Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Ohtani's Interpreter Gets Fired in Theft & Gambling Story - Instant Reaction (Jimmy's Three Things)

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

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The Dodgers just fired Shohei Otani's interpreter amid allegations of massive theft. Gambling involved, a lot of money involved, a lot of multiple reports involved, and it's very early. Welcome to Jimmy's Three Things segment or a format here on the Talkin' Baseball channel that will be starting again this year. I started it last year. It will be happening again this year next week, I believe was supposed to be the kickoff of it, but it's really just three topics, usually the biggest one going on. And then some stats I want to look into or a weird story that I want to talk about. But I guess I'm doing a special announcement episode because we just got crazy story.

Just an absolutely wild story. So I guess Jimmy's three things today, the first thing is going to be, yes, my glasses may be crooked. My son, my two-year-old son, at one point took them off my face and just snapped that section. So there's a band-aid on there so doesn't scratch my face. thing number two would be to remind everybody that I don't know shit I'm just going to read the article on ESPN by Tisha Thompson and I'm going to react to it so that's kind of what this is just for people that are looking to like understand it more I'm also looking to understand it more I don't know anything that you guys don't know I don't have any other

information besides this article and you know passage tweets and stuff so that's a second thing. Third thing is, let's get into it. It's wild and it's confusing and it's really bizarre. So the Los Angeles Dodgers interpreter for show here. Tani was fired Wednesday afternoon after questions surrounding at least 4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Otani's bank account to a bookmaking operation. All right. So you got to pause there because if that's a fact, If that's the first fact that we're starting with, that money got transferred from Shohei Otani's bank account to an illegal gambling operation, that's crazy. The complications and the results and the damages and everything that can happen just by that fact.

If you weren't to go deeper, you would just hear that, hey, millions of of dollars just got transferred from show Otani's bank into an illegal gambling operation because they were invested in get you would just pause and say oh shit that's not good let's look deeper because that's not good so Ipie is his longtime friend and interpreter they are like best friends it's like in Otani's contract that he has to go everywhere they go and it gets really weird here so they were in debt to a southern California bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation. Multiple sources told ESPN.

How he came to lose his job started with reporters asking questions about the wire transfers. So they're investigating this illegal gambling and then they see wire transfers with Otani's name on it. Initially, a spokesman for Otani, so someone on Otani's half told ESPN that Otani transferred the funds to cover Ip these gambling debts. Mizuhara. That alone, okay, so now we have, so now the first, they go from Otani's account to the gambling debt,

and then this first information, the very first time they ask about it, it's like, yeah, Otani sent them that money. But it was just to cover the debts. But the fact that Otani sent the money is crazy. You can't gamble. You can't illegally gamble.

You can't fund an illegal bookmaking operation with debt. So they're saying that it wasn't him betting, he was covering the debt of his interpreter. The spokesman presented Mizuhara. I call him hippie, but Musihara. So basically said, here, you interview him. He'll tell you everything.

And they did a 90-minute interview for ESPN Tuesday night, which Tischer says, during which Musa-huhra laid out his account in great detail. So sounds like he said a lot. and ESPN was like, this is cool, man. Thanks for telling us so much. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizahara's account and said, Otani's lawyers, what is your statement?

Actually, everything that is like the Joe Pesci opening trial in my cousin Vinnie. Everything that guy just said is bullshit. It's not what we thought he was going to tell you. We retracted. He's the liar, and now we're mad at him. In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei had been the victim of massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to authorities.

Read the statement from the lawyer. So step one, Otani's camp says, yes, Otani paid those off. It was a debt for Ippy. Actually, you know what? We'll send Ippy your way to confirm this account. and then I think, then they say, never mind, it's theft. We had no idea.

I don't know if it's the same spokesman or a different spokesman. We don't know how this got mixed up, but it's unfortunate that these two things got mixed up because the ESPN is pretty frustrated with the matter because they're like, he spoke to us in great detail. And right before we were about to publish it, they say it's all lies and we can't publish it. The spokesman declined to answer any further questions, and the statement did not specify whom they believe perpetrated the alleged theft. When asked by ESPN, when asked by ESPN on Wednesday afternoon, after the lawyer's statement, if he had been accused of theft,

Mizuhara said he was told he could not comment but declined to say to, by whom. So he said, I can't talk on that. And they said, who told you not talking? And he said, oh, I don't, I can't tell you. I can't tell you who told me not talking to him. So wild. Okay, so here we go. The illegal bookmaker's name is Matthew Bauer, and this section gets real weird. The wire transfer payments were sent from Otani's account to an associate of Bowers,

according to multiple sources and bank data reviewed by ESPN. Multiple sources, including Musahara, told ESPN that Otani does not gamble and that the funds covered Musaara's law. Fuck and I'm going to say yippe. Yippie's losses. Ippy, yippie. So if that's true, and if that, like, sure, okay, it was, he was gambling. He got up to $4.5 million in debt. And Otani is his good friend, and he has money, and he said, I'm going to help you out.

I don't know by the MLB's rule, commissioner's rules, legally what that means. And I think it, I think if that's the case, it means bad. things and that's why Otani's lawyers are being like, no fucking way, it was theft. We didn't know anything about that. And maybe that's the case, but who then said the first statement? But then goes on to say that ESPN had a reviewed bank information showing Otani's name on two 500 grand payments sent in September and October. So, okay, I thought it was in my head.

I thought it was just a one-time payment of $4.5 million to cover the debt. but these are checks multiple times. And it goes on to say that sources close to the gambling operation told ESPN that Bauer dealt directly with Ippy who placed bets on international soccer matches and other sports, but not baseball, starting in 2021. A source said Bauer was aware of the name on the wire transfers but chose not to ask questions as long as payments came in. so now this source is saying that it's not Otani's just covering the debt at the end. Otani's name, unbeknownst to him, according to Otani's lawyers, was on the checks. Like, in live time, his name was on the checks. And the bookie Bauer, if that's how you pronounce the name, knew the name on the check said Otani.

So you got a bookmaker in California. California, knowing that he's getting half a million dollars a month for those two months from Shohei Otani. And he says, you know, he just didn't ask any questions. However, the source said Bauer allegedly, said Bauer allowed people to believe O'Tani was a client in order to boost business. So now he's using that fact to, O'Tani bets with me. You want to bet with me and my bookmaker?

Otani does. must be trusted. Otani's sending me checks. He's trying to boost business by saying Otani's sending him money. That seems not good for Otani. Mr. Bauer never met or spoke with Joe Otani. Okay, that's good. In the interview, in the Tuesday interview arranged by Otani spokesman,

Ippy, who's 39, told ESPN that he asked Otani last year to pay off his gambling debt, which multiple sources said had ballooned to at least 5%. 4.5 million. Now, I'm a cynical person, and I ask questions a ton, whether I should or not, that's kind of what I like doing. My question at this point would be, so Bauer knows Otani's names on the check. Okay, I guess that's a statement. My question would be, my first question would be, how does this bookmaker allow a translator to incur 4.5.5?000. million dollars of debt, of credit. How does he allow it to get that bad?

And then my follow-up would be, oh, well, Otani's name was on the checks. So I guess he thought even if this isn't Otani making these bets, this is Otani's funding this dude's betting because his name's on the checks. Now, according to Otani's lawyers, this was all happening unbeknownst to Otani. and it's theft. Could be the case. We would have to figure it all out and hear how all the people

that are actually going to look into this, what they find. Obviously, Otani wasn't happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again. If he said, he decided to pay it off for me. If that's true, it's a nice thing by Otani, but legally I still think we're in fucking trouble there.

And again, that's why Otani's lawyer saying that that is not true. And then it goes on to say, I want everyone to know that Shoah 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 again. Yeah, man, 4.5 mill.

Okay. But then on Wednesday, Mizohara told his ban that Otani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and Otani had not transferred money to the bookmakers associate. So a whole new story on Wednesday. Yeah. that's not good that there was two different stories. So, Ippy told ESPN on Tuesday,

his bets were placed on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL, and college football. I never bet on baseball, Musa Har said. That's 100%. I knew the rule. We have a meeting about it in spring training. And that's great, man.

I really, really, really hope that's the case. Again, if I'm just someone who reads things and wonders, things and ask questions, I'd be like, you incurred $4.5 million in debt. You seem to be a terrible gambler. Also, if Otani's lawyers are correct in saying that this was theft and Otani had no idea this money was coming out of his account, you're not to be trusted. You're a thief who incurred debt.

That is not a place of honesty. So you'd need to really dig deeper and actually like look into the bets to figure it out. because if this dude's a liar and a thief, I'm not going to just take his word for it if he stole 4.5 million from his best friend. I'd have to go check that out. Now, if he was betting on baseball on Otani truly didn't know about it, but it was coming from Otani's account, I don't know what that means.

And I don't want to find out. That would suck. MLB employees, MLB players and employees are allowed to bet on sports other than baseball, but not with illegal bookmakers or offshore websites. And punishment, subject to punishment at the, missioners discretion. Okay, so now we know that is the outcome. The league has not been contacted by federal authorities,

was not aware of the situation until ESPN raised in recent days. The source said MLB's next step would be gather facts, which you could take time in light of an ongoing federal investigation. Yep, that would be a smart thing to do. Federal authorities learned over time's wire payments in January as part of their investigation into the bookmaking operation. ESPN reviewed wire transfer data for two of the transactions, each totaling 500,000. Shohei Otani is visible alongside various bank account wire transfer information, and the word

loan Otani is a Japanese, dude, that sucks because I still think that's fucking terrible. I think we're in a lot of trouble there. If ESPN is saying they reviewed the data, and there are officially two transactions that together is a million dollars from Shohei Otani to a bank. Now, Shoah's lawyers are saying this is theft and he had no idea and we have to hear that through and figure it out. But that is a problem. That is just that fact that they're saying, no, we saw this.

It's real. That's bad that that's real. Bauer 48 could face potential felony charges. Yeah, I mean, he's running an illegal thing. Um, Ippy met Bauer at a San Diego poker game in 2021, started betting with him on credit year later. Uh, Ippy estimated his losses amounted more than a million by the end of

2022 and ballooned from there. You're real, that's terrible. And I'm terrible at gambling. Yeah, man. You're really bad. And why did this dude allow you to keep getting so much deeper in the hole? I guess he knew you had a really rich best friend that was going to bail you out.

Um, And then, uh, on Tuesday, Ipe said after Otani agreed to pay the debts, uh, he, so his first report, he's, damn. So translator's first report, the one that the spokesman said, all of that's bullshit. He said, Otani logged on to his own computer and sent the wire transfers under Mizihara's supervision and installments over several months last year. Okay. So that changes what I was saying. earlier on. So the several 500 grand was the 4.5.

It wasn't while the bets were being made. Earlier when I was reading the paragraphs above, I was like, so I said something. I thought they were saying it's $4.5 million at the end, but he was betting 500 as we went. I guess that's wrong. The 500 installments were to cover the debt once we like got to a place where we had to cover it.

Ippy said we had to add description for the wire i think matt boyer might have told me to just put loan because you had to put something love that first time i wrote out a check for rent or something i remember calling like what are i right and they were like write rent and i was like oh i'm sorry i was daunted by this check situation i'm just really young and dumb hippy said he didn't want me to gamble it away that's why otani didn't let him do the wiring himself and otani did it again And that's all, everything that this, that, uh, uh, Ippy said on Tuesday per Otani's lawyers is a lie.

And it's, it was theft and not true. Um, this sucks. Ippy though, Wednesday afternoon walked back much of what he said late Tuesday saying Otani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts, efforts, repaid them. So after he gave a 90 minute interview to ESPN where he said all this stuff and he said, we have, we paid back. We sat at the laptop.

We paid it back together. I, we, he didn't. want me to lose the money. And then the very next day he shows up and says, oh, he had no idea what I was doing. He had no idea. It was all me, obviously me. This is all my fault.

Everything I've done. I'm ready to face the consequences. I don't know, man. I think that's kind of it. Yeah, then they give other examples. There's obviously way more we need to hear and figure out. But even the fact that Otani's name, millions of dollars,

bank statements to an illegal gambling thing is bad. Whether, now they have to really prove that he had no idea. He didn't know about it at all. And it seems like IEP is going to help them prove that by saying, yeah, he had no idea. We have no idea. That's, there's a lot of, that's a first article. Great job by ESPN and by Tisha Thompson. and it's a first article.

It leaves a lot to wonder. Thanks for tuning in to Jimmy's Three Things. We'll be back talking baseball, series recaps, midweek episodes, Jimmy's Three Things, coverage on all social, subscribe to the channel. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. This is wild.

And the more I started, like, I started this just like, whoa, this is drama and crazy news and kind of like, just kind of wide-eyed being. like, whoa, my goodness, I love juicy stories like this. And then at the end of that article, I got sad like, fuck, dude. I don't want this to be anything that turns out bad. And Otani's not playing baseball anymore. Or even suspended for a minor amount of time or non-baseball,

but actual federal legal trouble. Like, I don't know. A lot more of information needed to be out there, obviously. that's just my thoughts on this article. See ya.