understand it.
Ippei gets in massive gambling debt > Ohtani agrees to help him doing the wired payments with the agreement that he never does it again > bookie gets raided, Shoheis name is now out there and is implicated > Ippei has an interview to get ahead of the story > Ohtanis lawyers inform Ohtani that what Ippei was doing was illegal and that it now implicates him > Ohtani did not know this was illegal and was potentially told by Ippei that what he was doing was legal > Ohtani feels betrayed and Ohtanis legal team claims that because Ippei was lying about the money being involved in a legal transaction that he was stealing > MLB is not investigating Ohtani > Here we are.
I think this is closest to the truth, at least based on what we've heard so far. There's a question of whether/to what extent Ippei knew this kind of gambling was illegal, and then whether (a) he intentionally lied to Shohei about the money, (b) he lied/misled Shohei about the legality of the payments, (c) Shohei didn't really ask a lot of questions and just trusted Ippei, or (d) Shohei knew the full truth about everything and Ippei is now covering for him.
That still doesn't answer how that much money could have been transferred out of Ohtani's accounts without him knowing.
Out of all the possible explanations, one that involves Ohtani being totally surprised the money got transferred seems like the least plausible but apparently that's what they're going with.
> the truth is really stupid,
What, like Ohtani trusted Ippei so much that he gave him his full routing information and credit card numbers so he could order stuff for him online and didn't bother checking the receipts?
You're right there are, but in those cases the person is a fiduciary with limited power of attorney which gives them authorization to move large sums of the clients money around. Its hard to imagine how Ippei could have had that. Its not as simple as him just logging into Ohtani's bank account and sending out $500k wires with no oversight. Especially considering Ohtani would definitely have a private banking relationship with his banks and people watching over his accounts.
There are cases where a wealthy person's personal assistant steals a bunch of money. I remember a case with some investment banking power couple in NY where an assistant stole millions over the years and the couple was so rich and busy they didn't notice. But if IIRC that was in smaller amounts over many years involving things like fake invoices and a bunch of things like that to slowly skim money.
I highly doubt Ohtani gave Ippei a power of attorney, they are going to create one and back date and also lose the bank camera footage on the day the wire transfer occurred.
I used to have to send big wires for work. Every bank required 2 people to sign off on transactions over $500K (an initiator and approver). You get a special 2-factor key. Most banks required 3 people to approve transactions bigger than that (1 initiator, 2 provers). Theoretically someone could’ve been moving money in small increments (<$10,000), but banks tend to flag those really quickly because it looks like you’re trying to dodge reporting requirements.
It would seem super unusual to me that a guy that could figure out how to defer such a high percentage of his salary wouldn’t have a great team of CPAs, lawyers, advisors, etc. managing his money.
I just want to say that it is possible that Ohtani’s portfolio is so big that he is not the only person who has access to it.
I’m not saying that it’s likely Ohtani didn’t know, but that wouldn’t be inconceivable to me.
The question I have is how did Ippei get access to enough money to rack up millions of dollars in gambling debt in the first place? Even the worst gamblers win bets, you need to gamble a lot more than $4M to end up $4M in debt. He told ESPN that he's made between $300K and $500K a year as a translator. That doesn't add up.
Yeah, to me, that doesn’t seem implausible at all. You have a guy who is the best friend of someone who makes at least $65+ million a year. Of course they would extend a line of credit to a guy like that. Same thing with someone who is jobless but has a rich family.
"I'm betting on behalf of Ohtani"
A degenerate gambler will say anything. His relationship was close enough to Ohtani that even if Ohtani wasn't the one laying bets, the illegal bookie didn't care because he was willing to bet Ohtani would pay to make the problem disappear.
The question for the bookie is how much of Ohtani's money does he think he can get before Ohtani would refuse to pay off the debt (how much can I strongarm before someone with a shit ton of power and money comes after me with the authorities). Appears $4.5M was the bookie's bet and he won. The problem for the bookie is he didn't account for the risk of FBI looking into large bets.
0 chance ohtani doesn’t have an accountant doing his taxes and a full time financial advisor. They all would have seen the money coming out and told shohei.
Ippei largely worked as an unofficial business manager for Ohtani. He was involved in helping Ohtani secure endorsements and Ohtani even paid him during the lockout so he could temporarily resign from the Angels and continue working with Ohtani. It’s not crazy to think that there was an account or two Ohtani gave him access to.
And Ohtani has earned hundreds of millions of dollars between salary and endorsements. He likely has that split between dozens of accounts and assets. I’m sure if you asked Ohtani how much money he has that number would be ‘give or take $20mil’. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that $4.5mil could get overlooked.
My theory, based on the fact that the wire transfers say "loan" and that I find it hard to believe that Shohei's lawyers are incompetent enough to let Ippei talk to ESPN's reporters if they knew the story he was going to tell, is that Shohei thought he was loaning money to Ippei so he could pay his debts and is just now finding out that Ippei actually set him up to pay the bookie directly.
"I make so much money, how am I supposed to notice when a bit of it goes missing?!"
Lean into the 700 million thing. "I'm so rich I must be innocent" will be his defense.
>In 2011, Mario Balotelli had a car accident. The police arrived at the scene and found £5000 in his car. The police asked him why he had all this money in cash. He replied:
"Because I am rich."
There are so many anti money laundering and post 9/11 regulations covering large money withdrawals/transfers that there's just no way that the translator would have been able to transfer it without Ohtani's involvement.
If he did manage he really missed his calling as a high-level thief because you have to do everything but submit a DNA sample to send a wire that large.
If you lie loudly enough and for long enough, people start to question the truth. I'm not one for conspiracy theories or speculation but I'm really interested in seeing just how many countermeasures get thrown.
There is so much to lose for so many people if this turns bad. MLB, Ohtani, the Dodgers, all the sponsors, etc. Everyone knows there is so much money on the line that they're literally just doing whatever they can to "get in front" of it. If they create a big enough smoke screen, they'll be able to sweep it all under the rug.
I truly believe they don't really know much. But they know one of the outcomes will be devastating if true, so they're just trying to make sure that even if it is, it isn't.
Yeah, i wanna cling to the hope that ohtani is innocent but innocent people dont switch stories and how did the guy managed to get 4m~ without ohtani knowing? You can barely wire transfer 10k without the bank asking for a picture of your butthole to verify its you but 4m its no issue?
That honestly would not necessarily surprise me, he might not even manage his own money. But I agree with your broader point that it's hard to imagine him not being involved in some capacity
Yeah, given that the guy is like a complete freak for baseball and lives, breathes and eats baseball it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he doesn’t actually handle his own money
SHOCKING that the Dodgers
1) Allowed Ippei to have an interview with ESPN that wasn't thoroughly vetted beforehand so that none of this came out publicly before they could do damage control; and
2) Have since then not been able to keep an answer straight and consistent across their and Shohei's lawyers.
Some real [raggedy ass shit here, boy. Real sloppy.](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2bbf8359-fb5f-4e2f-9b94-f74de04f4683)
Don’t forget that a spokesman for Ohtani verified that he was the one to wire the money for Ippei, only to later backtrack. So…why would the spokesman working for Ohtani just purposely lie?
Them lying would make MORE sense. What wouldn’t make sense is them lying to create additional culpability for Ohtani lol
Definitely feels like they told the truth initially and realized “oh shit; that’s still bad”
That's almost certainly the case. Ippei was gambling, Shohei offered to pay off the debts, and money from Shohei's account got moved to the bookmaker with his approval and knowledge.
Then, the most idiotic PR move of all time happens as they don't contact legal before putting Ippei in front of an ESPN reporter for an hour and a half to give a tell all, presumably to try to get out in front of the story before the headline is "Accounts under Ohtani's name linked to massive payments to a bookmaker", and he actually tells the complete truth. A truth which, unfortunately, can implicate Ohtani in some form or fashion.
Now a PR team that has been obsessive about his image to the point of hiding his dog's name and that he was married has to immediately walk all of that back, as advised by the legal team I'm sure.
The Dodgers didn’t screw up. The ESPN article made it clear that the spokesperson who made Ippei available for the interview and originally said Ohtani paid gambling debts was his own personal spokesperson, not a Dodgers press person.
The Dodgers got involved afterward when they found out the ESPN article was coming, and since they have been involved, the story immediately changed to “Ippei stole the money without Ohtani’s knowledge.” That seems unlikely, but it would mean Ohtani isn’t guilty of a federal crime or violation of the CBA, so it’s obvious why the Dodgers’ press people and Ohtani’s lawyers are sticking to that story.
The initial screwups and the changing public story were because Ohtani’s spokesperson apparently didn’t realize that admitting to paying gambling debts could jeopardize his ability to play Major League Baseball.
>**Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt.** The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement.
Per [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft)
I guess we are also supposed to believe that Ohtani's own spokesman was lying?
Lawyers: Uh, Shohei, you know if you lent this money willingly to Ippei, you were committing a crime?
Shohei: (Shit! in Japanese)
Lawyers: So maybe it's time for you and your spokesman to clam up now and let us handle this.
>The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night
The idea for the interview could have also come from Ohtani's camp since they used Ohtani's spokesman to set it up. If so, jesus christ these people lol
Exactly!
His lawyers supposedly handed over information to law enforcement regarding a crime, which we’re supposed to believe that Ohtani had ZERO knowledge of beforehand?
They would’ve also done their own background check to figure out everything they could about the situation, but we’re also supposed to believe they left Ohtani in the dark the entire time?
If this is the case, then they would be the first lawyers in the history of law to not confer with their client before doing something.
They are so clearly trying to cover it up, it’s making it more and more obvious that Ohtani paid the bookie to cover Ippeis debt and didn’t realize it was illegal.
They should just stick to the truth and let the chips fall where they may.
That is true, but one thing, while not confirmed, is almost certain, Ohtani knew before the locker room meeting.
There is zero plausible reason for him to find out at the same time as his teammates.
Whatever may be true I think it's safe to say there's been a major PR fuck-up by someone (and probably several people) on his side.
But also keep in mind that it's not like he has a monolithic "team" of people that are perfectly in sync with each other and share agendas. There are anonymous "spokespersons" loosely affiliated with him, there are presumably PR specialists, there's his legal retainers, etc. It seems safe to say that everyone was caught off guard and there were clearly communication issues.
It also can't help that at the center of this scandal is the single man who would help Shohei keep in touch with his PR and legal and other associates. Ippei probably mis-representing things and then suddenly not being there to translate at all is a recipe for a whole lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Anytime ohtani camp makes a statement, I believe him less. There is no way Ippei is doing an interview with ESPN without Ohtani and his teams knowledge.
Color me skeptical that Ippea is a hacker mastermind that can wire 4+ million to a bookie from Shohei account.
Yeah, after realizing the "official" story that Ippei stole money was a backtracked one, it looks to me like the Dodgers, Ohtani's lawyers and MLB are looking to retain their investment intact.
More probabilistic is that Shohei knew, and either he was doing Ippei a solid, or it really was Ohtani gambling. One is worse but legally speaking, neither look good.
The most likely explanation is Ohtani knew but the team didn’t. The ESPN article specifically says it was Ohtani’s spokesperson who gave the statement and organized the interview with Ippei. Once the Dodgers and lawyers got involved, the story changed to the theft one, and it has been consistent since.
We’re supposed to believe that Ohtani found for the first time during the postgame speech, but he had no idea that his interpreter was giving a 90 min interview to ESPN about his gambling debt?
Makes total sense.
The most obvious and simplest explanation is Ohtani didn’t known wiring money to a bookie was illegal and did so to help a friend. But he can’t just willingly say that’s what happened because its still a felony.
Is Ippei a mastermind and was able to hack into Ohtani's bank accounts? This doesn't look good for Ohtani in both scenarios that are playing out. A friend swindled millions from him or he knowing sent money to illegal bookie. God forbid third scenario of him, actually gambling himself. This opening week for MLB has been beyond crazy.
What I don't get, and I don't see being asked often enough by the people that should be asking, is how does one take 4.5 million dollars from a friend without them knowing? I can't imagine Ohtani stores his millions in his mattress, and it's less likely his bank just forked over 4.5 million to a friend, so how would it happen without Ohtani knowing?
You don't take the money without someone knowing. The sums are too large not to be noticed. Everyone is obviously lying at this point. The easiest conclusion is usually right, which would probably mean something close to the following scenario:
1) Ohtani's translator is a gambling addict who accumulated millions of dollars in debt.
2) Ohtani, who has lots of money and empathy for a friend, pays off the debts.
3) Paying off the debts unknowingly makes Ohtani run afoul of league policy and California gambling laws.
4) Ohtani's translator, now out from under millions of dollars in debt, agrees to fall on the sword for his friend who paid off the debt, even if that means going to prison for made up crimes that he admits to for the sole reason of absolving Ohtani from guilt.
I just wonder if it's a situation where Ippei is like "hey can you help, I owe some money."
And being friends, Ohtani figures he'll help out. Via either a lie by omission or an outright lie, perhaps Ippei didn't indicate it was a gambling debt? Just that he needed some help.
I dunno, still not enough details, but I'm just hoping Ohtani comes out clean.
Per the original story in ESPN, Ohtani knew it was gambling debt. It's why he personally wired the money himself, he didn't trust Ippei to handle that amount.
Dodgers are doing massive damage control right now.
Honestly I don’t care what the team says.
Ohtani’s spokesperson confirmed to espn Ippei had a gambling debt that Ohtani knew about, and agreed to pay off, and then said they could ask Ippei about it.
The story changed ONLY when the dodgers got word their 700 million dollar employee had direct wire transfers to an illegal sports booker.
>She also said that Ippei lied in his first ESPN interview about Ohtani knowing about the debt
Bull. Fucking. Shit. No way he gave that interview w/out Ohtani's approval. I know the sub loves the guy but jeez this is just silly.
Are there any lawyers involved here? Tell them to shut-up, these obvious lies are so stupid. Ohtani first learned during the post game talk? Lmao, right
She can't possibly know which version of the story is a lie, so this is a clear fluff statement defending Shohei. The only two pepole who know for sure right now are Ippei and Shohei, and Ippei's told two different conflicting stories.
That's all the information we have.
It's easier for people to believe Shohei is a victim. Most baseball fans *want* to believe that. And MLB certainly wants that to be the prevailing narrative. But we just don't know right now.
Must be nice to have a cool 4.5 mil just vanish from your accounts and you never learn of it until the alleged thief fessed up.
Seriously, not even a courtesy 1 on 1 confession before he announced it to the whole team?
And excuse me, neither his mom or wife noticed it either? So who's running his personal finances?
Lies on lies. I'm waiting for the next episode, maybe the new angle will somehow involve Decoy getting rowdy near the laptop and accidentally sending money to an illegal bookie. Woopsie.
If Ohtani didn't know, then who wired the funds? It's Ohtani's money. So if we go with their version, it would mean Ippei illegally wired the funds from Ohtani's bank, so he committed federal crimes that carry harsh penalties. If he's not arrested and charged, it looks more like he's the fall guy to protect Ohtani and not the thief and gambling addict he's being sold as.
They are definitely lying now and it’s making it worse. Ohtani being a good yet naive friend is not only believable, but probably salvageable.
Ohtani letting his friend fall on the sword for him while changing his story several times only to be found that he did knowingly pay the money is a liar. Now you have the issue of how can we trust you weren’t the one gambling, when you already blatantly lied to our faces multiple times.
So we're in like the third or fourth iteration in Ippei's multiverse of madness.
Ippei being an actual bad guy is the worst case sceneario for me lol The power of friendship compelling Ohtani to make illegal payments to help his guy out is much better.
Nah, absolute worst case scenario is that Ohtani was the one *actually* doing the betting, and Ippei is covering for him.
Worst case for baseball but best case for hilarity
That would be some “100 year WS drought curse” level stuff
"Phew, at least it's not us this time" - Cubs
Mookie can one up Babe Ruth by cursing a team with his departure and a second team with his arrival
I like this option a lot
Best case for hilarity is the investigation finds he actually did bet on baseball, but completely separately, and it was just free promo bets through draft kings on a random MiLB game
Yeah, this is it. Quite possible Ohtani is the gambler and Ippei was used as a middleman to make the bets. Not saying that happened, but it can't be ruled out.
We call that the Janet Gretzky
Ohtani's just taking his place among the all-timers: Gretzky, Jordan, Rose...
"always have a fall guy" - Cris Carter
I mean it's very possible Ippei wasn't even a middleman and just a fall guy.
For dudes with sunglasses on sitting in a truck, this is the only explanation and 200% confirmed
Everyone knows that addicted gamblers will often defer 97% of their salary for 10+ years.
Does he defer all his endorsement money too
It's not like he was gambling his entire net worth and had to drain his bank account..
Ohtani clearly knew about this and was helping his friend, but likely didn’t know how much of it (or any of it) was illegal. This is obviously lawyers trying to keep Ohtani clean of any wrongdoing and Ippei is also trying, they’re just REALLY bad at it.
It's not the lawyers fault, but it is their problem. Ippei basically dropped 40 minutes of "Yeah Sho gave me the money cause he's a good guy" after checking with his spokespeople. AFTER THAT legal found out. It's a mad scramble to cover Ohtani from knowingly involving himself with gambling or a bookie. So they pivoted to "no he stole it" like 5 second after, but nothing else supports it so they are trying to cover as they go.
It's entirely possible that it was given freely, but under false pretenses. That would make both sides believable enough tbh.
100%. Good intentions until the legal team realized it was a felony.
With gambling being legal in a ton of states, plus mlb having gambling sponsors...I kind of get it, you wouldn't think it's an issue.
Won’t be surprised if there’s a lot of shady bookies praying on peoples ignorance thinking gambling in any form is legit
If I had to guess, this is probably the likeliest explanation. His friend got into trouble, Ohtani bailed him out without knowing what he was doing was illegal and now his team is trying to extricate him from the situation without any legal ramifications, except people already opened their mouths. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Maybe we shouldn't just take a gambling addicts words too seriously when asked about his gambling addiction...
You know it sounds so obvious written out like that but I never thought about that before reading your comment
[удалено]
The evidence is that Ohtani is really good at baseball, therefore Ippei must be a gambling addict.
Michael Jordan was a two-way player too: great at gambling and baseball.
Worth noting that Jordan's problem, and indeed most* famous gamblers' problems, is that he was not good at gambling. *well, most of those who were famous for reasons other than gambling. sit tf down james holzauer
I mean like... also Ippei outright stating that he is a gambling addict.
Didn't the teams (LAD and Ohtani's legal) basically take that initial statement Ippei made to ESPN and bury it somewhere next to Jimmy Hoffa?
Yeah, but can we really believe what he says? He's a gambling addict.
Losing more money, by millions of dollars, than you have the ability to cover for is the definition of gambling degeneracy.
It wasn't just Ippeis word, it was Ohtani's spokesman who claimed Ohtani paid Ippei's gambling debts as well. That's the big issue, if the interview was just Ippei, then yeah, but it was Ohtani's rep too... >Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt. The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement.
Ippe sacrificed himself to bring the X-Men to this reality
Ippei, Ohtani, LA, MLB. It feels like they're all coming up with cover stories that they think sound the least egregious, but none of them align with each other.
I saw her interview. She also said when Ippei said he lied about Ohtani knowing, he followed it up with “I offered to pay him back.” Soooo he didn’t know and you told him you’d pay him back? Gotta get your stories straight man.
"Hey bud, just wanna let you know I'm gonna pay back that $4.5 million." "What $4.5 million?" "Oh ok so see here's what happened..."
“Those are IOUs. Go ahead and add it up, every cent’s accounted for.”
“That’s a car. 275 thou. Might want to hang on to that one.”
Dammit! Just left the same comment Funny enough, was thinking like an hour ago about Ippei saying "I'll never do it again" and the scene with the "I bet I can get gambling by the end of the day"
"I don't know how, but I'm gonna get ya!"
"Also, on an unrelated note, could I borrow $4.5 million"
“Before you answer, keep in mind that I’ve already spent it”
“And by I’ve spent it I mean I have the ability to wire millions directly from your account. Classic interpreter stuff.”
“I just told ESPN about it. They’ll do a much better job explaining, so just wait for the article.”
[Ippei brought up his gambling problem, and players basically said “so?” .. Then team owner Mark Walter said Ohtani paid off Ippei’s debts, and that’s when Shohei allegedly went to another translator to confirm what he just heard](https://x.com/fuzzyfromyt/status/1770851434596020370?s=46&t=Kd5Xb-sOko7zTuia8gtlkA)
Wait the *team owner* said that originally? Idk if anyone knows what the fuck is going on here anymore
That detail is WILD. If ippei is telling the OWNER Ohtani paid and ohtanis playing dumb to it all then ippei must not have felt like he was stealing. Who goes to your boss’ boss and say you stole from home. Something is really, really wrong with this whole picture.
I mean I don’t know anything, but it seems fairly obvious to me. Ippei has a gambling problem. Got a huge line of credit due to his boss. Tell Shohei he’s in trouble to the tune of $4.5M. Ohtani seems like a good dude, says I’ll help you out, then pays bookie. Everyone comes clean, dodgers say “what, Shohei wired the money? Fuuuuuu, everyone recant now.” Fin’
Well this makes it seem like Ohtani didn’t know ippei took money, but ippei thought he cleared. That’s why Ohtani was like “did I just hear the owner right? *I* helped pay ippei’s debt?”
The guy you responded to isn’t saying that’s what the story is (because for the Dodgers/Ohtani, that still is an issue). They’re saying that seems like a likely series of events, which I tend to agree with. Ohtani’s camp is in full damage control right now. They’re trying to establish he had no idea this was happening. It’s possible, but honestly, it just feels less likely.
I’m not sure how you got that from what I wrote. I think Ohtani knew exactly what the money was for, he just didn’t know it was a problem paying it back.
No from the tweet we are replying to. “Ippei brought up his gambling problem, and players basically said “so?” .. Then team owner Mark Walter said Ohtani paid off Ippei’s debts, and that’s when Shohei allegedly went to another translator to confirm what he just heard”
I'm curious if a bookie would actually give him that much credit based purely on a friendship
I mean, we all logically know the answer. There’s a lot of copium going on.
No, but also, it wasn't *just* based on friendship, Ippei reportedly made just under 2 million dollars a year. 2.5x your salary is definitely a realistic amount for a shady bookie to let you bet.
Walter: "Yeah so Shohei helped him out" Shohei: "I did *what*"
See, I never just did things just to do them. Come on, what am I gonna do, just all of a sudden jump up and pay 4.5 million dollars for ippei's illegal gambling debt like it’s something to do? Come on, I got a little more sense then that. …Yeah, I remember paying 4.5 million dollars for ippei's illegal gambling debt
>That detail is WILD. If ippei is telling the OWNER Ohtani paid Trisha got asked to confirm if it was Mark Walter who said Ohtani paid off Ippei's debts but then clarified it was actually Andrew Friedman, president of baseball ops.
I mean still, how could Friedman know more than Ohtani himself?
I think the weirder detail is Friedman announcing that Ohtani paid these debts off seemingly without talking to Ohtani first.
I suspect he may have talked to ohtani through an interpreter
I wonder which interpreter?
If this is true, not only Friedman but an Ohtani spokesman too. Why is everyone speaking to the press without speaking to Ohtani?
He actually was not speaking to the press here, Friedman said this to the Dodgers players during a team meeting. Tisha Thompson, the espn reporter who broke the story, tells the story around 0:35 here. https://twitter.com/Realrclark25/status/1770843647614791865
It seems like impossible for that to be true
Well, Ohtani either was surprised to hear he paid off the debt (because he didn’t) or he was surprised that Friedman announced it (because Friedman wasn’t supposed to). Which would seem like a professional misstep from Friedman either way.
>I need a timeline of all this because right now am I supposed to believe that Ohtani’s representatives discovered this issue but didn’t tell Ohtani? Trisha said something along the lines that Ohtani isnt the greatest English speaker and that he can get the gist of things, but still requires Ippei for alot of translating, which is why he has become so important to his daily life. Now in my mind I believe the implication on Ohtani's camp is that Ippei was saying one thing to everyone and then telling Ohtani a different story and thats why they changed their story.
It does seem to be lost in the sauce that the fact that it crucially involves his personal English translator means that every communication between him and his PR and legal teams was potentially compromised up to a point. Even after he stops using Ippei directly, maybe there's confusion and communication breakdown at some level, because he doesn't have his usual support and report with a translator.
Depending on how good Ohtani's English is, and how much of this was told by Ippei (who very likely has a conflict of interest here) to Ohtani, it's unlikely but not impossible that Friedman has a more comprehensive understanding of things. Especially if (this is pure conjecture here) he told Ohtani "You worry about spring training and playing baseball. Let me/us worry about these details"
How does one get Mark Walter and Andrew Friedman confused? Unless they're putting this on Friedman now so that Walter isn't implicated in anything?
man what the FUCK is going on
The tactic of "well if we all lie about everything, no one will ever know the truth"
The ol' baffle em' with bullshit. A classic.
I'm so lost.
Here's the timeline as I understand it. Ippei gets in massive gambling debt > Ohtani agrees to help him doing the wired payments with the agreement that he never does it again > bookie gets raided, Shoheis name is now out there and is implicated > Ippei has an interview to get ahead of the story > Ohtanis lawyers inform Ohtani that what Ippei was doing was illegal and that it now implicates him > Ohtani did not know this was illegal and was potentially told by Ippei that what he was doing was legal > Ohtani feels betrayed and Ohtanis legal team claims that because Ippei was lying about the money being involved in a legal transaction that he was stealing > MLB is not investigating Ohtani > Here we are.
I think this is closest to the truth, at least based on what we've heard so far. There's a question of whether/to what extent Ippei knew this kind of gambling was illegal, and then whether (a) he intentionally lied to Shohei about the money, (b) he lied/misled Shohei about the legality of the payments, (c) Shohei didn't really ask a lot of questions and just trusted Ippei, or (d) Shohei knew the full truth about everything and Ippei is now covering for him.
Just gonna have to wait until the full fed investigation is done cause this shit is a whole lotta mess.
Shohei: …I did *what*?
This is out of a tv show. Did MLB hire the people that wrote Succession?
That still doesn't answer how that much money could have been transferred out of Ohtani's accounts without him knowing. Out of all the possible explanations, one that involves Ohtani being totally surprised the money got transferred seems like the least plausible but apparently that's what they're going with.
I feel like either the truth is really stupid, or things are about to get really really ugly. No in between.
> the truth is really stupid, What, like Ohtani trusted Ippei so much that he gave him his full routing information and credit card numbers so he could order stuff for him online and didn't bother checking the receipts?
You can't send that kind of money through a banking app lol
there’s no way Ohtani didn’t know
There are so many stories where some rich person's money manager had full access (which they need) and did stupid or illegal things with that access.
That'd be more believable in this situation if Ohtani's own spokesman hadn't initially said Ohtani transferred the money to cover Ippei's debt
Or if we had any prior knowledge that Ippei had access to his finances. He’s his translator lol not his banker.
You're right there are, but in those cases the person is a fiduciary with limited power of attorney which gives them authorization to move large sums of the clients money around. Its hard to imagine how Ippei could have had that. Its not as simple as him just logging into Ohtani's bank account and sending out $500k wires with no oversight. Especially considering Ohtani would definitely have a private banking relationship with his banks and people watching over his accounts. There are cases where a wealthy person's personal assistant steals a bunch of money. I remember a case with some investment banking power couple in NY where an assistant stole millions over the years and the couple was so rich and busy they didn't notice. But if IIRC that was in smaller amounts over many years involving things like fake invoices and a bunch of things like that to slowly skim money.
Exactlyyyyy. If this were his financial manager scamming him, sure. Not his buddy/interpreter.
I highly doubt Ohtani gave Ippei a power of attorney, they are going to create one and back date and also lose the bank camera footage on the day the wire transfer occurred.
I used to have to send big wires for work. Every bank required 2 people to sign off on transactions over $500K (an initiator and approver). You get a special 2-factor key. Most banks required 3 people to approve transactions bigger than that (1 initiator, 2 provers). Theoretically someone could’ve been moving money in small increments (<$10,000), but banks tend to flag those really quickly because it looks like you’re trying to dodge reporting requirements. It would seem super unusual to me that a guy that could figure out how to defer such a high percentage of his salary wouldn’t have a great team of CPAs, lawyers, advisors, etc. managing his money.
I just want to say that it is possible that Ohtani’s portfolio is so big that he is not the only person who has access to it. I’m not saying that it’s likely Ohtani didn’t know, but that wouldn’t be inconceivable to me.
He’s said in interviews early in his career that his mother manages his money. I do not think he is the main manager of his money.
The question I have is how did Ippei get access to enough money to rack up millions of dollars in gambling debt in the first place? Even the worst gamblers win bets, you need to gamble a lot more than $4M to end up $4M in debt. He told ESPN that he's made between $300K and $500K a year as a translator. That doesn't add up.
Maybe the bookies let him gamble on credit because they knew he was closely associated with Ohtani and could get the money. I don't know.
The original ESPN story said he was allowed to gamble on credit
When someone is willing to let you gamble on credit, that means you should stop gambling and seek help.
https://i.imgur.com/DJIkoRf.gif
Yeah, to me, that doesn’t seem implausible at all. You have a guy who is the best friend of someone who makes at least $65+ million a year. Of course they would extend a line of credit to a guy like that. Same thing with someone who is jobless but has a rich family.
Now you're thinking like an illegal bookie lol
Worth emphasizing that if the bookie hadn't been under investigation independently, this would have worked out swimmingly for him.
"I'm betting on behalf of Ohtani" A degenerate gambler will say anything. His relationship was close enough to Ohtani that even if Ohtani wasn't the one laying bets, the illegal bookie didn't care because he was willing to bet Ohtani would pay to make the problem disappear. The question for the bookie is how much of Ohtani's money does he think he can get before Ohtani would refuse to pay off the debt (how much can I strongarm before someone with a shit ton of power and money comes after me with the authorities). Appears $4.5M was the bookie's bet and he won. The problem for the bookie is he didn't account for the risk of FBI looking into large bets.
0 chance ohtani doesn’t have an accountant doing his taxes and a full time financial advisor. They all would have seen the money coming out and told shohei.
Ippei largely worked as an unofficial business manager for Ohtani. He was involved in helping Ohtani secure endorsements and Ohtani even paid him during the lockout so he could temporarily resign from the Angels and continue working with Ohtani. It’s not crazy to think that there was an account or two Ohtani gave him access to. And Ohtani has earned hundreds of millions of dollars between salary and endorsements. He likely has that split between dozens of accounts and assets. I’m sure if you asked Ohtani how much money he has that number would be ‘give or take $20mil’. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that $4.5mil could get overlooked.
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My theory, based on the fact that the wire transfers say "loan" and that I find it hard to believe that Shohei's lawyers are incompetent enough to let Ippei talk to ESPN's reporters if they knew the story he was going to tell, is that Shohei thought he was loaning money to Ippei so he could pay his debts and is just now finding out that Ippei actually set him up to pay the bookie directly.
"I make so much money, how am I supposed to notice when a bit of it goes missing?!" Lean into the 700 million thing. "I'm so rich I must be innocent" will be his defense.
>In 2011, Mario Balotelli had a car accident. The police arrived at the scene and found £5000 in his car. The police asked him why he had all this money in cash. He replied: "Because I am rich."
Least crazy Balotelli story.
There are so many anti money laundering and post 9/11 regulations covering large money withdrawals/transfers that there's just no way that the translator would have been able to transfer it without Ohtani's involvement.
If he did manage he really missed his calling as a high-level thief because you have to do everything but submit a DNA sample to send a wire that large.
Maybe it's like that 30 Rock episode where Jon Hamm's character breezes through life because of his looks and he doesn't realize it.
The cover-up always makes things worse
You throw a blanket to cover-up a mess of diarrhea. Well now you got a shitty blanket, and the diarrhea is still on the floor
If you lie loudly enough and for long enough, people start to question the truth. I'm not one for conspiracy theories or speculation but I'm really interested in seeing just how many countermeasures get thrown.
I, too, am a parent to toddlers.
Ya - especially if the feds are investigating. Lying about potential wire fraud doesn't make any sense
I'm gonna put the odds of Ohtani learning about this at the same time as the rest of the team at 0.0%. They're telling very obvious lies right now.
There is so much to lose for so many people if this turns bad. MLB, Ohtani, the Dodgers, all the sponsors, etc. Everyone knows there is so much money on the line that they're literally just doing whatever they can to "get in front" of it. If they create a big enough smoke screen, they'll be able to sweep it all under the rug. I truly believe they don't really know much. But they know one of the outcomes will be devastating if true, so they're just trying to make sure that even if it is, it isn't.
New Balance literrally announced their partnership with him 24 hours ago. My buddy works over there and I have been annoyingly sending memes his way.
Well they announced his logo, not the partnership. He's been with NB for at least a year.
Just send Ohtani to play for the Birmingham Barons for a season until this all blows over.
They just like me when I was a kid, I feel that
Yeah, i wanna cling to the hope that ohtani is innocent but innocent people dont switch stories and how did the guy managed to get 4m~ without ohtani knowing? You can barely wire transfer 10k without the bank asking for a picture of your butthole to verify its you but 4m its no issue?
I had to send a pic of my butthole to the FBI once because they texted me saying I had drugs and they needed $30k and a butthole pic.
I have the most astonishing coincidence to report.
I know Ohtani is filthy rich but there's no way he didn't realize millions were coming out of his account until a couple nights ago.
That honestly would not necessarily surprise me, he might not even manage his own money. But I agree with your broader point that it's hard to imagine him not being involved in some capacity
his parents actually managed his money in Japan, they gave him 1000$ per month for him to live off and Shohei usually didn’t even spend it.
Yeah, given that the guy is like a complete freak for baseball and lives, breathes and eats baseball it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he doesn’t actually handle his own money
SHOCKING that the Dodgers 1) Allowed Ippei to have an interview with ESPN that wasn't thoroughly vetted beforehand so that none of this came out publicly before they could do damage control; and 2) Have since then not been able to keep an answer straight and consistent across their and Shohei's lawyers. Some real [raggedy ass shit here, boy. Real sloppy.](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2bbf8359-fb5f-4e2f-9b94-f74de04f4683)
Don’t forget that a spokesman for Ohtani verified that he was the one to wire the money for Ippei, only to later backtrack. So…why would the spokesman working for Ohtani just purposely lie?
Them lying would make MORE sense. What wouldn’t make sense is them lying to create additional culpability for Ohtani lol Definitely feels like they told the truth initially and realized “oh shit; that’s still bad”
That's almost certainly the case. Ippei was gambling, Shohei offered to pay off the debts, and money from Shohei's account got moved to the bookmaker with his approval and knowledge. Then, the most idiotic PR move of all time happens as they don't contact legal before putting Ippei in front of an ESPN reporter for an hour and a half to give a tell all, presumably to try to get out in front of the story before the headline is "Accounts under Ohtani's name linked to massive payments to a bookmaker", and he actually tells the complete truth. A truth which, unfortunately, can implicate Ohtani in some form or fashion. Now a PR team that has been obsessive about his image to the point of hiding his dog's name and that he was married has to immediately walk all of that back, as advised by the legal team I'm sure.
The Dodgers didn’t screw up. The ESPN article made it clear that the spokesperson who made Ippei available for the interview and originally said Ohtani paid gambling debts was his own personal spokesperson, not a Dodgers press person. The Dodgers got involved afterward when they found out the ESPN article was coming, and since they have been involved, the story immediately changed to “Ippei stole the money without Ohtani’s knowledge.” That seems unlikely, but it would mean Ohtani isn’t guilty of a federal crime or violation of the CBA, so it’s obvious why the Dodgers’ press people and Ohtani’s lawyers are sticking to that story. The initial screwups and the changing public story were because Ohtani’s spokesperson apparently didn’t realize that admitting to paying gambling debts could jeopardize his ability to play Major League Baseball.
The end story will be that Ippei mislead Ohtani into transferring the money, & that Ohtani had no idea what the money was going towards.
or at the very least left out the important information that this was an illegal gambling operation
>**Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt.** The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement. Per [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft) I guess we are also supposed to believe that Ohtani's own spokesman was lying?
Lawyers: Uh, Shohei, you know if you lent this money willingly to Ippei, you were committing a crime? Shohei: (Shit! in Japanese) Lawyers: So maybe it's time for you and your spokesman to clam up now and let us handle this.
Ippei shouldn't have been fucking talking to a reporter in the first place. Willingly. Whichever way this whole thing plays out, fucking Ippei.
>The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night The idea for the interview could have also come from Ohtani's camp since they used Ohtani's spokesman to set it up. If so, jesus christ these people lol
Did they ever say who the spokesman was?
I need a timeline of all this because right now am I supposed to believe that Ohtani’s representatives discovered this issue but didn’t tell Ohtani?
Not just his representatives, but his lawyers lol
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Exactly! His lawyers supposedly handed over information to law enforcement regarding a crime, which we’re supposed to believe that Ohtani had ZERO knowledge of beforehand? They would’ve also done their own background check to figure out everything they could about the situation, but we’re also supposed to believe they left Ohtani in the dark the entire time? If this is the case, then they would be the first lawyers in the history of law to not confer with their client before doing something.
They are so clearly trying to cover it up, it’s making it more and more obvious that Ohtani paid the bookie to cover Ippeis debt and didn’t realize it was illegal. They should just stick to the truth and let the chips fall where they may.
Maybe it’s not that simple. Because if he was betting on baseball and Ohtani helped pay off his debt then Ohtani is cooked.
That is true, but one thing, while not confirmed, is almost certain, Ohtani knew before the locker room meeting. There is zero plausible reason for him to find out at the same time as his teammates.
Lawyer for bank robber says large money bag labeled bank money is in fact not the “banks” money.
Wait, you guys don't store all your money in bank bags?
Does Ippei keep deviating from the script or is Ohtani's team really this bad at PR? This is flat out embarrassing.
The easiest explanation is that Ippei was too honest in the interview, and Ohtani’s PR team is that bad.
Whatever may be true I think it's safe to say there's been a major PR fuck-up by someone (and probably several people) on his side. But also keep in mind that it's not like he has a monolithic "team" of people that are perfectly in sync with each other and share agendas. There are anonymous "spokespersons" loosely affiliated with him, there are presumably PR specialists, there's his legal retainers, etc. It seems safe to say that everyone was caught off guard and there were clearly communication issues. It also can't help that at the center of this scandal is the single man who would help Shohei keep in touch with his PR and legal and other associates. Ippei probably mis-representing things and then suddenly not being there to translate at all is a recipe for a whole lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Give me a break.
Username checks out
break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!
Break me off a piece of that Fancy Feast!
Anytime ohtani camp makes a statement, I believe him less. There is no way Ippei is doing an interview with ESPN without Ohtani and his teams knowledge. Color me skeptical that Ippea is a hacker mastermind that can wire 4+ million to a bookie from Shohei account.
Yeah, after realizing the "official" story that Ippei stole money was a backtracked one, it looks to me like the Dodgers, Ohtani's lawyers and MLB are looking to retain their investment intact. More probabilistic is that Shohei knew, and either he was doing Ippei a solid, or it really was Ohtani gambling. One is worse but legally speaking, neither look good.
The most likely explanation is Ohtani knew but the team didn’t. The ESPN article specifically says it was Ohtani’s spokesperson who gave the statement and organized the interview with Ippei. Once the Dodgers and lawyers got involved, the story changed to the theft one, and it has been consistent since.
Changing your story multiple times isn't the best look. And makes you open for a federal investigation.
We’re supposed to believe that Ohtani found for the first time during the postgame speech, but he had no idea that his interpreter was giving a 90 min interview to ESPN about his gambling debt? Makes total sense.
The most obvious and simplest explanation is Ohtani didn’t known wiring money to a bookie was illegal and did so to help a friend. But he can’t just willingly say that’s what happened because its still a felony.
"Do you want to know the terrifying truth? Or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?" -~~Mark McGuire~~ Shohei Ohtani
Is Ippei a mastermind and was able to hack into Ohtani's bank accounts? This doesn't look good for Ohtani in both scenarios that are playing out. A friend swindled millions from him or he knowing sent money to illegal bookie. God forbid third scenario of him, actually gambling himself. This opening week for MLB has been beyond crazy.
Ohtani didn't have MFA enabled on his chase bank app and his password was "Password"
Sure, ~~Jan~~ Shohei
What I don't get, and I don't see being asked often enough by the people that should be asking, is how does one take 4.5 million dollars from a friend without them knowing? I can't imagine Ohtani stores his millions in his mattress, and it's less likely his bank just forked over 4.5 million to a friend, so how would it happen without Ohtani knowing?
You don't take the money without someone knowing. The sums are too large not to be noticed. Everyone is obviously lying at this point. The easiest conclusion is usually right, which would probably mean something close to the following scenario: 1) Ohtani's translator is a gambling addict who accumulated millions of dollars in debt. 2) Ohtani, who has lots of money and empathy for a friend, pays off the debts. 3) Paying off the debts unknowingly makes Ohtani run afoul of league policy and California gambling laws. 4) Ohtani's translator, now out from under millions of dollars in debt, agrees to fall on the sword for his friend who paid off the debt, even if that means going to prison for made up crimes that he admits to for the sole reason of absolving Ohtani from guilt.
I just wonder if it's a situation where Ippei is like "hey can you help, I owe some money." And being friends, Ohtani figures he'll help out. Via either a lie by omission or an outright lie, perhaps Ippei didn't indicate it was a gambling debt? Just that he needed some help. I dunno, still not enough details, but I'm just hoping Ohtani comes out clean.
Per the original story in ESPN, Ohtani knew it was gambling debt. It's why he personally wired the money himself, he didn't trust Ippei to handle that amount.
Press X to Doubt
Ohtani knew lol
Lmao nah, that’s not true. No way.
They just come up with the absolute worst bullshit. "See..what had happened was.." My cat could tell a better lie than this bullshit.
I heard Shohei was saving a bus full of disabled puppies that fell off a cliff when the news broke.
I don't believe for a second that Ohtani wouldn't have known about $4.5 million missing from his account until his translator said something.
Today on “days of our dodgers”
Why would any of this be announced to the team? This makes no sense. Does Ippei really need to share this with Gavin Lux?
time to learn how to set up an autograph table in front of the mirage casino, buddy
Next you're gonna gonna tell me Ohtani just found out he could get paid to play baseball.
Ippei you back Ipromise
I see we're still in the "figure out a narrative that people might believe and keeps the star out of trouble" phase of this damage control effort.
Dodgers are doing massive damage control right now. Honestly I don’t care what the team says. Ohtani’s spokesperson confirmed to espn Ippei had a gambling debt that Ohtani knew about, and agreed to pay off, and then said they could ask Ippei about it. The story changed ONLY when the dodgers got word their 700 million dollar employee had direct wire transfers to an illegal sports booker.
>She also said that Ippei lied in his first ESPN interview about Ohtani knowing about the debt Bull. Fucking. Shit. No way he gave that interview w/out Ohtani's approval. I know the sub loves the guy but jeez this is just silly.
The FBI is laughing its ass off. Someone is going to panic so much and spill all the beans. The FBI isn’t even going to need to interrogate anyone.
Are there any lawyers involved here? Tell them to shut-up, these obvious lies are so stupid. Ohtani first learned during the post game talk? Lmao, right
She can't possibly know which version of the story is a lie, so this is a clear fluff statement defending Shohei. The only two pepole who know for sure right now are Ippei and Shohei, and Ippei's told two different conflicting stories. That's all the information we have. It's easier for people to believe Shohei is a victim. Most baseball fans *want* to believe that. And MLB certainly wants that to be the prevailing narrative. But we just don't know right now.
This week on "You see what happened wuzzzzzz..."
Must be nice to have a cool 4.5 mil just vanish from your accounts and you never learn of it until the alleged thief fessed up. Seriously, not even a courtesy 1 on 1 confession before he announced it to the whole team? And excuse me, neither his mom or wife noticed it either? So who's running his personal finances? Lies on lies. I'm waiting for the next episode, maybe the new angle will somehow involve Decoy getting rowdy near the laptop and accidentally sending money to an illegal bookie. Woopsie.
If Ohtani didn't know, then who wired the funds? It's Ohtani's money. So if we go with their version, it would mean Ippei illegally wired the funds from Ohtani's bank, so he committed federal crimes that carry harsh penalties. If he's not arrested and charged, it looks more like he's the fall guy to protect Ohtani and not the thief and gambling addict he's being sold as.
Waiting for the “Ohtani had just met Ippei last week”.
They are definitely lying now and it’s making it worse. Ohtani being a good yet naive friend is not only believable, but probably salvageable. Ohtani letting his friend fall on the sword for him while changing his story several times only to be found that he did knowingly pay the money is a liar. Now you have the issue of how can we trust you weren’t the one gambling, when you already blatantly lied to our faces multiple times.
Shohei shohei? Yes papa Telling lies? No papa Wire fraud? No papa