Shohei Ohtani‘s former interpreter initially advised a reporter that the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger had agreed to cowl his large gambling debt, in accordance with a newly launched audio recording. But the interpreter reversed course lower than 24 hours later, admitting that he had lied.
The interview, which federal authorities later stated “created an international incident,” is featured in “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” a new six-episode series from 30 for 30 Podcasts. Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter who stated he and Ohtani had been “like brothers,” initially advised ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson in a 90-minute interview that Ohtani helped him repay money owed to an unlawful bookmaker. Mizuhara detailed how he began betting with the bookie after assembly him at a poker sport and described sinking deeper into debt and ultimately approaching Ohtani for assist.
“I asked him if he could pay my debt off. He had to give it some thought,” Mizuhara stated within the first interview.
When requested why Ohtani did not merely give him the cash, Mizuhara stated initially that Ohtani did not belief him to not gamble with it. “He wanted to make sure it’s going back to the debts,” he stated.
But lower than 24 hours later, the Dodgers fired Mizuhara, and Ohtani’s attorneys stated the famous person was the sufferer of “massive theft.” In a second interview, Mizuhara recanted a lot of what he had advised Thompson.
Months later, Mizuhara pleaded guilty to federal costs of financial institution fraud and submitting a false tax return. He admitted to stealing practically $17 million from the Japanese famous person and is serving a 57-month prison sentence.
At Mizuhara’s sentencing listening to in February 2025, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell pointed to the ESPN interview as the explanation some had been reluctant to just accept federal authorities’ findings within the case.
“No matter how many times the government stands up and tells the world that Mr. Ohtani is a victim and that there is no evidence that he was ever involved in the gambling, people still refuse to believe it,” Mitchell stated.
In the podcast collection, ESPN revisits the gambling scandal that ensnared Mizuhara. Among different new particulars within the podcast:
• Mizuhara’s childhood associates remembered what the longer term interpreter was like in highschool. One recalled that Mizuhara cherished the Dodgers due to Hideo Nomo however switched his allegiance to the Seattle Mariners when Ichiro Suzuki got here to MLB.
• Mizuhara’s bookie recalled the primary time he noticed a wire switch with Ohtani’s identify are available to his operation. “That was the holy s— moment,” he stated.
• A federal agent who investigated the case described texts between Ohtani and Mizuhara as “vanilla.” He stated he by no means noticed any point out of betting between the 2.
