Well before James, Jordan would have banned for life if he wasn’t the player he was.
OT: Uh Oh Ohtani
- Thread starter Knight Shift
- Start date
The U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, together with representatives of the IRS and Department of Homeland Security, will hold a press conference this afternoon (eastern time) at which they are expected to announce that the interpreter is pleading guilty to crimes related to the theft. The interpreter allegedly stole more than $4.5 million by changing the settings on Ohtani's accounts so that Ohtani would not be notified of transactions.
I call BS on this, sorry, not buying it.
Ohtani was never going to be found at fault. It kind of sucks for him and for fans
For SO - it means that it will always hang out there.
For fans- what is the truth and can you believe the truth
For SO - it means that it will always hang out there.
For fans- what is the truth and can you believe the truth
Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with bank fraud for allegedly stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani to "finance his voracious appetite for illegal sports betting," United States Attorney Martin Estrada said during a press briefing.
Estrada claimed Mizuhara committed fraud on a "massive scale" to "plunder" Ohtani's bank account.
Mizuhara had helped Ohtani set up his bank accounts and "used that familiarity" to steal the funds from Ohtani to help pay for illegal sports bets, the DOJ alleged. He is also accused of impersonating Ohtani over the phone with the bank to approve wire transfers to the bookmakers, the DOJ said.
Interpreter taking a hit for the team because he knows he will be convicted of fraud even if Ohtnai knew about what he did, so having Ohtnai absolved in order to have him plea for leniency in sentencing and not demand repayment part of sentence.,
Ohtnai and MLB walk away with clean hands while the interpreter receives a lighter sentence than if he spilled the beans fighting charges and time to be served at a federal minimum security country club prison
So much a part of me wants to believe Ohtani- but why don't I?
I don't care either way but the bank would have verbals or documentation as proof. They wouldn't be manufacturing that to absolve Ohtani.
could be because doesn't seem to be trustworthy .
Ohtani claimed have had a meeting with a dodger fan who caught his first dodger home run and made a statement about it to the media , then it was reported he didn't meet that fan and next thing that happened was the excuse that the person translating the question posed to Ohtani and his answer got it wrong because of the inteperter and a excuse saying that the Japanese vocabular haveing a lot of syllables that could cause the interperter to translate what was said wrong for the quiestion and answer
The latest (from the Athletic and so behind a paywall) is that the interpreter has been charged by federal authorities with felony bank fraud. The allegation is that he transferred more than $16 million out of Ohtani's bank account. A conviction could result in a sentence of up to thirty years and the interpreter is believed to be negotiating a plea agreement. The prosecutors say that text logs show no discussion of gambling between Ohtani and the interpreter.
https://theathletic.com/5408717/2024/04/11/ohtani-ippei-mizuhara-fraud-charges/
https://theathletic.com/5408717/2024/04/11/ohtani-ippei-mizuhara-fraud-charges/
On the flip side of what I said above what makes no sense is the interpreter made $180,00,000 million in losing bets and $140,000,000 in winning bets or close to it. No bookie is giving this guy a delta of $40 million to lose.
A boss of mine I the Kate 90’s early 2000’s was betting anywhere from 20-100k a week.
And his booking was a close friend.
So let’s say he always carried about 2M in debt.
I don’t think any bookie would carry 40Mil though
dumb question: how could he have lost $40 million and stolen only $16 million? Where did the other $24 million come from?? What am I missing?
Maybe he started to pay him off but that's why I was thinking from bookie perspective having a $40 million loss on books makes no sense. Even if it were really Ohtani they're not floating that much out there.
Exactly, well said. I'd love to hear another Pete Rose take when the smoke clears on all this, lol.
shame he didn't have an interpreter , sometimes gambling terminology is confusing and bets you place can be placed on another, using language barrier as an excuse, when people found out about them
I seem to be the only person who believes the official story. The story seems plausible to me, and no one has yet pointed out any facts that disprove it. I doubt that the interpreter would be taking the fall for Ohtani when there is a risk of a long sentence. (BTW, the judge is *not* bound by the government's sentencing recommendation no matter how lenient it may be.)
Now that his interpreter is facing major federal time- I am starting to believe he did the crime..,
no one can really say what the truth is and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Ohtani didn't know anything that went on, from beginning to end.
I'm just skeptical and tend to think there's a good chance Ohtani didn't know about the bets until the interpreter came to him for help paying .
Then to avoid someone in his inner circle being exposed for their gambling Ohtani decided to pay off the loses rather than have the press all over him about his interpreter and good friend's gambling habit.
Once the interpreter exposed the payment Ohtani's lawyers jumped in and the cover-up started.
The judge might be asked by Ohtani , off the record, to show mercy and sentence the interpreter to less then the prosecution asks for based on what Ohtani or his representative said they felt about the interpreter using Ohtani's money to gamble.
Heck: this might have started out with a small bet Ohtani knew his interpreter was placing , thinking it was just a one time thing and didn't know that interpreter kept betting and for higher amounts .
When interpreter told Ohtani the truth and what owed, Ohtani decided better pay off the interpreter's losses than have his involvement with first bet exposed .
Far fetched, I admit it, but everyting about this is a little strange
I read somewhere on here that the new CEO of NPR said, " truth is a distraction", so there's always that! Man this country is doomed.
There's no evidence that Ohtani paid anything. You can be sure that if he had the interpreter would say so to lighten the sentence.
Ohtani can say anything he wants to the judge about the sentence, but there's no guarantee the judge will listen. The judge is thinking about, for instance, what will deter the next guy who does something like this, not about whether Ohtani wants a break for his long-time friend.
true no evidence was found. Only that when gambling was exposed the interperter claimed Ohtani was told and agreed to pay off the losses.
I believe a representative of Ohtani was there when the interpreter said losses were being paid by Ohtani.
Then lawyers got involved , interpreter retracted statement and Ohtani claimed he never knew or was involved in any way.
>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.<
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39768770/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-interpreter-fired-theft
But even under that version Ohtani didn't do any betting.
The only question was whether Ohtani had agreed to having money transferred out of his account to pay the interpreter's debts. The interpreter, of course, said he had. Ohtani's financial people (who had been dealing with the interpreter) did the logical thing; they asked Ohtani (through a different interpreter) if Ohtani really had done that and Ohtani said no. The interpreter now agrees that Ohtani did not authorize the transfers. There is no dispute about that. Given that the interpreter is facing the possibility of a long prison sentence, it seems to me unlikely that the interpreter is confessing to protect Ohtani. Nor is there anything else that indicates that Ohtani is lying when he denies approving the transfers.