In shocking news out of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter over concerning gambling and theft allegations.
According to ESPN, the allegations surround his interpreter, Ippei Mizhuara, and the amount of $4.5 million in wire transfers that were taken out of Shohei Ohtani’s bank account.
“Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime friend and interpreter for Ohtani, incurred the gambling debts to a Southern California bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation,” Tisha Thompson of ESPN said. “How he came to lose his job started with reporters asking questions bout the wire transfers.”
The details compiled appear to suggest that Mizuhara gave the game away while trying to talk to reporters. According to ESPN, a spokesperson “disavowed” the interpreter’s account of the story and later said they “discovered that Shohei Ohtani has been the victim of a massive theft.”
Mizuhara plainly stated that Ohtani “had zero involvement in betting” and that he “will never do sports betting ever again.” Sometimes it takes serious consequences to course correct, it seem.
Sports gambling and its sordidness has become a persistent topic in today’s world. It’s never particularly great when wires get crossed and it gets involved like this to this degree. Many have predicted that a big gambling scandal will go down, and some “smaller scale” ones have already happened.
Nonetheless, the MLB world had much to say about this situation.
Gambling keeps getting closer and closer to ruining the integrity of sports as more and more of sports is being funded by gambling. Snake is about to eat itself.
Ouroboros soon come. https://t.co/9sRLxS0Fsv
— nah. 🇻🇨 (@FEELZ_____) March 20, 2024
So they say Ippei lied when being questioned about betting & they also say that Ippei placed bets directly with Boywer. No details on HOW the theft of millions of dollars occurred. So did he rob Ohtani to pay for his gambling habit? If so, we think this is the 1st time or just… https://t.co/lIVZcAcXK5
— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) March 20, 2024
So very glad gambling has become so interwoven into sports that we get nuts stories like this. https://t.co/wjYEGt3K2d
— #Rake (@SteveCarterPP) March 20, 2024
This would devastate me and rock me to my core though? Having someone who for years acted as both a companion and aide you relied on extremely heavily as you navigated stardom in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language and they steal millions of dollars of your money?? https://t.co/KH5co4aC5f
— Danielle Blake (@abradacabla) March 20, 2024
Fire up the conspiracy theories on this one. https://t.co/biWmxvbqL6
— Ryan Gutierrez (@RGutie7) March 20, 2024
[ESPN]
