Ohtani controversy

[owbc]

 

This is a pretty juicy one. The story being given right now is that Ohtani paid $4.5 million to cover Ippei's gambling debts.

It's already a bad look if that's all there is to it, but there will likely be more to come. 

 

[Brewcrew82]

21 minutes ago, owbc said:

 

This is a pretty juicy one. The story being given right now is that Ohtani paid $4.5 million to cover Ippei's gambling debts.

It's already a bad look if that's all there is to it, but there will likely be more to come. 

 

Something tells me this isn't even the beginning of this story.

[bigred]

I have a VERY difficult time believing Ohtani isn't mixed in with this. Ohtani isn't going to give his interpreter personal access to his $$$, to have free reign to gamble with. So Ohtani HAD to know this was going on. 

[duewizard]

Who knows what comes of this, but MLB does take gambling seriously. I'm sure that the punishment, if any, will not be anything like Pete Rose got, but interesting to see how this develops.

[JosephC]

1 hour ago, duewizard said:

Who knows what comes of this, but MLB does take gambling seriously. I'm sure that the punishment, if any, will not be anything like Pete Rose got, but interesting to see how this develops.

Only illegal gambling.  If gambling is to be done, they want sure that it is done through a legal sportsbook (that MLB is partnered with), so the owners can profit from it.  This after 100 years of saying no player can be involved in gambling because it may affect the integrity of the game.

[markedman5]

Something smells here…….no reason to gamble with an illegal bookie unless you are trying to hide something…………somebody didn’t want a trail of what he was doing and it is hard to imagine a circumstance where an interpreter had access to millions of dollars of Ohtani’s money.

This will indeed be interesting to follow……..

[RedStickBrew]

[Axman59]

How about we let the facts develop before engaging in reckless speculation and accusations? Oh wait, this is the internet...

[Fear The Chorizo]

Guess trying to earn your meal money under the table with some shady dealings with your interpreter and sports gambling is what happens when you opt to defer 95% of your salary for the next decade.  MLB should suspend Ohtani for 10 years until his annual takehome pay exceeds that of the amount that was allegedly "stolen" from him.

At this point, I have no idea if the above needs to be in blue or not....which makes it all the more glorious after the Dodgers' offseason, IMO.

[Axman59]

58 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

At this point, I have no idea if the above needs to be in blue or not....which makes it all the more glorious after the Dodgers' offseason, IMO.

This is the ugly side of fandom. Sick.

[duewizard]

2 hours ago, JosephC said:

Only illegal gambling.  If gambling is to be done, they want sure that it is done through a legal sportsbook (that MLB is partnered with), so the owners can profit from it.  This after 100 years of saying no player can be involved in gambling because it may affect the integrity of the game.

And I think that is the point. Is there any foul play Shohei is involved in? We'll see

[Fear The Chorizo]

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Something smells here…….no reason to gamble with an illegal bookie unless you are trying to hide something…………somebody didn’t want a trail of what he was doing and it is hard to imagine a circumstance where an interpreter had access to millions of dollars of Ohtani’s money.

This will indeed be interesting to follow……..

Yep...guy was getting paid close to a half million a season so it's not like he's a pauper - but the reason he'd be able to rack up that kind of gambling debt with anyone is because his accounts weren't the ones being used as credit.  Stories be changing every time people are having to open up their mouths despite what appears to be a pretty solid paper trail of where funds ultimately came from to make payments is a pretty big red flag.

 

 

 

 

[BrewerFan]

3 hours ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Yep...guy was getting paid close to a half million a season so it's not like he's a pauper - but the reason he'd be able to rack up that kind of gambling debt with anyone is because his accounts weren't the ones being used as credit.  Stories be changing every time people are having to open up their mouths despite what appears to be a pretty solid paper trail of where funds ultimately came from to make payments is a pretty big red flag.

The one thing I've learned in my life...coming from one side of the family that was...not poor, but they didn't have much. No retirement, owned a modest home, lived on SS and most of the family members on that side were near the poverty line... On the other side in which my Grandfather was incredibly successful and started a business that became a huge corporation(when I say started, he was the 1st employee and owned about 3% in what became a billion dollar company(though when he got out it was worth...much-much less). In any event, one side was very wealthy, the other was not.

It didn't matter. My Uncle who had a 500K salary in 1998 just out of pure nepotism, got so far over his head in debt, he had to have my Grandpa bail him out.

On the other side, my Uncle was a Cop in a rural area...was injured in a bad accident, and his wife not once, not twice, but THRICE got them into over 100K in CC debt.

One person can look at 500K and say 'I'd be able to live on that and save 350K a year,' and another is...hanging out with professional athletes and has expensive habits(and is an idiot). 

 

That's my whole take. Not gonna bury Ohtani when I don't really have reason to believe he did anything wrong here.

[bigred]

8 hours ago, JosephC said:

Only illegal gambling.  If gambling is to be done, they want sure that it is done through a legal sportsbook (that MLB is partnered with), so the owners can profit from it.  This after 100 years of saying no player can be involved in gambling because it may affect the integrity of the game.

Exactly! It's mostly narcissistic hypocrisy/double standards. The "do as I say, not as I do" people that make up the "rules". 🤦‍♂️

[owbc]

Between this and Yamamoto getting lit up in his debut, it’s a pretty rough start for the new era of Dodgers baseball. 

Fans of the other 29 teams will be enjoying every second of this before they right the ship and still win 105 games. 

[tmwiese55]

To the comments above and the deferred salary so needing shady ways to get money.  He gets like 65 mil per year in advertising money, thats why he didn't care about deferring the money. He has no need to do anything shady.   Doesn't mean he didn't, but there is no financial reason for him to do so.   If I had to guess, his interpreter/friend boned him here and put him in a bad spot.   But we'll see 

[Team Canada]

6 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

Not gonna bury Ohtani when I don't really have reason to believe he did anything wrong here.

Agree, there's nothing so far to indicate that this is anything other than an individual with a gambling addition who happens to work for someone who is insanely wealthy and willing to pay off his gambling debt.

[owbc]

3 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

Agree, there's nothing so far to indicate that this is anything other than an individual with a gambling addition who happens to work for someone who is insanely wealthy and willing to pay off his gambling debt.

I agree as well, but the key distinction is that Ippei isn't any regular employee -- Ohtani and him were literally attached at the hip to the extent that Ohtani had that clause in his contract that he could opt out if the Dodgers ever fired Ippei. Although people hide major stuff from their best friends all of the time so it's still possible that Ohtani didn't know anything until Ippei was in deep trouble. 

This is also only a small preview of what the proliferation of sports gambling is going to bring to major sports. It seems like the NBA is going to be the first to reach the "find out" phase based on recent news stories. 

 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, owbc said:

I agree as well, but the key distinction is that Ippei isn't any regular employee -- Ohtani and him were literally attached at the hip to the extent that Ohtani had that clause in his contract that he could opt out if the Dodgers ever fired Ippei. Although people hide major stuff from their best friends all of the time so it's still possible that Ohtani didn't know anything until Ippei was in deep trouble. 

This is also only a small preview of what the proliferation of sports gambling is going to bring to major sports. It seems like the NBA is going to be the first to reach the "find out" phase based on recent news stories. 

Ippei was not one of the employees that could trigger an opt out. That clause only applies to Mark Walter (Chairman) and Andrew Friedman (POBO).

Edit: Source - AP News: https://apnews.com/article/shohei-otani-dodgers-3fe44e39efc42674f75b5233cc01b149

[homer]

The odd thing to me is how the story changed so drastically within a day. At first, it was Ohtani helping a dude with gambling debts and then a few hours later after Ohtanis lawyers got involved it was a dude who stole millions from Ohtani.

 

 

 

 

[markedman5]

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

24 minutes ago, homer said:

The odd thing to me is how the story changed so drastically within a day. At first, it was Ohtani helping a dude with gambling debts and then a few hours later after Ohtanis lawyers got involved it was a dude who stole millions from Ohtani.

 

 

 

 

 

This is 100% my point...something is very fishy when as soon as lawyers looking at factual records start making statements on behalf of their clients are the polar opposite to that of the translator who has long been ID'd as like a "brother" to Ohtani, and the Dodgers instantly fire this guy despite plenty of people apparently knowing about this looming issue for months.

 

And my statement earlier in this post was intended to be sarcastic and cheeky - I know Ohtani makes plenty of money to not have to worry about living expenses despite deferring basically all of his MLB salary in this contract until after he retires.  Guys with his kind of income/net worth are the ones who wouldn't bat an eye racking up a handful of million in gambling debts.  It starts looking pretty bad when all of a sudden you find out there's an investigation going on about an illegal gambling setup that you might have some form of link to through a middle man, and then try to scrabble together a "loan/debt repayment" plan under the premise of bailing a friend out from his own debt...the fact that was the initial statement by his interpreter only for it to be instantly turned around as him stealing this money somehow through wire transfers after everyone lawyered up is what makes this story incredibly juicy, IMO.

[bigred]

1 hour ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

 

This is 100% my point...something is very fishy when as soon as lawyers looking at factual records start making statements on behalf of their clients are the polar opposite to that of the translator who has long been ID'd as like a "brother" to Ohtani, and the Dodgers instantly fire this guy despite plenty of people apparently knowing about this looming issue for months.

 

And my statement earlier in this post was intended to be sarcastic and cheeky - I know Ohtani makes plenty of money to not have to worry about living expenses despite deferring basically all of his MLB salary in this contract until after he retires.  Guys with his kind of income/net worth are the ones who wouldn't bat an eye racking up a handful of million in gambling debts.  It starts looking pretty bad when all of a sudden you find out there's an investigation going on about an illegal gambling setup that you might have some form of link to through a middle man, and then try to scrabble together a "loan/debt repayment" plan under the premise of bailing a friend out from his own debt...the fact that was the initial statement by his interpreter only for it to be instantly turned around as him stealing this money somehow through wire transfers after everyone lawyered up is what makes this story incredibly juicy, IMO.

In today's world, records aren't always "factual". Just saying. Governments, businesses, people in general, etc, fudge records quite often. 

[MrTPlush]

Guessing they want to backtrack and try to throw the dude no one cares about under a bus and hope no one cares. If Ohtani helped him pay of sports betting and that of which with an illegal bookie....I have to imagine somewhere in that tangled mess Ohtani did something either illegal or against MLB rules. 

[wiguy94]

33 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

Guessing they want to backtrack and try to throw the dude no one cares about under a bus and hope no one cares. If Ohtani helped him pay of sports betting and that of which with an illegal bookie....I have to imagine somewhere in that tangled mess Ohtani did something either illegal or against MLB rules. 

Yeah I am pretty sure the original story would end up with Ohtani committing a crime, so of course the lawyers would come in and make sure that story doesn't air.