In one of the biggest scandals of the modern sports industry, the interpreter for Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers was fired last week due to allegations of illegal sports betting.
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25 March update: Shohei Ohtani spoke with the media during a press release with new translator, Will Ireton.
During this interview, he stated that: “[I am] beyond shocked, it’s hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.
“I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf and I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports.
“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.”
Ohtanhi also explained that he didn’t know anything about the scandal until it was brought up in a team meeting regarding the media coverage.
Ohtani continued: “All of this has been a complete lie.
“Ippei obviously basically didn’t tell me about the media inquiry.
“So Ippei has been telling everyone around that he has been communicating with me on this account to the media and my team and that hasn’t been true.”
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Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese professional baseball pitcher and hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB league, has come under international attention after his long-term friend and translator, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired.
This comes after Ohtani made history as recently as December 2023, signing a record-breaking contract with the team for $700 million - the largest in MLB history. He has been consistently compared to the legendary Babe Ruth, as he can both pitch and hit in the same game.
Ohtani has also been voted the most valuable player (MVP) twice, with unanimous votes on both occasions - another record in MLB history.
This shot Ohtani to stardom. Not only did his clean image appeal to advertisers, but his translator could effortlessly translate his words into colloquial English, giving him a very friendly and approachable persona.
However, all of this would come to a halt when it was discovered that Mizuhara had placed several bets through a potentially illegal bookmaker on international football, basketball and soccer - but he claimed that he had never placed a bet on baseball.
"I never bet on baseball. That's 100 percent. I knew that rule. ... We have a meeting about that in spring training," Mizuhara states.
This is because MLB rules that no-one directly involved with the sport can bet on it, including players, umpires, club and league officials. If caught, this could result in a permanent ban. However, if someone is found to place bets with an illegal bookmaker, then the punishment will be “as the commissioner deems appropriate”.
The bookmaker that Mizuhara placed bets with was named as Matthew Bowyer, who is under federal investigation for illegal activities. His home was raided in October by authorities, who seized computers, mobile phones, external storage devices, a money-counting machine, a dozen luxury handbags, as well as casino chips and cash.
According to an interview with ESPN, Mizuhara assumed that any bets placed through Bowyer were legal in nature, just as they were when the interpreter had previously placed bets through DraftKings.
The casual betting relationship between Mizuhara and Bowyer was not as it seemed, though. It was discovered that $4.5 million was sent from Ohtani’s bank account to this allegedly illegal bookmaker.
When questioned about this, Mizuhara explained that he had accumulated debts through his sports betting, which Ohtani had agreed to pay off for him.
This debt had begun as early back as 2021, when Mizuhara allegedly met Bowyer during a poker game and started to place bets through him.
During the interview with ESPN, Mizuhara claimed that, "obviously, [Ohtani] wasn't happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. He decided to pay it off for me.”
"I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting. I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again."
However, this story would change later once Mizuhara claimed that Ohtani had no knowledge of the debts whatsoever.
One thing has stayed consistent throughout this entire case though.
According to Diane Bass, the attorney for Bowyer, the bookmaker did business with Mizuhara but never “spoke with or emailed with or texted with or had any contact whatsoever with Shohei Ohtani.”
The teams spoke with CNN, where they insisted that although the money had come from Ohtani’s accounts, he himself was not directly involved in the scheme.
In the interview with ESPN, Mizuhara explained this further. Rather than giving the money to Mizuhara, Ohtani “didn’t want him to gamble it away”, so instead offered to pay the bookmaker directly himself. This is why the money came from Ohtani’s account.
The next point of contention was the reason for the transfers, which was listed as a “loan” in the description field.
"We had to add a description for the wire. I think [Bowyer] might have told me to just put 'loan.' You had to put something,” Mizuhara claims.
He said that he was with Ohtani when the baseball player logged onto his personal computer and sent the wire transfers to Bowyer. This would clear the interpreter's debt with the bookmaker, and he promised that he would pay Ohtani back instead.
As it is unclear who specifically sent the amounts on Mizuhara’s behalf from Ohtani’s account, the baseball player’s attorneys have filed this as “massive theft”.
The West Hollywood law firm, Berk Brettler, said to the BBC, "in the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.”
Ohtani has been long-term friends with his interpreter, meeting Mizuhara for the first time in 2013 when they met in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. The two have been seen as inseparable for many years, with the two often photographed out with their respective wives.
Of course, the timing for this case couldn’t be worse, in several ways.
First of all, the 2024 MLB season has just started, with the first game being held between Ohtani’s team, the LA Dodgers, and the Padres. They played in Seoul between March 20-21, before Opening Day on March 28.
The Manager of the LA Dodgers, Dave Roberts, has said that Ohtani will continue to take the field as normal while the investigation goes underway. When asked to comment, Roberts said, "Shohei's ready - ready to go for tonight's game”.
The second case of bad timing is the fact that Scott Sibella, the President of the Las Vegas casinos Resorts World and MGM Grand, just pled guilty in the courts for facilitating a money laundering and illegal sports betting ring at the properties.
This illegal bookmaking business included several athletes, including MLB player Yasiel Puig.
According to ESPN, several sources have claimed that the same team who are handling the illegal sports betting ring in Vegas are also investigating the ring run by Bowyer.
