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Armor of God said:
I was watching this video on Ronald Acuna Jr...I mean, he's extremely talented and all but God damn this motherfucker is every stereotype about lazy nigger athletes rolled up into one it seems.

Is it really that hard to just run to 1st Base every time ?
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What's especially frustrating as a Braves fan is that he's basically immune to any kind of critique by the larger fan base or you'll be immediately labeled a racist.

You're fucking delusional if you don't see the consistent lack of effort throughout the season, both on base and in the outfield.

Elite skillset for sure but goddamn, I hate what he's done for any kind of discourse.
 
I've gone through the 37 page complaint against Ippei (you can search for USA vs. Mizuhara complaint and see for yourselves). I'll highlight the most critical elements below:

1) Between November 2021 and January 2024, more than 16 million dollars were transferred from Ohtani's account to associates of the bookie.

2) The transfers from this bank account were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Ippei.

3) The bank records show that during this time period, the contact details for the account were changed to Ippei's phone number and to an anonymous gmail address which was connected to Ippei based on data from Ippei's phone.

4) There are recorded phone calls of Ippei calling the bank and impersonating Ohtani in order to wire funds.

5) Ippei also contacted the bookie's associate in March 2024 and admitted to stealing funds from Ohtani.

6) Mizuhara's phone contained hundreds of messages between him and both the bookie as well as the bookie associate (there are several pages of exchanges where they are discussing methods of wiring, etc.).

7) Any winnings that Ippei made were wired to his own personal bank account and not to the Ohtani account.

8. In May 2022, Ippei had already run up 1 million dollars in gambling losses, however the bookie kept increasing his betting limits. Some examples of Ippei's messages include:

8. a) “I’m terrible at this sport betting thing huh? Lol . . . Any chance u can bump me again?? As you know, you don’t have to worry about me not paying!!”

8. b) “Can u bump me last 200? I swear on my mom this will be the last ask before I pay it off once I get back to 13 the states. Sorry for keep on asking. . . .” . The bookie responded the same day stating, “Np done bud. Merry Christmas.”

8. c) Bookie to Ippei: “I know you’ve been on a bad run. I don’t mind bumping u, I just want to verify that you can send at least 2M on June 1.”

9) More exchanges from June 2023:

9. a) “I got my ass kicked again lol . . . . Any chance I can get one last bump? This will be my last one for a while if I lose it. . . .”

9. b) “I have a problem lol. . . . Can I get one 14 last last last bump? This one is for real. . . . Last one for real[.]” Bookie responds with: “Done. I have the same problem. To be honest with you Ippie, as long as you can guarantee the 500 every Monday I’ll give you as much as you want because I know you’re good for it[.] again I just have to clean it up with my partner and that’s one reason why I was asking before.”

9. c) Message from the bookie: “Hey Ippie, it’s 2 o’clock on Friday. I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Victim A] (Ohtani is called Victim A in the document) walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding? Please call me back immediately.”
 
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(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.”
 
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Now that I've gone back and read the complaint several times, here is where I personally stand:

The most damning evidence is that there are records of Ippei impersonating Ohtani (voice recordings, device IDs and IP addresses) to manipulate the bank into making transfers.

His mega cringe exchanges with the bookies are garden variety degenerate gambler tier.

Ohtani surrendered his phone and the investigators couldn't find any mention of gambling upon reviewing thousands of messages (with Ippei and also others).

Ippei's admissions of his guilt to the bookie are damning as well.

Ohtani is innocent. If you're still not convinced then we're in "faith" territory where even facing a mountain of hard evidence to the contrary, you believe something to be true.
 
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.
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Damn..... Ohtani is innocent but obviously wasn't as good at managing money like he is at baseball, when you are that uber rich or hit the lottery, you need layers upon layers of people to keep people straight, which in itself costs countless of millions of dollars.
 
Dirty Harry said:
Damn..... Ohtani is innocent but obviously wasn't as good at managing money like he is at baseball, when you are that uber rich or hit the lottery, you need layers upon layers of people to keep people straight, which in itself costs countless of millions of dollars.
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Can't win 'em all I guess. He may very well be the greatest Baseball player who ever lived and seems like a good dude and all, but he was certainly too trusting that others would have good intentions by him. It's an incredible betrayal though, given how much love Ippei got over the years.
 
Learn fucking English Ohtani. He could afford lessons from a supermodel or a movie star ffs. He only needs to understand the baseball words and money words. I would want to learn Japanese if I moved to Japan.
 
After reading the complaint filing, this is a pretty open and shut case. Ippei not only stole $16m from Ohtani, but also impersonated him multiple times to continue the wire transfers. The man has a problem and now he's about to get it fixed. I also noticed that he didn't enter a plea in his court appearance yesterday, so they may still be negotiating.

What I want to know is how the x5848 account (belonging to Ohtani that was used to deposit his salary from the Angels) being effectively hidden from Ohtani's financial advisors/agents wasn't a red flag. If you're put in charge of overseeing all the financials for a wealthy individual, you need to have access to every account that person is signatory to. Agent 1 asked multiple times about the account and was told it was "private" and that Ohtani wanted it that way. On page 27, the complaint reads:

"h. Agent 1 was aware of the x5848 Account and asked MIZUHARA on multiple occasions about the account. MIZUHARA told Agent 1 that the x5848 Account was “private” and that Victim A did not want anyone else to monitor that account. Agent 1 stated that he did not confirm these representations directly with Victim A, but stated that he had no reason not to believe MIZUHARA."

JC, who was overseeing operations in relation to business accounts, executing transactions, and preparing Ohtani's taxes said they were "generally aware" of the account but had no idea about its balance or activity in the account. From page 28:

"e. J.C. was concerned that the lack of access to the x5848 Account created possible tax liability for Victim A if the x5848 Account accrued unreported interest or was used to make gifts in amounts necessary to be reported to the IRS. When J.C. inquired with Agent 1 about gaining oversight over the x5848 Account for tax preparation purposes, Agent 1 informed J.C. that MIZUHARA had stated that Victim A wanted the x5848 Account kept private and that he understood that the x5848 Account did not accrue interest or make gifts."

KF, an accountant for Agent 1, was responsible for preparing and filing Ohtani's taxes. KF has worked with Ohtani for the previous 5 years. They also brought up concerns, per page 29-30:

"d. In or about October of 2022, K.F. was scheduled to meet with Victim A and MIZUHARA, but only MIZUHARA arrived for the meeting. MIZUHARA stated that Victim A was sick, and unable to join the meeting. During that meeting, K.F. asked MIZUHARA about the x5848 Account, and stated that Victim A risked filing incorrect tax returns if there was interest being generated by any funds in the x5848 Account or any gifts from that account which triggered tax reporting requirements. MIZUHARA responded that Victim A wanted the x5848 Account kept private from everyone, and that the x5848 Account did not bear interest and that there were no gifts from the x5848 Account"

Again, if you are a party responsible for keeping track of financial assets of a very wealthy individual, why would you allow this? Any accountant, agent, or business partner who values not getting harassed by the government for improperly filed taxes is NOT going to let this shit fly. This is a majorly dropped ball and the fact that all the financial advisors went along with it should force them to lose their licenses.
 
Or, Ohtani was up to shenanigans and this "investigation" is a whitewash. MLB is significantly different than what it was when Pete Rose was nailed to the wall. They don't want to lose a golden goose like Ohtani, and face potential general backlash about carrying lucrative gambling sponsorships, and end up having to cut ties with same. This whole thing stinks, lol.
 
Even if Ohtani was involved, which I don't think he was although you can argue through proxy he was, no bets occurred on baseball itself, just other sports. I also get your point, Ohtani is a golden goose, much like Tiger Woods in golf is, so he can do shit that others can't. I think Mickey Mantle also got special treatment for his shit with gambling and he wasn't just associating with licensed casinos either.

Rose gambled on his own baseball team to win, but not every game, which mean he could hold back relievers and make decisions to enhance his teams chances to win on days he bet. As a player Rose should get into the Hall but in my opinion, only after he is dead so he can't enjoy it. Bonds, Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and a host of others should already be in the Hall of Fame.
 
The fact that he actually didn't bet on Baseball is pretty funny to me. I like to imagine that he had the foresight to realize that since he works in baseball, getting caught betting on it would be a big no no, despite the fact that him getting caught at all is obviously going to be a big problem. Dude was literally stealing millions of dollars, and was going to be fucked either way if he got caught so I am disappointed that he didn't go all the way, bet against the Angels, and try to sabotage them from the inside.
 
GloryHole Stalker said:
Or, Ohtani was up to shenanigans and this "investigation" is a whitewash. MLB is significantly different than what it was when Pete Rose was nailed to the wall. They don't want to lose a golden goose like Ohtani, and face potential general backlash about carrying lucrative gambling sponsorships, and end up having to cut ties with same. This whole thing stinks, lol.
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Have you actually read the complaint ?

Mizuhara is on tape impersonating Ohtani to move massive amounts of money.

Ohtani also gave up his phone, which Tom Brady refused to do during Deflategate.

How much more hard evidence do you want ?
 
Looseleaf Paper said:
The fact that he actually didn't bet on Baseball is pretty funny to me. I like to imagine that he had the foresight to realize that since he works in baseball, getting caught betting on it would be a big no no, despite the fact that him getting caught at all is obviously going to be a big problem. Dude was literally stealing millions of dollars, and was going to be fucked either way if he got caught so I am disappointed that he didn't go all the way, bet against the Angels, and try to sabotage them from the inside.
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But, how do we know for sure he wasn't betting on baseball. According to this "investigation" he didn't gamble on anything. Did he or does he have other irons in the fire?

John Dowd spent over 4 months investigating Rose, at the behest of the MLB to look into every nook and cranny of what he (Rose) was up to... to ensure that baseball itself was not tarnished by Rose's actions. How long did the feds look at this? A few days? A week or 2? And the MLB will happily take this result and attempt to completely bury the story otherwise. Are they going to hire a P.I. to look into this further? Doubt it. This is just another sign of the disintegration of a sport I've been following since the late 70s. Sad.
 
GloryHole Stalker said:
But, how do we know for sure he wasn't betting on baseball. According to this "investigation" he didn't gamble on anything. Did he or does he have other irons in the fire?

John Dowd spent over 4 months investigating Rose, at the behest of the MLB to look into every nook and cranny of what he (Rose) was up to... to ensure that baseball itself was not tarnished by Rose's actions. How long did the feds look at this? A few days? A week or 2? And the MLB will happily take this result and attempt to completely bury the story otherwise. Are they going to hire a P.I. to look into this further? Doubt it. This is just another sign of the disintegration of a sport I've been following since the late 70s. Sad.
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The cooperating associate of the bookie revealed the details of all 16,000 bets that Mizuhara made.

Analyzing these bets showed that no bets were made on Baseball.

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the associate and the Feds were in on a scheme to erase all Baseball activity.

They examined Ohtani’s phone including his messages to Ippei and others, as well as his browsing history and cookies. Nothing related to gambling turns up.

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that in a matter of days they were able to use some complex software to remove these messages and particular cookies, leaving everything else in place so that things didn’t look too “clean”.

They have Ippei on tape from the banking records impersonating Ohtani as well as the accesses by Ippei’s phone to the account and all of the other damning evidence related to account activitu.

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the bank was also in on it, colluding with Ippei, the Feds, the bookie and the associates to make the money trail appear in a way that is beneficial to the MLB as you put it.

I believe in plenty of things that people consider to be “conspiracy theories”. In fact, I detest that term itself because it’s a way to auto-dismiss a hypothesis.

However, step back and think about it (and please read the complaint) and you’ll see that it’s simply implausible. Ohtani is innocent, and to think otherwise in light of the evidence is a dogmatic position akin to religious beliefs.

Also, you’re comparing an investigation that took place in the late 80’s to 2024.

It took months because the Feds had to fly all over the country, analyzing literal paper records from different groups of people and listen to literal tapes of whatever audio evidence that there was.

All of the evidence needed for an investigation related to betting is either in centralized databases or on the phones themselves. That’s the reality of life in 2024.

I believe that Pete Rose the player should be in the Hall of Fame. I understand that they want to keep him out as a Manager.

Bonds, I believe has 2 Hall of Fame careers in 1 lifetime, the latter of which was aided by steroids. Therefore it makes sense to put him in as well (at least in this anon’s opinion).

The others I’m not sure about. Clemens ? Probably. The others, well, you guys are more knowledgeable than I because I’m a relative noob to this sport.
 
Armor of God said:
To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the associate and the Feds were in on a scheme to erase all Baseball activity.
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If Ohtani was the person betting it would make sense that there are no bets on baseball as well. As that would be a major issue beyond him gambling on sports. You think if Pete Rose was betting on college basketball that it would have mattered as much? The problem was that he was betting not only on baseball but on his own team and basically destroying the integrity of the sport.

Ohtani betting on other sports makes him an addict for sure. But not someone directly corrupting the sport like Pete Rose.
Armor of God said:
To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the bank was also in on it, colluding with Ippei, the Feds, the bookie and the associates to make the money trail appear in a way that is beneficial to the MLB as you put it.
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The same bank handling billions of dollars in Los Angeles Dodger's business every year? They have an incentive to keep a good relationship with MLB.
 
@Armor of God - could not reply directly, so my answers are in bold.

The cooperating associate of the bookie revealed the details of all 16,000 bets that Mizuhara made.

Analyzing these bets showed that no bets were made on Baseball.

Fair enough, but as I said upthread "other irons on the fire".

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the associate and the Feds were in on a scheme to erase all Baseball activity.

I have about as much trust in the feds as I do the modern MLB. The MLB may have able to successfully lobby this into an outcome that would somewhat neatly wrap this up without doing too much PR damage to them or Ohtani, backed by Japan, as this could turn into something very embarrassing for their country.

They examined Ohtani’s phone including his messages to Ippei and others, as well as his browsing history and cookies. Nothing related to gambling turns up.

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that in a matter of days they were able to use some complex software to remove these messages and particular cookies, leaving everything else in place so that things didn’t look too “clean”.

Because of course Ohtani and Ippei had no other means of communication than their respective phones that the feds confiscated, lol.

They have Ippei on tape from the banking records impersonating Ohtani as well as the accesses by Ippei’s phone to the account and all of the other damning evidence related to account activitu.

To invalidate this, you would have to believe that the bank was also in on it, colluding with Ippei, the Feds, the bookie and the associates to make the money trail appear in a way that is beneficial to the MLB as you put it.

That is what the feds claim yes... and to the second part...maybe.

I believe in plenty of things that people consider to be “conspiracy theories”. In fact, I detest that term itself because it’s a way to auto-dismiss a hypothesis.

However, step back and think about it (and please read the complaint) and you’ll see that it’s simply implausible. Ohtani is innocent, and to think otherwise in light of the evidence is a dogmatic position akin to religious beliefs.

So, for at least several years, Ohtani had a separate bank account that even his financial advisors could not access and was denied access via an interpreter, no one thought to go to Ohtani directly to straighten the matter out, and Ohtani never knew about any of this? Okee dokee.

This is really nothing personal against Ohtani. This could be anyone. My gripe is with the MLB who seem to see this more as a PR issue than a possible "integrity of the game" problem. There is more to this than meets the eye.

As to Ohtani, learn some fuckin English and smarten up. Hopefully he does this going foward.

Armor of God said:
Also, you’re comparing an investigation that took place in the late 80’s to 2024.

It took months because the Feds had to fly all over the country, analyzing literal paper records from different groups of people and listen to literal tapes of whatever audio evidence that there was.

All of the evidence needed for an investigation related to betting is either in centralized databases or on the phones themselves. That’s the reality of life in 2024.

I believe that Pete Rose the player should be in the Hall of Fame. I understand that they want to keep him out as a Manager.

Bonds, I believe has 2 Hall of Fame careers in 1 lifetime, the latter of which was aided by steroids. Therefore it makes sense to put him in as well (at least in this anon’s opinion).

The others I’m not sure about. Clemens ? Probably. The others, well, you guys are more knowledgeable than I because I’m a relative noob to this sport.
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Perhaps it was outside of the Federales perview to investigate anything other than the bets made to this specific bookie, as that is how they stumbled on this, to begin with, they were looking at the bookie. The MLB, on the other hand, if they truly cared, could do a similar investigation like they did with Pete, to put all doubters like me to rest. If the investigation is completely transparent, and it completely exonerates Ohtani, even a Doubting Thomas like I, would be satisfied. The issue is, that the MLB, I do not believe, really cares about this beyond it being a PR issue. Sure, they don't want their players betting on the game, but they are also in bed with Gambling websites with lucrative sponsorship deals, so they would be loathe to risk that sponsorship cash via blowback on a gambling scandal.

Yes, Pete should be in the Hall, and so should the steroid cheats as baseball knowingly turned the other cheek while these guys were gassing up and mashing homer after homer and pitchers were throwing faster than ever...and all of that is still going on to this day, lol.
 
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