Discussing Shohei Ohtani's statement regarding gambling scandal | First Take

Passan is right. People get ripped off all the time and it’s usually by people they trust implicitly. And I’m sure Ohtani trusted Ippei with LOTS of things, including accounts access.

The interpreter was probably the one who helped open his US accounts in the first place, POA or joint access makes perfect sense. Ohtani really trusted this man.

I'm really good at English for a Japanese, but when I opened a bank account in the US, I couldn't understand almost anything so I had to get a translator. Financial things are complicated and overwhelming for non-natives, so I'm 100% sure Ippei was the person who set up Ohtani's bank account and he was always the person in charge for various financial things just like Ohtani's mother did for Ohtani in Japan to let Ohtani just focus on Baseball. (Ohtani had been receiving only $1000 every month from his mother but he made $20000 savings when he ended the career in Japan ham fighters)
English and Japanese are very different. It's not like English and French. Japanese is one of the most different languages in the world and this is why most Japanese people can't speak or understand English at all.
Ippei is a guy who lied everything. His career and university background were both his lies. If Ohtani and Ippei say something different, you should always ignore what ippei says.
After the gambling manager got arrested, he already said to the police that it was always Ippei who was gambling absolutely not Ohtani, and he also mentioned that the reason why he let Ippei have that huge amount of debt was simply because he knew Ippei was Ohtani's best friend.

Ippei first met Shohei while interpreting for the Fighters in 2013 when he was 19 years old, and they were like brother's Ippei even said he spent more time with Shohei then his own wife because the schedule and travel. Shohei gave Ippei alot of trust and access to all his private and personal informatuon, including his finances. I just saw an interview on Jeffrey J. Hall show he said, Is it hard to believe that Ippei Mizuhara had access to Shohei Ohtani's bank account? No. It's quite plausible and normal, says Katsunori Kojima, a former interpreter for the Mets/Giants. He handled financial transactions himself for players because of the trust and the schedule they have.

I hate that shows like first take only talk about baseball when it’s controversial news and not in general

A translator's job is to translate everything. Opening a bank account, signing a new lease, buying a car, going to a doctor, everything he does in life. The translator is present all the times, including calls, emails, and any documents containing sensitive info.

I agree with Jeff here. Truth will come out after all investigations are done. Haters just want Shohei to be banned from MLB now.

She doesn’t know how this information wasn’t relayed to Ohtani? Guess who would’ve been responsible for relaying that information. Ippei!!!!!!!!!!!1

No idea what is the truth as of yet, but the fact that people think it is so impossible for Ippei to have done this is stupid.
He had access to all of Shohei's information and could easily pull of this fraud.
He is his interpreter, if the bank called to check on a transaction it is likely Ippei was the one fielding that call not Shohei.

Ohtani has never looked into his own finances. When he was a multi millionaire in Japan, his mom handled his finances. Shohei would get an allowance and lived in the team dorms. The vast cultural difference between Japanese baseball culture and American culture should also be brought up. Americans care more about money than Japanese players do. It's not far fetched to think that Ippei had enough power to 1. Embezle money or 2. Fool Ohtani into thinking he was signing off transactions that weren't related to gambling

I stand with shohei

The guy use to earn millions and sent it all to his parents whilst he lived of 300$ a month in Japan. Yeah hes not a gambler. Baseball baseball baseball is what he lives for.

ESPN really need a good lawyer when alot of their panelist accusing Othani on wrong doing even before knowing the full story , at least wait until all clear.

It would have been easy to fool Otani, who cannot read or speak English. If he had not been discovered, he would have taken more money. I think this incident has taught Japanese athletes who are going to the U.S. that it is important to learn English or choose a partner who understands English and a reliable interpreter.

He had a donation account. He is rich now. He separated account for main account and donation account. As Japanese, it is very difficult for me to go through every english document even bank transfers.
I understand his situation.

The man on the left side of the screen knows nothing about their relationship. The only people who don't believe in Ohtani don't know anything about him.
I was surprised to see so many people comparing the accounts of millionaires and ordinary citizens.

Given how the Japanese are and the language barriers, I bet Ippei has a lot of dealings in crafting the image of Ohtani etc.. American culture is vastly different. Being an interpreter means you can lie or take advantage of speaking for Ohtani twisting things or meanings over a while. Ippei was basically his personal assistant at that level I wouldn't be surprised that Ippei isn't at the bank with him guiding him through transactions etc.

Shohei Ohtani’s 2023 2024 off season
1. Spent about 6million dollars donating gloves to every elementary school in Japan.
2. Donated 1 million dollars with Dodgers after the earthquake struck Japan on January 1st
3. Bought 150 to 200 thousand dollars worth Porsche for Kelly’s wife.
4. Signed with the Dodgers
5. Prob paid million dollar for taxes
6. Had TJ and rehab.
7. Got married.
Maybe 4.5 million dollars flew under the radar

I think Shohei giving Ippei "power of attorney" over his funds is completely logical. Shohei gave his own mother control over his finances when he played in Japan because he didn't want to be bothered with such issues. I have no problem seeing Ippei earning Shohei's trust to the point where he was also given access to the latter's finances, thus having full reign over Shohei's money, and using it to pay for his own gambling debt. He wouldn't be the first, nor sadly will he be the last, athlete to be scammed out of a ridiculous amount of money by people close to them. Ippei had lived in the U.S. for a while before Ohtani went there, so it makes sense that he helped him open a bank account as well, granting himself access to it as well. Of course Shohei could be guilty, but I think so far his version is consistent.

The one ray of hope for people who want to believe that Shohei didn't do anything wrong and is an actual victim here is the fact that for almost everything in his professional life, Ippei Mizuhara was directly involved, and Shohei has to put trust in him to provide information to him about what is happening. He is a direct conduit to the entire English speaking world. Even the last point, where the Dodgers hadn't communicated to Shohei, it's likely that they probably attempted to do so through Ippei, and those communications didn't happen for obvious reasons. In the end, Shohei likely relied on Ippei to handle a lot of his business because of that trust, and because it was more efficient, and when he gets burned, Ippei is in a prime position to prevent Shohei from knowing what's happening.
We will have to wait for the investigations and reports to find more things out because this is tied to pending litigation, but hopefully Shohei's story ends up being accurate, because if not, this will damage his legacy at best and could destroy his career at worst.

With such a massive cultural and linguistic barrier, Ohtani's entire experience in the US was mediated through Mizuhara. Ohtani knew what Mizuahara told him, and trusted him to express what he told him in Japanese. We can't imagine how much of a barrier this is. Of course Ohtani had to trust Misuahara to translate everything he experienced, not just heard, said or read. Try visiting Japan and doing even the simplest transaction at a Starbucks and you'll understand how little Ohtani could have known when Mizuhara had chosen to mislead him about anything.

Yeah my uncle’s bookkeeper stole $5M from the company and my uncle didn’t know either. It’s easier than you think and it’s more common than you think.. let’s all be careful ❤

Something tells me E-pay had power of attorney. That guy was doing a lot more than just interpreting for Ohtani. It's a screwed up situation and I can see why people would be skeptical about it but I have my faith in Ohtani and the fact Ohtani is cooperating with the authorities while E-pay is in hiding speaks volumes too and evidence of him lying multiple times including what school he went to, work history, attending a casino school, etc. I just want the investigations to continue so we get the whole truth to fully clear this cloud that's hanging on Ohtani's head. It's bad enough he's been betrayed by a guy that he spent all of his adult life with for 12 years.

To prove innocent is much harder than proving guilty. Easiest way to prove Shohei’s innocence is proving guilty of Ippei.

We all know why everyone wants to take Ohtani down. Well... Some of you guys. 🤔🤔

After the fbi report that just came out now, ESPN owes shoehi an apology

I will not have an opinion on this until the investigation is finished and all the details are out.

Mr. Mizuhara, who is embroiled not only in gambling but also in suspicions of resume fraud, has faced increasing scrutiny. The same media outlet stated, "He was widely reported to have attended universities in the United States and worked for two MLB teams, but significant discrepancies have emerged in his background. Since this scandal broke, Mizuhara's situation appears to worsen with each passing day."

Shohei is innocent

Shohei didnt buy groceries without ippei. Almost all transactions were ippei approved, including the debts being paid off.

I find it funny how the interpreter didn’t bet on baseball like if he was a player himself

You dont need to walk into a bank to wire money. that's why most athletes have business managers that handle their money to do their transactions held at their managers' office. It's not like an athlete will be able to communicate with their circle about every transaction going on financially. That's part of the reason why an assistant, as in this case, the interpreter, was also part of Shohei's circle to handle the off the field activities as well. However, this has happened to a lot of athletes where their money does indeed get stolen from someone in their circle for their own gain

Assistant stolen money from their rich boss is more common than you think. And Ippei is like that to shohei, he's not only interpreter. He handling his business everyday.😂
When I worked as an interpreter, I had to assist the players on just about every aspect of their daily lives. These include: opening bank accounts, taking them to DMV to get licenses, and setting up utilities. I also carried their check books on the road for clubhouse dues.
Those who know his upbringing and personality know that he is an honest person.
Ohtani is completely innocent👍

Shannon needs to remember the fact that Shohei came to the states with no understanding of english whatsoever. So its not entirely crazy to think that Ippei helped him open these bank accounts and had access to them.

Okay Shannon, time to offer that apology, Unc!

If they had Stephen a smith on this topic he probably would’ve said something racist

Long time disagreeing with Jeff... today he hit a Grand Slam.

One of the most important values Japanese people treasure the most is honor. Hard to imagine these two going through this.

I believe Shohei. When I came to the US, i couldn’t speak English so I had my bilingual friend help me open my bank accounts. She was able to steal money from one of accounts if she wanted. I wasn’t rich like Shohei so she had no money to steal anyway from the account though lol.

Where's the Apology? Everyone at ESPN hiding in their parent's basement, afraid to show some decency and do the right thing. Smh

ESPN HATES OHTANI and are intentionally dragging him.

As someone who lived in Japan, they have to understand the Japanese culture first. That's why their arguments are quite ignorant.
1) Ippei is ~10 years older than Shohei. In Japanese culture, even though Shohei is the star, he also has some respect for Ippei as he is older.
2) Japanese have a trusting culture. That's why crime is low in Japan. However, that's also why it's easy to trick people.
3) Shohei can't read/speak English well. So it's even easier to trick him if he doesn't understand what's going on.
4) In Japan, people don't often check their bank balance compared to the US where there are many bank apps.

It’s not hard to wire money. All you need is the bank app on your phone. Most have a wire option

People want Ohtani to be guilty so bad

lol espn only talks about baseball when there’s drama involved

And the trend keeps going where a massive controversy is required for them to talk baseball. This is a football/basketball only show

Shannon being real right now!

Shannon Sharpe the financial security expert

The speculation about whether or not Ippei was named on Ohtani's account is stupid because it's very easily provable one way or the other. Either the documentation backing Ohtani's story exists or it doesn't. If it does, show it and clear his name so that everyone can move on. If it doesn't exist, that's a problem.

Hey Shannon: it’s called online banking 😂

As baseball fan I really don’t like that first take only talks about baseball when there is a controversial topic

ESPN APOLOGIZE TO OHTANI NOW

2 gambling scandals in 2 different sports at the sametime...

I can imagine that it's difficult for most Americans who do not know Ohtani's history and upbringing in Japan, including how he was even at the Angels to believe fully what Ohtani explained is believable and truth. But as a Japanese who have followed him in Japan and as he moved to MLB, I can attest that what he said is 100% believable.
Ohtani since he was a young boy was very focused with specific goals set and worked diligently on the path to achieving them. His parents and especially his mother was instrumental in providing the support he needed so that he can focus 100% on his tasks (the baseball). This is why if you are a baseball fan in Japan, and this is a very well known story in Japan, everyone knows that Ohtani's mother took 100% control of his money (income and expenses) and the set up was simple for Ohtani in that she gave him monthly allowance of very little money. Ohtani used team dormitory and team meals 100% to focus on baseball. This is how he lived in Japan as a NPB player era. Ohtani is known to be frugal and does not spend money like normal pro athletes do. He is not interested in fashion, clothing, shoes, cars, basically not interested in tangible material stuff. Again, this is very well known in Japan about him.
Ippei Mizuhara was smart in that he put himself in the position with Ohtani to take care of all of his personal duties out side of baseball so that Ohtani can just focus on baseball as he did in Japan. The identical set up that he had with his mother. Ippei was a perfect man for it and Ohtani trusted him 100%. So in this context, it is very plausible and most likely the case that Ippei had this role (similar to the role Ohtani's mother had in Japan) for Ohtani since he became MLB player. Ippei is not just a translator for Ohtani. Ippei was essentially Ohtani's personal caretaker, personal assistant, consultant, butler, driver, shopper who took care of all Ohtani's needs to live in USA. He therefore had access to Ohtani's bank accounts and was probably helping him on setting up the payables, bills for his expenses etc etc. Don't forget, Ohtani has no experience managing his own money in the past, he is also oblivious to all the living expenses especially in the USA. Ippei was the perfect friend and paid worker for him to do these tasks. In this set up, Ippei can easily transfer Ohtani's money, even 4.5 million without Ohtani knowing (again, Ohtani has been very naive, trusting and indifferent about money matters, except that he knows that he has been getting 50 to 75 million per year on endorsement and baseball contracts even in the past years, so 4.5 million may not be so significant in this light and could not be noticeable if he was trusting Ippei to manage). Agent is there to deal with the baseball contracts and he is not Japanese so he would not have known his personal contents. This is why Ippei is said to have been paid upwards of $400,000 per year to work for Ohtani, where as a regular personal translator working 9 to 5 is paid $150,000ish for a pro-athlete.
Don't forget that Ippei was in between all communications between Ohtani and his team members, including the team management, spokesperson, lawyers, essentially every non-Japanese speaker on this side, which is everyone except Yamamoto and Ippei. Ippei was in a perfect position to manipulate all information and communications.
So you guys take a rest on speculating and jumping to conclusion about Ohtani in this situation. Eventually the investigation will shed a better light on what I am talking

does it mention it is made via online transfer? because most banks now has online banking app and you dont need to be the owner of the account in order to make the transfer, what you need is just the login account and security code.

Bro, got that Ok Computer vinyl

Otani is innocent.

Umm he could have said he was Shohei And you don't have to go the bank physically to wire money.

Why did ESPN interviewed Ippey, not Skohei? The money was sent from Shoheis account. They should have interviewed Shohei Otani in the first place. They made a big mistake, which caused a big mess. Now, Shohei suffers from the consequential of this mistake.

Nothing they can say that will make me believe that Shohei had no idea that money was being transferred out of his bank account!

I hope First Take talks more baseball. Not only on Wednesday's.

imagine having so much money that $4.5 M can go "missing" and you don't even know.

I live by these words DTA

Shannon is old school. He may not know people can process wires electronically. Either by email or online.

His right hand man is taking the fall for him

Jeff out here Towing the line... 😂

If the interpreter stole the money, then he would have faked his identity to transfer the money. He's not going to say, "Chase Bank? Hi, this is Ippei Mizuhara, and I want to transfer $250,000 to a bookie without Ohtani's permission. I know his PIN numbers."

i remember being billed for 2 netflix accounts only to notice it after a year. does that make me stupid as well. I'm saying this this can happen to anyone

He probably owes some Yukuza mob boss

ESPN once again playing the Clean Up roll.

lets heard that 90 minute interview with Ippei.

Ohtani's new interpreter missed many of critical details(specially timing of the events) and nuance of what Ohtani said, the interpreter was rather simplified in his interpretation and much more stressed on the fact that Ohtani has never involved any gambling nor financing of that sort. I trust the interpreter is very good what he does, but the subject matter requires more detailed interpretation to convey what Ohtani explained. Though I understand that it is hard to deliver perfect interpretation immediately at the spot. Ohtani was very clear and articulating the order of the events (the chronicle of the event) despite his emotional distress of learning what his trusted person for many years as his own family or a best friend actually has done. Ohtani said that it's beyond he could express in words. He was very sincere throughout the conference. Ohtani said how he learned about this: 1. right after the first game when there was press conference occurred, he didn't understand what was exactly spoken between Ippei Mizuhara and the press because it was all in English. At the time Mizuhara told Ohtani he would explain about it after they went back to the hotel. Ohtani didn't get whole details but sensed something was seriously not right. 2. when they got back to hotel they had meeting and Mizuhara told Ohtani what happened, that's how Ohtani first time he learned about what happened. That's when Ohtani learned about what Mizuhara has done first time. Then he contacted his representatives. I was hoping that there wouldn't be some misunderstanding from only English speaking audiences because some details and the timing were not translated. Ohtani really trusted Mizuhara, I sensed that Ohtani's sadness was more than what we could imagine. And I agree with @trevorcarey3997: I just saw an interview on Jeffrey J. Hall show he said, Is it hard to believe that Ippei Mizuhara had access to Shohei Ohtani's bank account? No. It's quite plausible and normal, says Katsunori Kojima, a former interpreter for the Mets/Giants. He handled financial transactions himself for players because of the trust and the schedule they have.

Some people suspect that Shohei Otani used Ippei as a scapegoat to get away with the crime, but that goes too far. His stats are such that he is said to be a one-in-a-century talent in the major leagues. That's the answer. A player with such a miraculous track record would not waste his time gambling. He's not like Pete Rose, and he's one of the best pitchers in the world. That's the answer.

Jessica brings up an interesting point, however if I were the Dodgers Org. who is on the hook for 800mil to Shohei, I’m keeping it internal to collect the facts to protect their interest first. That is why they didn’t say anything to him at jump.

Wait, so some people in the team already knew that FBI or somebody were looking for something to do with Ohtani gambling possibility prior to Ippei confession to the team correct? Then why Ohtani didn't know?

He knew as Ippei had lied to OOTANI and without his authority ippei had accessed Ohtani’s bank account
and wire some dollars ..ended up with draining all of Ohtani’s money ..that was all Ohtani’s Shohei has been worked very hard and earned honestly

He's already trying to clean it up . Baseball must of got to him. They are already starting to defend him.

So what ESPN lawyer say?

1:28 It's actually not that hard. Banks like Charles Schwabe has a 100K wire transfer daily limit and can be increased for high net worth individuals. Ippei just needs access to Ohtani's online banking account, he doesn't need POA.

If what he says is true why hasn’t he filed a criminal complaint and why hasn’t he sued the bank for not protecting his banked assets. The only reason is that by taking either action the police have a reason to investigate and the bank is entitled to defend themselves.

it wasn't no one told Shohei. It's because "Ippei IS Shohei Ohtani." Ippei was the speaker of Shohei. Remember, Shohei isn't good at English. (At least not good enough dealing with complicate situations. ) Anything he communicated with other team members was prob thru Ippei. You want to tell Shohei something, you told Ippei and ask him to translate or to talk to Shohei.

man...must be nice to be able to ignore you're missing 4.5m in your bank account like it's nothing

shohei the money!

I don't think Ippei was given access to Shohei's accounts. But since they spent so much time together, Ippei was probably able to somehow get Shohei's banking information without Shohei knowing. Maybe his bank account password etc. He had so much trust in him, that he probably didn't feel the need to lock away things that he should have.
WRT to what Shannon said about the bank calling him. They probably did call Shohei about the transfers, but it probably was Ippei who answered the phone and approved them. The Bank wouldn't know it wasn't Shohei on the phone. Shohei couldn't speak much English, so he probably had Ippei answering the phone for him.

I think Ohtani is innocent and Colin Cowherd has a compelling argument.

Shannon Sharpe must have learned the word “ Power of Attorney “ right before this show. He kept repeating on it throughout his talk. He makes sense, though, if Ohtani was an athlete from USA. With a little of insight of how Ohtani came and lived in this country while focusing on playing baseball and what kind of roles Ippei Mizihara played in this dynamic relationship, Jeff makes a whole lot of sense.

I thought we can just transfer money using some kind of bank App these days?

Shohei is innocent. Shohei truly relied and believed in Ippei while living in foreign country and not fully understanding English. For this reason he was betrayed and lost 4.5 million from a liar. Let the investigation continue on how Ippei was able to transfer the money from Ohtani's account. This is something only Ippei knows. Shannon said it is impossible. Well Shannon now learn from Ippei how it was possible.

Oh please

The FBI and IRS are investigating bookmakers Bowyer and Mizuhara, as well as people associated with the Angels baseball team.

Something stinks in Dodgertown

The guy on the left is so emotional about the person who is the victim of the crime saying he should know how the criminal stole his money, lacking the ability to empathise and guess how it was like to experience such a huge pain, just keep repeating why why why… he should should and should etc.it’s police’s job to find out and better not to be reviled.
What do you want to do with it anyway..?

Dang this show is still around?

I don't take a side and I don't know to what extent Ohtani was involved but for sure MLB has to get to the bottom of this. To find out if A. There was betting on baseball and B. The possibility of throwing games. This was an extraordinary amount of money not chump change. The angels organization are probably wondering too hey this guy played for us for years how deep does this thing go?

“Ohtani didn’t explain how Ippei accessed his account“
Ask Ippei, not Ohtani.😂
Can you explain how the criminal stole money when it disappeared from your account?

1:28 Exactly, I understand Mizuhara is the translator and he can understand English. And it most definitely is a possibility that he did it but that would have to almost guarantee Ohtani has given him power over his money along side him which is possibly too. This is so sketchy and the Redacted comments make this more of a situation then it would of been

I’m with Unc on this one. There’s no way that Ippei had access to that money without Ohtani signing off on it first.

I don’t know celebrities get millions of dollars stole from them all the time and are clueless. Whether it be from a friend and manager or something where there is a way there is a wheel you don’t have to be power of attorney you just have to be conniving.

Anythings that needed some English skill went thru Ippei. That includes daily errands, paying bills, donating to charity, and MANAGING BANK ACCOUNTS. He came to US when he was 24 years old, well past the learning age of a new language.
If he is a baseball nut that he only thinks about baseball 24/7 and doesn’t have time to learn English, and HE CANNOT READ WRITINGS ON THE BANK WEBPAGES, then he has a long time friend who is like a family that he totally trusts him, is it so hard think he lets him manage the bank accounts?

1:14