so the translator had access to Ohtani’s accounts and could transfer millions without anyone noticing? that's suss

Ippei getting huge betting limits is really suss. I think that is the most likely case though. Probably nothing to see here.

During this time period, Ohtani likely relied on Ippei to help manage many aspects of his life outside of baseball. Given that tons of things went directly through Ippei, whether because Ippei helped set things up or because he was in the room interpreting for him, why is it unlikely that Ippei would have access and could have suitable excuses, especially given that Ohtani doesn't really seem to care about money? For example, wasn't Ippei's wife running Ohtani's social media accounts at one point? That says a lot about Ippei's influence over Ohtani's life.

My guess is that Ippei sent money directly from Ohtani's account early on (likely small amounts) to prove to the bookie that he has that kind of access and it kind of snowballed from there. When people are able to get away with small things, it can really warp their sense of perspective.

I didn't get to see this earlier but this seems to make sense for the most part:

https://nypost.com/2024/03/21/sports...ling-from-him/

Sounds to me that the earlier Ohtani camp that set up the ESPN interview is Ippei and his people (again, there's some reason to believe that a lot of the people around Ohtani that help him with stuff are basically Ippei's people, given that Ippei is from Southern California, whereas Ohtani barely speaks English) scrambling to figure out how to handle the situation while Ohtani was still in the dark.

I think the other part where people are confused (and I was too fwiw) is where they assume that Ohtani's "people" are truly speaking on behalf of Ohtani in a situation that involves the one of the most important people within that inner circle. So much of the communication Ohtani does with the outside world in the US clearly goes through Ippei that it's extremely unclear who said what (who is even this Ohtani's spokesperson and is the first spokesperson who said Ohtani forgave Ippei's debt the same spokesperson who later denied this?) The only person to have clearly changed their story so far is Ippei.

this fantastical narrative you've weaved might all prove to be true, but right now it's just as likely to be fan fiction. it strains credibility at this point to suggest that the translator was the only guy Ohtani had/trusted/knew who could speak English and Japanese and therefor gave him power of attorney to do virtually anything connected to his finances

so the story we're going with is that some translator was the secret mastermind controlling all aspects of life surrounding maybe the world's biggest baseball player, and no one sounded the alarm? this guy proceeded to rack up massive gambling debts, which ohtani repaid without question because he's such a nice guy. thats what we're saying here?

yeah and he took several paragraphs saying it. So it must be true.

Are you guys not familiar with Ohtani at all? It's fairly well-known that Ippei isn't just an interpreter (translators are people that translate written word btw) but basically a personal assistant that helps with all aspects of his life, who also happens to be a local, while Ohtani literally came as a foreigner who barely speaks English. It's also not at all uncommon for such people to have that type of access and it wouldn't be surprising for external parties to assume that he can speak for Ohtani, when he literally speaks for Ohtani even when he's there.

Ippei's level of access and potential control over Ohtani's life wasn't really a secret, lots of people were talking about how Ippei being called Ohtani's interpreter was misleading because he was literally doing everything for Ohtani and seemed inseparable. Of course, for a long time, this was seen as a good thing.

I mean you could literally see Ippei's wife sitting with Ohtani's family during the broadcast (it was literally Ohtani's wife, Ippei's wife, Ohtani's mom and Ohtani's dad sitting together). It's been reported in the past that Ippei's wife ran Ohtani's social media accounts. It really doesn't get any more inner-circle than that.

Are you not following the story at all? Ohtani's lawyers are saying that Ohtani was defrauded, as in either Ippei sent money from Ohtani's account without Ohtani's explicit knowledge or under false pretense. The only person that said Ohtani paid Ippei's debt knowingly was Ippei. Somehow lots of conspiracy theorists are assuming Ippei's initial story is the more likely account and Ohtani's lawyers are changing the story because that account is bad for Ohtani legally. My point is that it's more likely that Ohtani's lawyers are setting the record straight because this story is not true and was being told to minimize Ippei's culpability.

I know you're reaching for nonsense like Ohtani gambling but honestly that just doesn't make any sense. Aside from what I said earlier, why is a Japanese person who is clearly more familiar with Japanese culture and spends the off-season in Japan gambling with an American bookie via an interpreter, while literally sending money directly from his account? That's just not how people operate.

MLB has a big stake in getting this scandal played out as quickly as possible.

I don't know how it could be confirmed so quickly that Ohtani/interpreter/fall guy did not bet a single MLB game.

Unless the interpreter also plays a financial manager role, it seems utterly fantastic that Ohtani would either give him $3.5M or allow him withdrawal access to his financial accounts.

Since I assume MLB will be controlling the investigation I doubt the truth will ever come out if it puts them/Ohtani in a bad light.

Ippei's false pretense here might have been that he needs to borrow money for some other reason and that he will be paying Ohtani back later when everything works out and Ohtani thinking that he's sending money to Ippei and mentally writing this off as a friend loan that doesn't have to get repaid.

This threads the needle between all the random things that seem not to add up: 1) Ippei arguing saying that Ohtani covered Ippei's debt (well kind of true literally), 2) Ohtani not knowing about the illegal gambling, 3) Ippei saying he offered to pay Ohtani back, even though Ohtani doesn't know and have nothing to do with it, 4) Ohtani being surprised by the whole gambling confession by Ippei in the team meeting and 5) Ohtani not being concerned about the missing money until now, 6) Ohtani's lawyers arguing that Ohtani was a victim of theft and demanding investigation.

This wasn't confirmed at all - this is just straight from Ippei.

Ippei's not just an interpreter - he's literally Ohtani's do-everything-guy, a personal assistant, BFF, etc, etc. It's not unreasonable for him to have some access or for him to convince Ohtani to send money on some false pretense. This type of fraud is fairly common.

There's an ongoing federal investigation and Ohtani's lawyers have contacted law enforcement to specifically look into Ippei's theft. MLB won't have control over any of these investigations.

obviously not


so he just rolled up in california and hired some dude he doesn't know and gave him control over his entire life? seems legit



true, true
social media br0s are the illuminati confirmed


by that logic, why would the interpreter pay off his debts through ohtani's account if he knows it could get flagged and blow up this whole scheme he's got going? ohtani wouldn't do that because he's not stupid, even though you seem to be making the case that he is a complete ****ing idiot. the interpreter would do this because he is stupid i'm guessing you're about to say ($how ur werk), but idk, the fact that some random socal dude was apparently able to take over this guy's life based solely on the fact that he speaks english and japanese makes me think he's kinda clever, actually

based on what i've heard so far, if there's a big ol dum-dum who did something dumb here, more likely it's ohtani. but keep us updated

What the hell are you talking about? They knew each other in Japan, when Ippei moved to Japan for an interpreter job on the same team that Ohtani played for. Seems reasonable that they may have gotten to know each other and given that Ippei was his guide for living in the US that he's relied on in many ways from day 1, that he'd continued to entrust him with important stuff.

I mean, you're arguing for an even crazier level of connection between the two where Ippei would be willing to go to federal prison and become public enemy #1 in Japan just to protect Ohtani's reputation.

What scheme? In this world, Ippei doesn't have a scheme, he's just a compulsive gambler, whose connection to Ohtani might have been seen as an asset by his bookie. The bookie might have incentivized Ippei to send money directly from Ohtani's account. To Ippei, it doesn't really make a difference. There's no scheme to protect anyone. So why wouldn't Ippei use whatever works? That's generally how gamblers operate.

What you're arguing is that Ohtani gambled through Ippei (again, the bookie's lawyer already confirmed they had no contact with Ohtani) and they had some sort of pre-existing agreement where Ippei would be the fall guy (otherwise, how does this arrangement help Ohtani) if they were caught. If they were already operating in this conspiracy to shield Ohtani from the consequences of gambling, why directly implicate Ohtani by sending money from his account?

Again, what the hell are you talking about? Lots of rich people are reliant on other people, this does not make them an idiot. It just means you don't know how the world operates.

I don't really understand how you can be this completely ignorant about any of the people involved, literally have so little interest that you haven't bothered to look up basic facts, and somehow act like you have anything worth contributing here.

1. **** ohtani's reputation, it'd obv be to protect ohtani's abilty to earn ~$1b/year playing baseball
2. why would he go to federal prison, for gambling? ohtani has apparently already forgiven him for the embezzlement. you already said both these things itt


the embezzlement of ohtani's piles of money



i don't even know where to begin with this wishcasting fanfic stuff

it wasn't me, it was the translator! the mastermind! but he was actually entrapped by the real endboss, the bookie! it was the one-armed man, i swear!


again, the point is: if eppei doing it through ohtani is essentially the same thing, then why would he do it?


well you're the one who seems to think that social media lackey is some prestigious position

72off is the MVP of this thread.

ok i decided to Do My Own Research here...

https://defector.com/shohei-ohtanis-...ferent-stories
https://defector.com/mlb-has-a-gambl...-ohtani-doesnt

the setup:

the confession:

hmm, very interesting

lmao

the lawyers obv saw all that and were you like is you giving notes on a criminal ****ing conspiracy??




yep

Most realistic explanation, imo.

Ohtani is a degen but also doesn’t speak a whole lot of English or pay attention to American media and has no idea that people are asking about the bookie/transfers.

His handlers try to get translator to take the heat, but don’t tell Ohtani all the details or even that they’re doing it (Japanese cultural saving face type stuff, etc). They don’t think the story through all the way and that it still makes him look bad.

Ohtani hears from “outside” source about the ESPN interview and freaks, gets lawyers, they freak and immediately retract.

I can’t believe I kind of agree with candybar, but it’s not totally crazy that the interpreter did it all on his own either. Rich people are way stupider about their money and end up having these really small circles of trust where they let people run all that. There’s tons of stories of celebs and athletes getting taken like this. Tim Duncan gave like full control to his accountant who ripped him off for 5 mill a few years ago.

Honestly the least likely is that Ohtani himself thought up the cover story and then tried to walk it back like later the same day.

I’d also believe something like - Interpreter told Ohtani he had some sick investment lined up for him and that’s how he got him to do the transfers.

I definitely don’t buy the idea that ippei stole it. There is literally no way to wire 3.5 million out of an American bank account without the account owner doing it themselves. The only way ippei coulda done this himself is if he’s a joint owner or power of attorney and in either case it’s completely legal

You completely downplayed their relationship - if he's a random interpreter, not an extremely trusted member of his inner circle and a close friend, why on earth Ippei do this to protect Ohtani? Why even be the go-between in the first place for illegal gambling?

Also let's consider the stakes here.

1) If Ohtani is found to have gambled illegally (but not on baseball), the consequences are a fine for Ohtani and essentially none for Ippei.

2) If Ohtani is found to have just paid Ippei's debt, there effectively are no consequences for Ohtani and essentially none for Ippei.

3) If the current story - that Ippei defrauded Ohtani of millions of dollars to gamble illegally - is true, there effectively are no consequences for Ohtani and Ippei is looking at federal prison.

Why choose the third option which is unnecessarily cruel for the fall guy, which significantly increases the risk of him coming clean and blowing everything up, over the second option which had already been partially publicized, if Ohtani and Ippei are working together to cover this up? That makes no sense. Especially when Ippei already went public with option 2. Going from option 2 to option 3 makes no sense if Ohtani and Ippei were working together the whole time.

In other words, Ohtani has very little to gain by changing the story from option 2 to 3, whereas Ippei has everything to gain by changing the story from option 3 to 2. Why, then, isn't option 3 more likely?

Are you following anything at all? Ohtani (through his people obv) is alleging that Ippei stole millions of dollars and is asking the authorities to investigate this. I already gave a possible theory as to how both could be true - Ohtani could have lent the money under false pretense or could've forgiven the initial embezzlement after being told a lie as to the purpose of embezzlement.

You're alleging a conspiracy where they set this up. It makes no sense that they would have tihs elaborate scheme to protect Ohtani and be completely dumb about it. Again, you seem completely unaware of the facts - Bowyer's lawyer already stated that they had no contact with Ohtani, but affirmed the connection between Ippei and Bowyer, so we already know that Ippei was the guy. So your conspiracy theory implies an elaborate scheme where Ippei bet on Ohtani's behalf while completely shielding Ohtani from the bookie.

Ippei sending money from his account makes sense since sending money from Ohtani's account was something that happened unexpectedly as he ran up the debt and at that point, he had no other option. Where else can he get that kind of money? And at that point as a degenerate gambler in huge amounts of debt to shady figures, why does he worry about protecting Ohtani? These aren't equivalent scenarios.

Ohtani sending money from his account makes no sense since for this conspiracy to be true, it means he used Ippei to hide his identity (btw, another reason why this whole thing makes no sense, if Ohtani wanted to hide the fact that he's gambling illegally by using a go-between, why on earth would he do that through a person who is extremely notable as Ohtani's friend). Why then go through all the trouble to hide his connection to gambling to the extent that Bowyer literally had never any contact with him, but casually wire the money from his account?

It represents a level of access and trust for Ippei that someone who has absolutely no professional experience doing this would be entrusted with this for just being related to Ippei. And that Ippei is willing to use the trust Ohtani has in him to place his people around Ohtani. Which gives him all sorts of ways to abuse that trust and also explains why Ohtani's "spokesperson" (we still don't know who that is) affirmed Ippei's version Ohtani being aware of what's going on.

His handlers in this case would be taking on criminal liability just to spare Ohtani a small fine. Again, this is unlikely, it looks like Ohtani has essentially two sets of "handlers" here - basically Ippei and his crew and Balelo and his crew. The former have every reason to make things up to spare Ippei. The latter are highly paid professionals whose careers don't depend on Ohtani and have no real personal reason to want to invite criminal liability just to protect Ohtani.

Also, if Ohtani truly wanted to gamble, he'd probably cultivate connections in Japan and use those. It really doesn't make sense to use Ippei and to go through an American bookie in SoCal where he plays.

This (or some other false pretense) is roughly my guess. There are so many different lies you can tell to convince someone that rich to send $500K to another account. Ohtani's finances were reportedly managed by his mom when he was in Japan, so it would also not be surprising if Ohtani had gotten used to rubber-stamping Ippei's decisions (whose job might be best described as actually an American mom for Ohtani) without really trying to understand everything.

"Stole" could mean a lot of things in this context. Taking money under false pretense would definitely satisfy the colloquial meaning, though I'm unsure where the line is between fraud and theft. Without reading statutes (which may differ by state), how I would classify is that if Ohtani was misled to think the money was going somewhere that would be beneficial to Ohtani, it would be theft, whereas if Ohtani was misled as to why Ippei needed money from Ohtani, but the intent to lend/give Ippei money was there, then it would be fraud.

I'd lean towards that explanation (money was taken away from Ohtani's account under false pretense) but from what I understand, rich people also do literally give their inner circle direct access to their accounts all the time and 500K increments just isn't that much for Ohtani that it would raise a serious alarm. So Ippei stealing money straight from Ohtani's account isn't completely implausible either.

Also, no, it's not legal to use a power of attorney over another to benefit yourself at their expense - fiduciary duty and all that.

Honestly the big takeaway is more about how many losers on the internet (many of them self-described baseball fans) were just absolutely giddy at the prospect of a once-in-a-lifetime superstar being involved in a gambling scandal and absolutely lost their mind trying to fap to the worst possible outcome, which isn't at all remotely likely given the facts. Not talking about this thread for the most part but mostly baseball-related subreddits. Then again, I've spent enough time participating on 2p2 and just living IRL to know how dumb people are and how motivated reasoning leads to all kinds of absurdly silly conspiratorial thinking, but it's still really sad to see all this. Come to think of it, there probably is a racial element here too (as is true with Lebron).

The bookie's lawyer confirmed that betting was on other sports (the only common theme is that they all mostly overlap with the baseball offseason, which makes Ohtani's involvement even less likely), so even if the worst possible case is true, as in Ohtani was involved in illegal gambling on other sports, this isn't much of a scandal at all. People on this site should know but the feds don't go after gamblers, but bookies and MLB doesn't care about illegal gambling as long as it's not on baseball (the precedent is a small fine).

lol not reading that