Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — The further away we get from the breaking of the Shohei Ohtani “gambling” news, the more his version of events seems to be the most likely. He’s not quite 100% vindicated yet, but it appears to be trending in that direction.
According to numerous media reports on Wednesday evening, Shohei’s former interpreter (and presumably former friend) Ippei Mizuhara is currently in negotiations with the Feds on the charges that he stole money from Ohtani’s bank account to cover his mountain of gambling debt with an illegal bookie working out of Orange County. The federal investigation is, according to the sources, “rapidly nearing a conclusion.”
The news is sketchy at this point, but what we can piece together seems to go like this: Mizuhara got access to Ohtani’s accounts, presumably to handle day-to-day expenses, and then altered the settings of the account so that there would be no alerts or notices sent regarding his withdrawals. So, as far as Ohtani knew, things were just humming along as usual.
The big news of today is that somehow Mizuhara, who’s not been seen since the story broke, has been in contact with federal officials and is working out what exactly the charges and potential penalties might be for his offense. There is no indication that he has been arrested yet, or even that he has returned to the United States. If you recall, the story broke just before the Dodgers’ second game of the season in South Korea.
According to a report in the New York Times, Mizuhara has hired Michael Freedman, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who specializes in white-collar criminal defense. Freedman declined to comment when reached by the Times.
At the time that the story broke, Ohtani issued an emotional, detailed denial of any wrongdoing in the case“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies,” Ohtani said on March 25 through his new interpreter, Will Ireton.
There will be sure to be doubters who will say that Mizuhara is taking the fall in exchange for his shielding Ohtani from scrutiny. But there will always be such people. However, the truth is starting to emerge, and that truth seems to be that Shohei Ohtani was not a gambling addict at all, and he was not knowingly paying off illegal wagers. Instead, he was an innocent victim of a scheme hatched by a guy he thought he knew and perhaps trusted far more than he should have.
It’s not the first time somebody has taken advantage of a wealthy athlete. And it will be sure to happen again. Just thank your lucky stars that it looks like Shohei will be able to put this episode down as an expensive lesson in knowing the limits of friendship.
Stay tuned to DodgersBeat at the Bleed Los Dodgers podcast for any updates and additonal information.
