MLB star Shohei Ohtani says he never bet on sports, ‘shocked’ by scandal
Shohei Ohtani, who has a $1 billion deal with the Dodgers, has made his first comments about the scandal involving his interpreter.
American Sports
Don't miss out on the headlines from American Sports. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Shohei Ohtani expressed shock and sadness over the betting scandal involving his longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, while vehemently denying any knowledge of Mizuhara’s debt and affirming that he “never bet on baseball or any other sports”.
“All of this has been a complete lie,” Ohtani said through his interpreter, as reported by the New York Post.
Watch an average of 7 regular season MLB games each week plus All-Star, Postseason and the World Series LIVE on ESPN via Kayo. Sign up today!
Ohtani read a prepared statement to reporters on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) at Dodgers Stadium before an exhibition game against the Angels.
He declined to answer questions from the media in his first public comments since his now-former interpreter was linked to alleged illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer and is alleged to have gambling debts of $4.5 million.
“Up until a couple of days ago, I did not know this was happening,” Ohtani said through his new interpreter, Will Ireton.
“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.”
He added: “I do want to make it clear that I never bet on sports or have wilfully sent money to the bookmaker.”
Ohtani said he didn’t know about the gambling debt until the Dodgers held a team meeting after their first game against the Padres last week in Seoul, South Korea.
That’s when the pieces started to come together for the Dodgers star, whose lawyers said last week he was “the victim of a massive theft”.
Monday marked the first comments Ohtani has made since the murky story came out last week about Mizuhara losing millions of dollars to Bowyer and the funds getting transferred out of Ohtani’s account to cover the debts.
The Los Angeles Times and ESPN broke the wild story last Wednesday, reporting that Mizuhara had been accused of stealing “millions” from Ohtani.
Mizuhara has not been charged with any crimes.
Later that same day, ESPN added to the already bizarre story, reporting that an Ohtani spokesperson had said the Dodgers slugger had transferred $4.5 million to Bowyer to cover Mizuhara’s debts and made Mizuhara available to the outlet for an on-the-record interview.
Then, however, Ohtani’s camp “disavowed” Mizuhara’s account of what had happened.
ESPN later reported that the mixup had apparently occurred because Ohtani’s camp had been relying on Mizuhara’s version of events before realising what had happened.
Ohtani confirmed on Monday that Mizuhara had been trying to mislead him and his team and said that he “started to feel that there was something amiss” when Mizuhara was addressing the team, despite Ohtani not having a translator with him at the time.
Ohtani and Mizuhara met one-on-one later that day at his hotel and that’s when the scope of what was going on really set in, the two-way star said.
“That was when I found out that he had a massive debt,” Ohtani said about the sit-down. “It was revealed to me during that meeting that Ippei admitted he was sending money using my account to the bookmaker.
“At that moment, it was an absurd thing that was happening and I contacted my representatives at that point.
“When I was finally able to talk to my representatives, that’s when my representatives found out that Ippei had been lying the whole time. That’s when I started contacting the Dodgers and my lawyers.
“And the Dodgers and the lawyers at that moment found out also as well that they had been lied to.”
Mizuhara also worked as Ohtani’s translator during his Angels tenure and the two had been close friends in addition to their working relationship.
Parts of Mizuhara’s past have come into question, as The Athletic reported he did not attend UC Riverside in college, as his old Angels bio said, nor did he work for the Red Sox, as previous media reports stated.
Mizuhara told ESPN that he bet on sports such as soccer and football but never baseball.
“I’m very saddened and shocked that someone I trusted has done this,” Ohtani said about Mizuhara.
Ohtani signed a 10-year deal with the Dodgers worth US$700 million ($1 billion) this off-season, with $680 million of the money deferred until after the end of the contract.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as MLB star Shohei Ohtani says he never bet on sports, ‘shocked’ by scandal
Swift-Kelce photo could ‘break the internet’
A new photo of Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce is quickly going viral and for a very sweet reason.
‘Ted Lasso in reverse’: Anonymous Aussies pulling NFL strings
It’s the biggest show in world sport and Australians have been playing key on-field roles in the NFL for years. Yet as SHANNON GILL finds out, there’s a bunch of Aussies playing crucial roles off the field as well.