Did Ohtani place bets through his interpreter? Or, as Ohtani claims, did the interpreter embezzle money to feed his sports betting addiction?
When Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Dodgers had all the faith in him to win a World Series for the organization. The amount paid for that opportunity was high, seven hundred million dollars over the course of many years. However, recently, Ohtani has faced some controversy, and it doesn’t involve anything associated with the field of play.
Mizuhara (L) with Ohtani (photo courtesy of The Guardian)
Ohtani’s good friend and translator, Ippei Mizuhara, has been embezzling from Ohtani to feed his gambling addictions. Mizuhara took $4 million to bet on professional sports games other than baseball.
During his 12-minute press conference this past Monday. Ohtani stated, “I’ve never bet on baseball or any other sports or asked someone to do it on my behalf.” Mizuhara had claimed that Ohtani wired money to the illegal bookmaker to cover Mizuhara’s debt, which was a reported sum of at least $4.5 million. Ohtani spoke through his new interpreter, Will Ireton.
Later, Mizuhara claimed that he had gone to Ohtani and talked privately. Ohtani walked away from that conversation with the understanding that his longtime friend had taken money from his bank account and that Mizuhara was sending money from Ohtani’s account to the bookmaker. Learning that Mizuhara had been lying the whole time, Ohtani contacted his lawyers. The lawyers advised Ohtani to have authorities handle the matter since it constituted fraud.
Ohtani is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month, and the big question is what this situation will mean for Ohtani and the Dodgers.
