OT: Ohtani bet on baseball?

[BadNewsBarnes]

It would be worse if he was a Yankee...

[MrDollarBills]

Ohtani’s camp put out two contradictory statements on whether he gave the $4.5M to the interpreter.

Also, do know for certain that it wasn’t baseball that was bet on? I’m just asking for you Ohtani fans out there.

The contradictory statements are the problem.

I think that Ohtani's camp had no clue that wiring money to a bookie that is off the books runs afoul of federal law.

Once someone, most likely Dodgers Legal, told them that they f*cked up, they switched up and said that Translator guy stole the money.

Again. Ohtani's the one who put himself at risk by wiring that money. You can't play with that kinda stuff man, the IRS wants their piece.

So now in his harshest statement regarding his translator that he stole money to pay back the bookie in increments of 500k, 9 times?!

Any rich people here, can let me know if y'all don't look at your bank statements or have a financial guru for this?! Just in case if I win the billion dollar powerball.

Shohei can say whatever he wants to the media about this. I don't buy it, but that's his story.

However, he'd better make sure that whatever he told the FBI was the 100% truth. Because they will find out if he's lying, if they don't know already.

[Jeffrey]

The contradictory statements are the problem.

I think that Ohtani's camp had no clue that wiring money to a bookie that is off the books runs afoul of federal law.

Once someone, most likely Dodgers Legal, told them that they f*cked up, they switched up and said that Translator guy stole the money.

Again. Ohtani's the one who put himself at risk by wiring that money. You can't play with that kinda stuff man, the IRS wants their piece.

So now in his harshest statement regarding his translator that he stole money to pay back the bookie in increments of 500k, 9 times?!

Any rich people here, can let me know if y'all don't look at your bank statements or have a financial guru for this?! Just in case if I win the billion dollar powerball.

Shohei can say whatever he wants to the media about this. I don't buy it, but that's his story.

However, he'd better make sure that whatever he told the FBI was the 100% truth. Because they will find out if he's lying, if they don't know already.

He can't wire or go to the bank account and get 4.5m like that. Unless this sh.it was on Zelle LOL

[KnicksGadfly]

Apparently Ohtani’s agent is this guy named Nez Balelo, who helped Ryan Braun overturn his steroid suspension (Braun was later found out to be guilty I think). But yea, Balelo apparently was doing shady stuff to cover up for Braun.

[HarthorneWingo]

There's a reason that Manfred has said he doesn't want to continue on as the Commissioner once his current contract expires. In the unlikely scenario where Ohtani is found to be involved in wrong doing, it's going to set the baseball word on fire (not in a good way).

I wonder if the fallout would effect Japanese players coming here to play?

[MrDollarBills]

So now in his harshest statement regarding his translator that he stole money to pay back the bookie in increments of 500k, 9 times?!

Any rich people here, can let me know if y'all don't look at your bank statements or have a financial guru for this?! Just in case if I win the billion dollar powerball.

Shohei can say whatever he wants to the media about this. I don't buy it, but that's his story.

However, he'd better make sure that whatever he told the FBI was the 100% truth. Because they will find out if he's lying, if they don't know already.

He can't wire or go to the bank account and get 4.5m like that. Unless this sh.it was on Zelle LOL

Right. The story sounds so bogus.

[HarthorneWingo]

When it becomes clear to all of the concerned parties that they have a “We have a problem” moment, then the best thing that you can do for your client is do engage in damage control and “damage control” means not lying about what you do did. He needs to fess-up about the entire thing and fully cooperate with law enforcement in order to save his credibility and possibly his career.

[knicks94]

People arguing that Ohtani should be arrested or punished because of his involvement in a federal crime are overlooking the fact that the law rarely applies to the rich and famous the way that it does to regular working class citizens. Ohtani has just as much of a chance of being heavily disciplined as Prince Andrew has in serving prison time.

[Luv those Knicks]

This is very wrong as far as what the findings are so far, but people love to run with conspiracies.

There wasn't any baseball bets that were found (which is what caused Pete Rose's bans), Ippei's entire resume has had holes poked in it in terms of where he graduated (UC Riverside), and all of the bets are very weird unless Shohei is a huge closet NBA and college football fan whilst never showing any penchant of interest in gambling in his past while Ippei has.

Basically, he could still get in trouble for if he knew anything about Ippei's dealings, but as far as the whole "he groomed him to be the fall guy!" has nothing to it, at least right now.

My question:

How did that wire transfer happen without Ohtani's participation?

To wire transfer that amount of money comes with a lot of hurdles.

My gut feeling is that Ohtani knows more than he claims and actually did wire the money personally. The feds probably already know the truth so if he thinks that he can lie to wash his hands of this, he is sorely mistaken.

I don't know what happened, though I think your wire transfer argument is the strongest argument made so far.

That said, to me, this feels like something where the lie might work and this will be glossed over, like steroids were for so long.

[Woodsanity]

This would be wild if he was in on this. He got a 700m contract for 10 years. Whats the point of doing this? If he is involved he is an idiot.

[MrDollarBills]

This would be wild if he was in on this. He got a 700m contract for 10 years. Whats the point of doing this? If he is involved he is an idiot.

He is involved since it was coming directly from his account, but the feds have to prove or disprove that he wasn't the one wiring money from his account.

[MrDollarBills]

This is very wrong as far as what the findings are so far, but people love to run with conspiracies.

There wasn't any baseball bets that were found (which is what caused Pete Rose's bans), Ippei's entire resume has had holes poked in it in terms of where he graduated (UC Riverside), and all of the bets are very weird unless Shohei is a huge closet NBA and college football fan whilst never showing any penchant of interest in gambling in his past while Ippei has.

Basically, he could still get in trouble for if he knew anything about Ippei's dealings, but as far as the whole "he groomed him to be the fall guy!" has nothing to it, at least right now.

My question:

How did that wire transfer happen without Ohtani's participation?

To wire transfer that amount of money comes with a lot of hurdles.

My gut feeling is that Ohtani knows more than he claims and actually did wire the money personally. The feds probably already know the truth so if he thinks that he can lie to wash his hands of this, he is sorely mistaken.

I don't know what happened, though I think your wire transfer argument is the strongest argument made so far.

That said, to me, this feels like something where the lie might work and this will be glossed over, like steroids were for so long.

All depends on what the feds find out regarding his involvement. If he is an innocent victim like he claims the facts will exonerate him. I am just highly skeptical that he wasn't aware of what was happening.

Regarding MLB, they just want this to go away so they're praying that the feds can't prove he was the one wiring the money.