Shohei Ohtani is trying to clarify the timeline when it comes to him and his former interpreter.
The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar gave a prepared statement to the media on Monday. It was the first time Ohtani had spoken publicly since the scandal involving ex-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara (and Mizuhara’s alleged theft of millions from Ohtani to pay off an illegal bookie) broke.
Ohtani said that he first learned about Mizuhara’s gambling problem in the clubhouse with the rest of his Dodgers teammates when Mizuhara spoke to them in a team meeting after their first Seoul Series game in South Korea.
Prior reports had revealed that Mizuhara told the Dodgers in the clubhouse that day that a story was about to break and that it was all his fault because he had a gambling addiction.
During Monday’s media session, Ohtani said that he spoke with Mizuhara personally at the team hotel after the meeting. Mizuhara would admit to stealing money and paying it to the illegal bookmaker during their one-on-one talk at the hotel, Ohtani said.
Ohtani then contacted his representatives at that point. He stressed though that he had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling prior to that team meeting (per Sam Blum of The Athletic).
Earlier in the media session, Ohtani also addressed the claim that he himself was supposedly the one with the gambling problem and that Mizuhara was just taking the fall for him.
When the scandal first broke, Mizuhara notably told the media that Ohtani had helped him transfer the funds to the illegal bookie (which would have indicated that Ohtani had much earlier knowledge of Mizuhara’s gambling).
But Mizuhara then abruptly changed his story to say he had instead stolen the funds (some $4.5M) from Ohtani without Ohtani’s knowledge. Ohtani confirmed on Monday as well that Mizuhara’s initial claim about Ohtani’s personal involvement in the funds transfer was a “complete lie.”
At best, Ohtani comes away looking incredibly naive that he allowed Mizuhara unfettered access to his many millions of dollars without any knowledge of what Mizuhara was doing with them.
The ongoing MLB investigation into both Ohtani and Mizuhara will ultimately determine though just how culpable Ohtani was in this whole situation.
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