Happened to Selena, the singer, and her mgr for trusting her too much with all her finances and accounts. Only she was killed when she confronted her.

the thing is, you have to live and breath baseball to know exactly what it means to Ohtani. I can bet my whole house that he didn't bet on ANY sports. Its hard to let it all out that he was DUPED, moreso, by the one person he trusted the most since he moved to the US. Quit the judgement for now and wait for whatever the investigation releases

At the press conference, Ohtani said that he had not been aware of the ESPN inquiry or the communication that had taken place between his crisis manager (sent from CAA) and Ippei. At the same time, Ippei was telling the crisis manager that he had been communicating with Ohtani on this matter. This was the source of the initial confusion. Namely, Ippei was controlling the information flow between the crisis manager and Ohtani. It was a blunder that the crisis manager did not immediately bring in a third-party interpreter when the suspicion involving Ippei arose.

Go check out the Pitching Ninja….He breaks it down right, from the legal angle. He’s an established lawyer, as well.

5:09 Ohtani's team didn't know about the theft until after the team meeting either. They only knew that there was a story coming out about Shohei paying off Ippei's debts, which they thought Ohtani knew about too because Ippei had told them that he did. But then Ippei came clean to Ohtani about the theft after the team meeting and that was when Ohtani's team was contacted. Were you guys even listening to what Ohtani said?

Ask Tim Duncan how he lost 20M. I don't really understand why these people keep saying how Ohtani can't track 4.5m. It's a different life, and they don't live and act like average Joe.

Some people say they are suspicious because they don't say how the money was stolen to someone who says the money was stolen. Are they just plain stupid?

i hope and I am sure Ohtani and his lawyer have done homework carefully before he made this press conference, because if he lied then his career is over

The thing most people miss is that Ohtani is trying to be 2 professional athletes... An ace pitcher and a great hitter. I would do the same if I had the talent and gift to do both and not care about anything else because money will take care of itself

Forget the haters that comes on making assumptions and accusations without facts, but the media are accusing him because it brings controversy and ratings to their show.

Tim it is pretty straightforward what was revealed from Shohei’s press conference. And why he is not able to mention anything about $4.5 million. This whole saga was created because everybody took Ippei’s word at face value without anybody confirming the story with Shohei. Shohei’s PR guy (presumably from CAA Sports), ESPN, Dodgers from office. -- they all were told by Ippei that he had spoken to Shohei about the Inquiry from ESPN. The reality was that Ippei never spoke to Shohei about the inquiry from ESPN nor the interview with ESPN and it was only after Ippei addressed the team in the clubhouse that Ippei talked to Shohei privately in Shohei’s room about the interview with ESPN. This is when where Ippei confessed to Shohei that he lied about the whole whole story. This is also when Shohei called the PR guy and told him what Ippei had just confessed. According to the Japanese media, Ippei was still in Shohei’s room when the PR guy came to the room. The next day (Korea time) , Ippei recanted his story to ESPN as did the PR guy. However, the whole media is unwilling to accept Ippei recanting the story and seems determined to somehow connect Shohei into the picture all because Ippei’s lies. The media cannot accept the fact the Shohei never knew about Ippei’s gambling addiction but ignores the fact that Shohei took his parents and his wife to Korea and provided tickets for them along with tickets for Ippei’s wife so they can sit together. Does anyone think Shohei would do that if he knew Ippei was stealing money from him? So Shohei’s press conference is consistent as far as the breaking down the events and the timeframe. The media is also jumping to conclusions regarding the amount of $4.5 million. Ippei never specifically said anything about this amount during his interview with ESPN. What he said was that nine wire payments were made in similar fashion after answering to ESPN’s inquiry about the two wire that allegedly came from Shohei’s account. So the media jumped to the conclusion that 9 payments of $500,000 were made, hence 9x $500,000 = $4.5 million, and the belief that this all came from Shohei’s account. If that was the case, I’m sure the FBI investigation on Browley would have picked this up as they can easily check into bank ledgers. However, only two wires have been identified by FBI that had Shohei’s name on it. The fact that Shohei did not mention anything about the alleged $4.5 million is that perhaps even his legal/financial team could not verify this, as neither did the FBI. At the end, it is Shohei’s story vs the media and certain fans wanting to believe in Ippei’ story. Why the media would believe in someone who even lies about his resume over Shohei who seems so genuine and has no blemish in the past is beyond me. I think the media is blowing this out of proportion in an unfairly manner. At the minimum, the media should not speculate and ruin someone’s character based solely on Ippei’s story. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnet, Robert De Niro, Billy Joel - just to name a few - have all been stolen tens of million from someone within their close circle without knowing this for a long time. These thing happen. Just my observation

Where is Ohtani CPA!?!?! His translator was his concierge but he wasnt his accountant!!!!

The guy with the Free Ippei shirt is a disgrace to sports journalism and commentary by talking the way he did. He stands with Ippei, using a street crime analogy that's insulting, while apparently ignorant of all the lies we now know Ippei told about his bio. He claimed to have graduated from UC Riverside, but the school says they have no record of him ever attending there. He claims to have been translator for two players he did not translate for; the Boston Red Sox stated Ippei was not the translator of that Japanese pitcher or employed by the Red Sox as Ippei claimed. There's more in his resume that is fraudulent. So don't give me this "free Ippei" crap. Yes, there are some questions that remain to be answered. It does seem that Ohtani had given too much trust and authority to Ippei, which was a mistake. I know from years of following Ohtani that his character is pretty well established as strong. Ippei appears to have won over Ohtani and defrauded him. That's maybe something to blame Ohtani for--not vetting a guy who became his best friend and close associate, but more like a sociopath who talks a good line when called upon. Ohtani stated plainly he never bet or asked others to bet on his behalf. He stated that Mizuhara lied, without specifying all the things he lied about, and stole money from him. I believe what he has said publicly. I think the credibility is on Ohtani's side, and I don't think a fraudster like Ippei deserves our sympathy or that he took the fall for something Ohtani did.

Thank you, Mr. Tim Kurkjian, for your quite good analysis and understanding of Shohei's life here. I am bilingual in Japanese and English and live in the U.S. for nearly 40 years. As I was listening to what Shohei was saying in Japanese at the press conference, my impression was that he was speaking very honestly from his heart and in his own words. FYI, Mr. Will Ireton who grew up in Tokyo until his teen year and had experience working in Japan did a very good job in interpreting for Shohei. Shohei learned the hard way that he needs to protect himself without relying solely on people around him and that he cannot trust anyone easily living in the U.S. I trust firmly Shohei will rise above all this. Thank you, again, Tim!

When Ohtani went to H&R block to have his taxes done didn't they bring up the $500,000 payouts ?! What did they tell the IRS ?!

Come on Tim. You're saying Otani is simply outsourcing his illegal gambling to his interpretor, like his dry cleaning? 😂

What interpreter gets a $4.5 million gambling line from an illegal bookmaker?

He’s never going to admit a mlb death penalty offense…

MLB is done with this. If he wasn’t who he is he’d be suspended by now. There’s a lot more we may never know.

They should bring in Judge Judy. She can pick out the liar in 2 minutes!

Some dentist took a manslaughter charge for Jason Witten and a major car dealer in our hometown. They ran over someone in a lake and the dentist took the rap for the other two. It’s well known that he got paid big time to go to the can for 27 months…

Lord I've MISSED BROTHER TIM on the show!!

Would a bookie give his translator such a big line of credit? Run up that debt? Hell no.

Ohtani following the Michael Jordan blueprint 😂

If the investigation from baseball and DOJ are at different levels of scrutiny then then MLB is protecting their biggest player.

Great takes Tim, miss seeing you on tv as I only use streaming services now to consume all my sports content. Bro you and Buster need to start an independent podcast‼️Y'all two together would straight kill ‼️

This is the most rational conversation I've heard on this scandal since it broke.

Correction The quote is not from Ippei’s father but a Japanese chef owner who is very close to Ippei. The article by Post News Seven in Japan was back in August 2023 , way back before this whole gamble saga

It’s funny how Trevor Bauer was accused of something and because he’s not liked or the golden boy they sat his ass down and now he’s blackballed but since it’s the dude everyone loves he gets to play while it’s sorted out .

How can he now know..... My bank manager informed me that my credit card was being misused by someone I don't know, and I was only informed after 3 days with a phone call from the bank.

First, Ohtani doesn’t know about a gambling problem to the tune of $4.5 million. Secondly, the interpreter had access to millions of dollars?

If you find some things Ohtani said was fishy then you can't believe anything he said.

I think at 6:25 Tim could also use an interpreter

Wow, I stand corrected. I thought the Puff Daddy Stuff Daddy stuff would shut this story down.

Japanese media just reported that the bank account is a separate account for his charity. Ohtani put Ippei in charge of that account. FWIW

I have followed Ohtnai since his NPB days. While gangs on this show (and the American public in general) make fun of Ohtani as being a single-minded baseball robot, in my opinion that is exactly what he is aspired to be. In addition, he has been quoted in numerous times (including by the headline of the recent SI article) that he does not care about money. Given hundreds of millions of dollars he gave up by coming to the US before age 25, I would think he is speaking the truth. However, for people who are not convinced of these unique (and very un-American, I would say) personally traits of Ohtani, his version of story would not be credible.

Again, I will say as a Japanese American that there is a norm that says you trust people because in Japan, which is an island nation, it is too easy to get caught. So you simply don’t do things that are dishonest. I think the word for that translates to “shame.” Very strong norm. So yeah, Shohei was too trusting with his countryman whom he believed would be conducting himself as if governed by shame. 😮

Holy cow I thought Dan went into witness protection.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit!!!!

The video cutoff was crazy

The best damage control I’ve heard came from Japan. Saying that the money came from an account for charity that his interpreter had sole control over.

Dodgers uniform looking good during scandal 😂 Go Angels!!!

That's because ESPN never talked to Shohei. They all just talked to Mitzuhara. As far as the feds investigation, it will show the money came from Ohtani's account. The question is did Ohtani authorize paying it for illegal betting? Ohtani trusted Mitzuhara, who it turns out lied about his credentials as a UCR grad and former employee of Boston Red Sox or NY Yankees to get the job with Ohtani. It's easy to believe Mitzuhara lied in this situation.

As I'm watching this the word naive keeps coming to mind. They are too star struck to see all the discrepancies.

Ohtani is married now…She’s got his stuff now

MJS Banks would tell you if 4.5 Million went out of you account , his accountant would also tell him.

Your bank always messages u when u take a chunk of change out your bank he’s full of 💩

Why would anyone believe a gambling addict and anything they say?

Dan’s the kind of guy that gets off on busting people for not wearing masks 4 years later.

If he changes his name, too Oratani, he could be, a movie theatre!

The idea that someone would have access to my bank account seems odd to me, but if this was in fact the case, then it gives a plausible explanation as to how this money was stolen without his knowledge. I can't imagine any ballplayer agreeing to pay off anyone's gambling debt given baseball's relationship with gambling from within the sport. Additionally, IF this relationship between Ohtani and Ippie was so close that he was given access to Ohtani's accounts, you would think that Ohtani would be aware of his gambling activities and put some distance between himself and this person. It would be a real shame if Ohtani's career is put in the dumpster because it turns out he crossed those lines. We just have to wait and see what the investigation reveals.

Former players i remember who lied under investigation: Pete Rose, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGuire. Im sure there's more.

Ohtani was sold to us as the perfect Japanese, so if so, when the perfect Japanese honor is questioned, they commit Harakiri! I wish he is innocent, but how can many big transfers of money can go to an ilegal place without banks and or the player knowing

If you are going after him, then MLB, NBA, NFL, and NASCAR denounce gambling!

If you moved to Japan, would you rather have someone handle all the yens for you if you were rich because it's confusing with the conversion rate so you can focus on baseball?

Don't need to prep him when he already knew what was going on and thought what he did was ok.

It seems obvious that a "translator" in this context ends up as more of a personal assistant. Regardless, who specifically had unrestricted access to the Shohei account from which these transfers were executed. Knowing that would provide most of what we need to know. Perhaps Ippei intercepted alert messages from the bank regarding the transfers, keeping Shohei in the dark.

You'd think we were talking about Politics with how everyone only cares about how they feel over any facts.

Ohtani has the best lawyers money can buy. It's incredibly doubtful they'd have him issue a statement that could easily be disproved. My guess is they have Ippei on tape admitting to everything Ohtani accused him of. If this is you or me, we're probably in a world of trouble. It's very unlikely Ohtani has anything to worry about.

The reports coming from Japan when was playing in his home country, was Shohei, didn't socialize, and spent his time in the team Dorm, because of his celebrity status and he is so focused on being the best baseball player he can be.

In theory, If the dude had a gambling problem from the beginning, wouldn't it had disqualify him as an interper for Ohtoni?

IF Ohtani's story is true, why hasn't the interpreter been arrested??

MLB has covered up the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers cheating scandal by having Astros as their scapegoat. Even though years later, everything's revealed by themselves. Same thing with the Dodgers lineup and other pitchers' illegal substance matter, and how they got Bauer ousted from the league despite no consistency of the league's posture regarding players with quite similar matters time and time again, just because he spoke on the matter So, it's not that far-fetched to also think that all of this is just a cover-up. But hey, what do i know? at the end of the day, nothing that money can't solve in the world of the rich

People act like they just know everything smh.. all the sudden everybody is an expert on what happened lol

Ohtani makes more money from endorsements for multiple companies...I assume these contracts direct deposit money to ohtani bank account....who does the bookkeeping of these endorsement contracts??? I assume he has an accountant CPA for tax reporting in two countries....I doubt ippei did the bookkeeping....a CPA had to have knowledge of the bookie payments....ohtani did not know?????

Some People don't ask obvious questions. The facts don't matter for them. They just want to believe it.

I agreed what this man he saying!

I go through months without looking at my 401k account. Rich people have multiple accounts for different purposes. Not everyone pours over each of their accounts everyday. Shohei is not Scrooge McDuck.

There are few players pitching/ hitting and playing as an everyday player because of coaches. Coaches want so much control over players for their safety it’s gotten to where we are are. Pitchers are not allowed to even pitch complete games yet alone hit, run for themselves. They have been coddled the past 20 years to not be athletic. Just play a simple role and not develop into a complete player like you are allowed to do in little league 8-12 years of age. Today at 13 years of age you start getting pigeon holed into roles.

What is sad is the fact that people who cover sports think they have all the info. Steroid use started with Reggie Jackson and no one has ever said anything about it. Because it was held close and secret. His workout partner when he was with Oakland was Mr Universe runner up to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nathan LeBlanc was Reggie workout partner at Walt gym in Hayward. Reggie had huge gains in one year working out with Nathan. Changed his career path. But all Reggie does is point his finger at Barry Bonds……

Otani is already richer than you can imagine. He has been featured in commercials for many of Japan's largest companies. You can see it when you come to Japan and watch Japanese TV. Book Maker knew that Ippei Mizuhara was the best friend of Shohei Otani. Ippei Mizuhara was not only Otani's interpreter, but also his only manager, and was apparently responsible for transferring expenses and other important tasks during Otani's hospitalization. ブックメーカーは、水原一平が大谷翔平の親友と知っていた。 水原一平は、通訳だけではなく、大谷さんのただ一人のマネージャーとして、経費の振り込み等、その他の重要な仕事を大谷の入院中にも担っていたとか。

It's my understanding that the bookie knew the money was coming from Ohtani's bank account, and he leaned into the fact that Ohtani does business with him. That's potential blackmail and leverage over Ohtani. I'm not saying that happened. But nothing is more terrifying to a professional sports league than having an illegal bookie with an athlete (especially their premiere athlete) under their thumb. I want to believe Shohei's innocence, but his bank account linked to the bookie is SERIOUS SERIOUS business.

Sports and Gambling go together like peanut butter & jelly, more money more problems.

Doesn't MLB do background checks on their employees? You think Ohtani is the only MLB player or employee who could be wrapped up in a gambling/drug scandal? Doesn't the bank have processes in place to keep wire fraud from happening? Didn't Ohtani get notifications $500K was transferred from his account multiple times? No two-factor authentication to log in? Did the bank tip off the feds to the $500K wire transfers? Was there anyone else on the Angels that placed bets? This is the same team for which Tyler Skaggs played, and he was not the only one doing opioids. What's going on in the MLB clubhouses?

Yeah I think he was just helping his buddy out. I’d have done the same thing if 5 mil was like $50 to me

Dodgers Might Transferred Ohtani Back To The Angels

Where in the world is stugotz!?

People don’t realize he didn’t just get here from Japan 🇯🇵 he’s been playing in Anaheim, California for the Angels for years he’s no babe in the woods he knows what he’s doing

We can't deal with Santa Claus being exposed as a pedophile, so we do whatever it takes to ignore it.

Let's not call it trusting or naive,he'd have to be STUPID

The bottom line is that Ohtani must be the dumbest person alive for using his own name on the transaction NINE TIMES.

All U need to know is that the 4.5 was wired from his account ….. it wasn’t stolen by no one , Ohtani bet the money and he lied about the whole thing. Body language tells all.

It wasn’t until the very end where finally someone brought up cultural differences. Saying someone is a big baby because they outsource everything in their day to day life is both naive and culturally insensitive. Could King Charles manage most of the day to day activities of a normal adult? No. He has never needed to do so and asking him to do so would take away from his time on activities central to the royal family. You can like or dislike the royal family’s activities, but having a team to handle daily activities doesn’t make King Charles, Shohei Ohtani, or any other very busy adult with extensive resources.

Major League Baseball has existed before shohini Otani and Japan and it will continue after😅

Get some perspective. If you make 60 mil a yr and if you don't rec your statements monthly you could easily miss several $500k payments or think it goes for something you own. Its like miss. 7.5% of your income if you were living large. Doubtful. I would because i save lesd than 10% ,a yr. Some of these rich athletes trust too much and dont track funds

It happens all the time. None of these athletes and celebrities has SMS messages coming all the time to their phones like usual people who dosent have that kind of economie transactions. Accounts are checking annually but according to K.Kojima, interpreter for Mets/Giants says it’s plausible because he too handled all the finances for the players. Why was Shohei not informed and when he asked what it was about (when Ippei announced in Korea to the team) Ippei refused to translate on the spot and said “I will explain everything later” Why explain later? Why not explain there? It was after the talk at the hotel Shohei alerted Nez Balelo. Ippei has long history of gambling which the Fighters staff knew well in Japan. Ippei will join poker nights with Angels teammates which Shohei always declined to join and went home to sleep. And it’s in one of these poker nights Ippei met this bookie 2021. Addiction is a disease. They need to lie to cover other lies. It’s tragic. Ippei has lied and changed story several times. Not Ohtani. Ippei has lied about his background, Ippei first lie and said it’s a friends debt to the management then changed to it was his own…but still Ohtani was kept in the dark and nobody said anything to Shohei.

We have to believe one or the other? The interpreter admitted everything Ohtani says. Either they're both lying or they're both telling the truth.

The problem is if you went to Japan you would have to learn the language and adjust to the culture not be handled with kids gloves like Ohtani is being handed here. We make it easy in this country not to have to learn English or adjust.

There's just so many questions that aren't answered. Thing is, many are looking at it through the eyes of a normal person. Shohei isn't a normal person. He isn't the first athlete or entertainer to have money stolen from him by someone he trusted. People at the highest levels of what they do live different lives than the rest of us. I'll just wait until the investigation is complete.

Lots of people seem to have their minds made up but I have questions. Who set up Ohtani's bank accounts? How many accounts does he have? Which banks? Which countries? Who has access? Where is he invested, who set up the investments, and who has access to those? If the bank/banks are in different countries, then how are they regulated differently? I could go on but my thought is a simple one; we don't know sh...!

Say it ain't so, Sho!

Do your job. Investigate. Report. Don't want to believe.

He’s definitely guilty till proven innocent. I’m still mad that he didn’t tell us the name of his dog when we wanted know and keeping his marriage a secret.

also when you have hundreds of millions of dollars in multiple accounts and money goes missing, especially in increments of 20-50k over time (as an example), there's a pretty good chance they never notice. These people are not checking bank accounts before buying groceries like we are.

Getting a lot of inquiries and biased comments here so let me put lay down more facts. It is well documented in the Japanese media that Ippei attended a casino card dealer training school to become a licensed dealer. Apparently, Ippei considered this as his first job in the US and there is even a quote from his father about this. While there is nothing wrong about becoming a card dealer, I think it is safe to say that Ippei is the one interested in gambling and not Shohei as certain people blindly insist here. Also, common sense says that people who have a history of lying will always lie. Ippei’s blatant lies about his college degree from UC Riverside, being an interpreter for the Red Sox says a lot about one’s character. Apparently, this character has not changed at all when Ippei changed his story from telling people that it was his friend’s gambling debt to his own gambling debt. I do see, however, a hope that Ippei can change and not lie easily as he confessed to Shohei and apologized. People who insist that Shohei is the one that gambled never come up with a logical explanation other than why did Shohei not know about the $4.5 million. As I have explained before, the $4.5 million is a number that the media came up by taking Ippei’s comment, at face value that there were nine payments made. But Ippei never said anything about $4.5 million. Instead, the media assumed 9 payments of $500,000 were made, hence 9 x $500,000 = $4.5 million. But if this was the case, why did the LA times or ESPN not pick up on this number from the FBI investigation on Browsly. The only number that has been associated with Shohei’ s name is the wire made in September and October of 2023 each allegedly for $500,000. We don’t even know if Ippei’s comment about the nine payments is even true. Without any other facts as far as number goes, the only judgement we can make are the comments that Ippei and Shohei have made and their track record. We can’t be asking what happened to $4.5 million when we don’t even know where this number came from.

The guy say he has a million questions and don't believe all of Ohtani statement, you don't ever have to explain a statement, the truth doesn't need an explanation, you only explain lies.............everything to date is a lie...

I don't know all of what these people are saying ‘cause they all talk fast in English but they are trying to judge the superstar who has different values than they do. It's very difficult to understand someone who isn't like you unless you can see things from multiple perspectives. Why don't you accept his statement first and let the investigators decide? The older man is being most reasonable. I'm disappointed that I had to watch this video of such a prejudiced person screaming so loudly.

Is Tim’s wall wrinkled? Weird.

Shohei definitely gambled there’s a reason Artie let him walk he probably know about all this bullshit

a lie detector would tell who is lying or not