Star two-way player Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers read a statement today in relation to Ippei Mizuhara, his former translator and friend. Mizuhara was fired last week amid his involvement with an illegal sports gambling operation.
Ohtani read the statement in Japanese, which was translated into English by Will Ireton, for a period of about 12 minutes. Video of the full thing was relayed by Talkin’ Baseball on X. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic was among those to relay a few days ago that Ireton would be serving as a translator for Ohtani in the wake of Mizuhara’s departure. Ireton served as Kenta Maeda’s translator when he was with the Dodgers and Ireton stayed an employee of the club after Maeda was traded to the Twins in 2020.
Reporting last week highlighted that over $4.5MM had been wired from an account in Ohtani’s name to the gambling ring. Mizuhara said that he racked up that debt by betting on sports other than baseball, then Ohtani wired the money to help him pay it off. Later, Ohtani’s attorneys contradicted the story, saying that Ohtani “had been the victim of a massive theft.” Ohtani’s version of events that he relayed today aligned with the theft story, accusing Mizuhara of using his account to wire the money and then lying about it.
Ohtani said that he was “saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this.” Ohtani stated that he has never bet on baseball or any other sports and has never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports. “Up until a couple days ago, I didn’t know this was happening.” He also flatly denied the original version of events, wherein he supposedly sent the money to help his friend Mizuhara. “Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.”
The Dodgers were in Korea last week to play the Padres as part of the Seoul Series as the initial reporting on the story was coming to light. Ohtani stated today that the media in Korea inquired about the story but Ippei never told him about the media inquiry. Ippei then told the media and Ohtani’s representatives the version of events that had Ohtani paying off the debt. “All of this has been a complete lie,” Ohtani said.
More to come.