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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 20: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers appears to be like on previous to the sport towards the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 20, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers 10-7. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
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In 2024, shortly after he made his skilled debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani relayed an pressing message to the press about accusations that he had paid off a sports activities playing debt with a e book maker.
“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” Ohtani’s lawyers told ESPN as reporter Tisha Thompson prepared to share an initial confession from his long-time interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
While Mizuhara first told Thompson that Ohtani knew about a $4.5 million gambling debt he accrued with an underground bookmaker and helped him pay it off in increments, he later admitted to stealing money from Ohtani’s bank account without his knowledge.
Federal investigators eventually cleared Ohtani of any wrongdoing, but Mizuhara’s first statements about the crime, which were made to Thompson over the phone with a paid Ohtani spokesperson listening in, generated some unresolved intrigue, even though he recanted them shortly afterward.
And now, Thompson and ESPN have released the exclusive audio from that conversation in the “The Betrayal Of Shohei Ohtani” podcast, providing access to Mizuhara’s only extensive discussion about the scandal for the first time.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Former Interpreter Explains Shohei Ohtani Linked Gambling, ‘Hard For Me To Make Ends Meet’
In the second episode of the new podcast, Thompson shares extensive audio clips from a 2024 phone conversation with Mizuhara that include the details of how and why he started wagering through Matt Boyer, the operator of an illegal gambling business.
Boyer extended Mizuhara an initial line of credit, the former interpreter said, and he quickly accrued a significant debt.
“At the time, I couldn’t share this with Shohei, but it was hard for me to make my ends meet,” Mizuhara told Thompson in the newly-released audio, which was shared in advance with Forbes. “I was kind of going paycheck to paycheck because I kind of had to keep up with his lifestyle… I didn’t want to go to him for help financially, stuff like that. So I was just trying to make ends meet on my side and I was in debt a little bit and stuff with, like, my parents and some friends.”
Mizuhara added that, at the time, he earned $85,000 per year as Ohtani’s interpreter with the Los Angeles Angels. In addition to linking his original money troubles to his work with Ohtani, Mizuhara told Thompson that Ohtani agreed to pay it off for him in $500,000 increments via wire transfer, which were marked from his bank account as “loans.”
“He knew the whole amount and he knew we had to make several payments because we couldn’t send more than $500,000 at a time,” Mizuhara told Thompson. “I would do it with him every time.”
As Thompson noted in the podcast, Mizuhara appeared to implicate Ohtani with direct knowledge of the payments to Boyer and the Ohtani-paid spokesperson sitting in on the confession did not chime in to refute the claim. But as she prepared to report the details of Mizuhara’s initial confession, Ohtani found out about the interview and quickly offered his side of the incident through a legal team.
Mizuhara was later found guilty of transferring nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account without the player’s knowledge and is now serving a jail sentence.
Bombshell Ippei Mizuhara Confession Briefly Implicated Los Angeles Dodgers Superstar Shohei Ohtani In Illegal Sports Bets
But the newly launched audio of Mizuhara’s confession is notable, if just for the weird twists and turns that adopted. Just hours later, Ohtani would declare that he had by no means identified about his long-time interpreter’s cash transfers as a result of Mizuhara translated just about each dialog for him and deliberately obscured issues whereas stealing tens of millions from his checking account.
Aside from pinning his preliminary curiosity in playing to cash troubles brought on by working with Ohtani, the previous translator additionally talked about greater than as soon as that he was afraid of disappointing the two-way star, who he stated was nearer than a brother.
“Initially, I didn’t want to go to him about making my ends meet,” Mizuhara stated. “Yes (I was frightened). Afraid of a lot of things, I mean, the trust that we built up, afraid that might go away. He might think of me differently, stuff like that.”
Mizuhara additionally vowed to pay Ohtani’s $4.5 million again, despite the fact that he would quickly reveal that his confession was fabricated.
“I’m going to pay him back,” Mizuhara advised Thompson. “I told him I’m going to pay him back. It might take a while, but I told him, even if he says no, I’m going to make all the effort to pay him back.”
After the previous interpreter was sentenced to jail time for the incident, he was ordered to pay almost $17 million in restitution to Ohtani.
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