Uncertainty suddenly surrounds one of Major League Baseball's biggest stars, with Shohei Ohtani mired in recent days in a growing scandal linked to a federal investigation into illegal sports betting.
The public so far only has a fragmented picture of the case. But more facts could emerge in the coming days and weeks, legal experts said, as federal prosecutors try to make sense of conflicting claims about Ohtani using money to pay off gambling debts with a bookmaker suspected of being illegal in California. . A key question, but not the only one, is whether the Japanese slugger was, as his representatives claim, the victim of a “massive robbery” by his interpreter and right-hand woman, Ippei Mizuhara.
“If there has been a 'massive robbery,' Ohtani's people would be expected to cooperate with federal investigators,” said Jeff Ifrah, a former federal prosecutor and sports betting expert who now works as a defense attorney, including for professional athletes. “They will find out if the interpreter is lying or not and if Ohtani is a real victim or not.”
Meanwhile, the federal investigation will almost certainly inform a separate internal Major League Baseball investigation into whether (possible crimes aside) there were violations of the league's policies around players betting on sports other than their own. , the experts said.
“There needs to be an investigation,” said Andrew Brandt, a sports commentator and executive director of the Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova University. “The dismissal of the interpreter is not going to sweep this under the rug.”
Neither Ohtani nor Mizuhara have been charged with any crime. No baseball betting has been alleged.
Still, the betting scandal has engulfed MLB and one of its highest-profile and highest-paid superstars. It has happened so quickly that it has been difficult for observers, including many Dodger fans, to keep track of what is being alleged and by whom.
At one point this week, Ohtani and Mizuhara were laughing with each other during a game. The next, Ohtani's representatives leveled accusations of theft. Shortly afterward, MLB announced that Mizuhara was fired.
Meanwhile, Mizuhara's story was also changing rapidly, according to reports from The Times and ESPN. At first, he said Ohtani had learned of his debts and agreed to bail him out by transferring funds to an associate of Mizuhara's alleged bookie, Orange County resident Mathew Bowyer. But soon after, Mizuhara recanted that version of events, according to ESPN, and said that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and had not transferred money in his name.
Evidence supporting both sides' version of events has taken much longer to materialize.
Ohtani's camp has not responded to questions about the alleged nature of the theft, how the payments were made or what Ohtani knew about Mizuhara's debts if he didn't know about the payments themselves. Mizuhara could not be reached for comment.
An attorney for Bowyer said the alleged bookie, who is the subject of an existing federal investigation but has not been charged with a crime, never interacted directly with Ohtani. Court records show that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have been conducting an investigation since 2017 into illegal gambling operations.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the Ohtani matter.
Depending on the circumstances, transferring funds to an illegal betting house can raise legal questions about complicity in a criminal enterprise, or participation in wire fraud or money laundering, legal experts said. But such charges against individual players are rare and are usually brought to get those players to betray the bookmakers, experts said.
That said, stealing millions of dollars from someone, as Ohtani now accuses Mizuhara, is definitely a crime, and it's not a crime that federal prosecutors are likely to ignore, especially when the accusations come from someone as high-profile as Ohtani, the investigators claim. experts. saying.
David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who now has a white-collar criminal defense practice, said there are very clear steps the parties should take in light of Ohtani's latest allegations, if they haven't already.
Ohtani and his attorneys should begin collecting all the evidence they can about the alleged robbery, he said.
They should proactively contact federal authorities, alert them that the alleged theft is occurring and that they are collecting records that they may be willing to share, and prepare their own internal analysis of the records. They should also contact MLB, say they are taking the matter seriously and conducting a review, and that they have cut off all contact with Mizuhara.
In addition to working with federal authorities, Ohtani's lawyers should also preserve a record for any potential civil litigation Ohtani wants to pursue against Mizuhara, Weinstein said.
To the extent Mizuhara disputes the theft allegation, Weinstein said the translator and his attorneys should gather their own evidence to refute the allegation, including any communications with Ohtani that indicated he was aware of the transactions. As evidence of this type is found, it should be shared with federal authorities.
“At this point, it's every person for themselves,” Weinstein said.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors already investigating Bowyer will likely begin reviewing records they already have for anything related to Ohtani or Mizuhara, Weinstein said. They can also contact Ohtani directly and request an interview and any evidence he has of the alleged theft.
“The authorities are going to look and say, 'Okay, let me see the bank account and show me where the theft is.' Did you authorize these transactions?'” Weinstein said.
At some point, prosecutors will also contact Mizuhara for an interview, Weinstein said. If they believe there is a possible case, they could also begin requesting bank records, he said.
Ifrah said well-paid athletes often have staff managing their business and financial interests and are sometimes victims of betrayal by those people.
“We get a lot of calls about professional athletes who are in some type of financial trouble because someone close to them is accessing their accounts or using some type of authority to access their financial assets,” Ifrah said.
So the first question he would ask if he were the prosecutor in the case, he said, is what kind of access Mizuhara had to Ohtani's bank accounts. Ifrah said it would be difficult to imagine Mizuhara siphoning off millions from Ohtani in cash (which is what most illegal betting houses do, if not crypto payments) without Ohtani or his financial managers knowing or agreeing to it.
“You start to wonder: how was that a 'massive theft'?” Ifrah said. “How did someone take cash out of a bank account or liquidate one of your financial assets to get cash without you knowing?”
Daniel Wallach, a Florida sports betting and gaming attorney, agreed that any disappearance of millions of dollars should have set off alarm bells for the people managing Ohtani's assets and should have been addressed long before the media started. to ask questions.
“The biggest red flag of all is that this pronouncement that there has been this 'massive theft' only came in response to the media snooping around, like it was Crisis Management 101 to divert attention away from Ohtani,” he said.
Wallach said there are so many unanswered questions and conflicting explanations from Ohtani and Mizuhara at this point that, in addition to the federal investigation, MLB has no choice but to launch its own review, in part to make a decision on whether Ohtani deserves to be sent away. The bench.
“This requires a thorough investigation because there are many inconsistencies and already deeply worrying facts,” he said. “MLB needs to get as much information as possible about this early on to make at least a preliminary assessment on whether Ohtani should be placed on leave until an investigation is concluded.”
Punishments for players are at the discretion of the MLB commissioner, and while suspending or fining Ohtani may be unpopular, Wallach said, “the league will have a significant reputation problem on its hands if there is not a deeper investigation of the underlying events.” .”
Cathy Fleming, a former New Jersey federal prosecutor, has represented clients (i.e., family members of players) who have been the subject of an internal MLB investigation.
He said the league has a “pretty good internal investigation unit” with smart attorneys who treat players with respect but are no pushovers, and that they will no doubt be keeping an eye on Ohtani soon, if they haven't already. .
“Not only will he have to deal with what happens” in the federal case, she said, “but I'm sure MLB will be looking at it under a microscope.”
Times staff writers Bill Shaikin, Nathan Fenno and Paul Pringle contributed to this report.
