(Continued highlights from the criminal complaint against Ippei)
1) Ippei averaged nearly 25 bets per day. Based on data from the cooperating source of the bookie, there were about 19,000 wagers placed in a 3 year period (none on Baseball).
2) During this period, records reflect total winning bets of $142,256,769.74, and total losing bets of $182,935,206.68, leaving a total net balance of negative $40,678,436.94.8.
3) The original Ohtani bank account from which wires took place was created in March 2018. The deposits to this account were almost exclusively Ohtani's salary from the Angels.
4) On top of wiring millions of dollars to the bookie, Ippei was also transferred 300,000 dollars to his eBay and Whatnot accounts.
5) The bank had records of devices belong to Ippei being the one who accessed Ohtani's account as well as IP addresses. The investigators also reviewed recordings of phone calls to the bank where Ippei claims to be Shohei, in order to execute wire transfers.
6) Even though the account was temporarily frozen in 2022, Ippei was able to override the blocks by answering security questions correctly (apparently regarding Ohtani's biography). This allowed him to wire funds.
The investigators also interviewed Ohtani and here are associated highlights:
1) Ippei helped Ohtani open the bank account in question back in 2018.
2) Ohtani's MLB salary was the only source of funds deposited into this account. His other endorsement and investment incomes go to other accounts and were managed by his agency (and agency personnel / financial advisors).
3) The MLB salary bank account that was used to wire funds to the bookie was kept private from Ohtani's agency. The agency was aware that the account existed but Ippei told them that Shohei wanted it private, and that there was no activity with the account and therefore no filing requirements. The agency doesn't have Japanese speakers and so could not verify if this was the case (all communication with Ohtani went through Ippei).
4) Ippei used the 300 K that he transferred from Ohtani to his own bank account to buy at least 1000 Baseball cards including Yogi Berra, Juan Soto and Ohtani himself.
5) The investigators, using fluent Japanese speakers, reviewed 9,700 pages of Japanese messages between Ohtani and Ippei. These included no discussions of sports betting, wagers, odds or any other information that would indicate Shohei was aware of Ippei's gambling.
6) There are also the aforementioned facts that Ippei impersonated Ohtani to change the bank account details as well as to authorize transfers. This would have been unnecessary had Ohtani been aware and authorized the activity himself.
7) Ohtani surrendered his own phone to the investigators. The findings were that the phone had never accessed that bank account and had never searched for gambling related information, had no other messages to others which referenced Ippei's gambling issues.
8. On or about March 20, 2024, Ippei messaged the bookie stating, “Have you seen the reports?”. Bookie responded, “Yes, but that’s all bullshit. Obviously you didn’t steal from him. I understand it’s a cover job I totally get it.”. Ippei then responded to the bookie that, “Technically I did steal from him. it’s all over for me.”
