Just When We Thought the Ohtani/Ippei Gambling Scandal Couldn’t Get Wilder… | The Rich Eisen Show

so we come on the air today reading about a New York Times story saying that uh charges are imminent for the former translator for showy Otani and that there is evidence that otani's interpreter IE mizuhara had stolen from him and one of the ways that he stole from him is he changed the settings on otani's bank account so Otani would not receive alerts and confirmations about transactions and I saw that and I thought to myself is that really a way that you can make sure that somebody doesn't see $4.5 million is gone understanding that this man has Otani millions of dollars where he might not notice that that much is gone certainly since he has a um as um as as we have seen a large s in in uh donating as well and that that's one of the many reasons why all I've wanted this entire time despite having been cast amongst Otani lovers as an Otani hater because I'm asking questions that I want answered and part of the reason why I do this certainly when it comes to the sport of baseball is my history at ESPN I uh befriended and was befriended by the great Mark Maguire who's one of the nicest people I've ever met and I got I got burned I I thought never in a million years was he doing anything the whole Andro stuff and whatever and he basically said uh I I never took what I've been accused of taking and we all know that that's not the case and so and I would never have believed it so and I I I can't I'm not a cynic but I just need to see evidence right I need to see evidence I get that and so I I I'm I just couldn't believe that somebody would just be able to tick a box and suddenly Otani is not getting an alert on his phone about his account and suddenly $4.5 million dollar is gone well we found out today it's not $45 million it's $16 million and it does appear based on court documents and what we have learned today that IE mizuhara did more than just tick a box on a website okay and it's kind of crazy that uh he's more than an interpreter um he is uh allegedly in these documents a thief and Otani in this entire case fully cooperating and handed his phone to authorities and authorities saw no evidence that in any way shape or form was this done at his instruction to cover up for his gambling issues no evidence to it and we find out that mizuhara was calling the banks impersonating showy Otani wow and that the feds the authorities have recordings of these calls and the amount of money involved is more than just for gambling to right Chris is that what we're seeing right now uh more than just gambling 2 yes what what do you what have you found while I was interviewing our friend from Pro Football Focus this is from Laura J Nelson an LA Times Reporter covering politics and all and all this stuff um so he's being charged bank fraud maximum sentence of 30 years so the complaint alleges that ePay placed about 19,000 bets which by the way is a lot that's 25 per day 365 days a year from December of 2021 insane to January of 2024 all with otani's money the complaint says epe won $1 142.2 million and lost $182.92 million I I I I can't even fathom these numbers to others the bets the bets ranged all over the place anywhere from 10 $10 uh looked like the largest bet was $160,000 with an average of about 13k per bet uh how did this guy have I I look at this I think to myself how did this guy have any time to interpret yeah right right or how do you have time to do anything other than gamble I don't I no idea and and how how does this amount of money get transacted without people noticing per the complaint otani's agent did not regularly talk or text with him instead communicating through mizuhara when he repeatedly asked mizuhara didn't didn't didn't communicate with who the a otani's agent did not talk or text with Otani uhuh he communicated through mizuhara for everything for everything when when he repeatedly asked mahara about accessing the account that he was using to cover his gambling losses mahara told the agent that Otani wanted it kept private it's according to Lauren Nelson so he's lying to the agent as well yes he wanted to kept private meaning what wanted wanted access to the bank accounts where he that he was using to pay off all these debts but the whole point is so the agent knew that that The Interpreter was gambling uh I'm just I don't know we're we're trying to react to a lot of this stuff in real time right now and but these numbers are positively staggering I mean you're talking about nine figures of money one and a larger nine figure of money lost leading to an8 figure deficit over the course of course of three years but nearly 20,000 does that mean that he owes if he only took 16 million from Otani that means he owes still owes money still owes that money I mean and what the hell was this guy doing and so his so when caught by ESPN his first reaction is to say ohon new and he was just covering for me and these numbers are the numbers and he thinks otani's just going to admit oh yeah I'm dealing with nine figures of gambling just to keep my buddy happy and safe and out of the news what the hell is this guy's malfunction I mean this is positively nuts like where you're got to be spending every waking moment of your day figuring out lines and and overs and unders and keeping track of everything and how did you have time for a baseball game this is like a movie I don't know you could have written and so and so and so I just want to I just want to point this out I want to point this out again here two things the ultimate RIT large story according to Federal authorities Otani is a victim he's been fully Cooperative they have no evidence that he had any idea about this stuff or directed his friend and interpreter to do any of this stuff had any knowledge of it which is my ultimate hope this entire time but the reason why I was still wondering if I could believe that is because I had no idea how The Interpreter could pull this off and yesterday just seeing in the New York Times saying well he just he just took off one of those you know Authentication widgets just hit hit the hit the button to say otani's just not going to get an alert it just sounded too simple to me which is why I tweeted out last night like so wait a minute you can just click a button for this sort of money and he wouldn't know well we see these numbers we hear what he was what length he was going to now it makes sense because I wouldn't think in a million years somebody would be this absolutely off the reservation yeah and again these are three organizations in our government the IRS the Department of Homeland Security and also the US attorney system they're not playing so they're not going to be like let's just kind of make sure that this is out of these you know documents here cuz we just want to make sure Otani and the Dodgers and baseball can come clean here that ain't happening so I I I I have to sit here and say my skepticism and my cynicism has been trumped by somebody's shocking brazenness and clear uh problem nine figures of gambling nine 19,000 bets and he had a job to you know speak on otani's behalf and clearly based on what you were saying before Chris be the gatekeeper to for Otani for his for everybody for his agent for everything everybody yeah what it so the sound I think you're hearing right now that you might hear that clicking that's Otani changing his password from whatever it was from password like let's get some he show 1 2 3 four five showy let's get some double you know authentic going here let's get some you know wow but if he was in control of everything then you understand like you said Jeff pass just C this so from the report or from the complaint yes honor about November 14th 2022 mahara messaged bookmaker one stating quote I'm terrible at this sport betting thing huh LOL LOL any chance you can bump me again as you know you don't have to worry about me not paying oh I mean wow I just didn't care I mean you know and this is from The Interpreter this is this is yeah yeah yeah The Interpreter messaged that to the bookmaker you don't have to worry about me not paying I'm so bad at this LOL here's the deal right I no words and I know I'm on TV and radio go ahead we find this crazy right but the thing is had Bernie not made off with all of these people's money this happens all the time I think this is the first time for an athlete of this status that this has happened oh you're talking about swindling people yeah so I I can't sit here and go I'm completely shocked because there's stuff going on in this world with people stealing other people's money every single day but nothing like a sh Otani that we know I guess I guess that's where my cynicism should be placed but I mean this is insane much this is insane money cuz I'm sitting here thinking there just this you know how how in evolved can this bookmaker I mean and this this interpreter really be how how how deep could he have you know committed fraud how how how how much could he have possibly gambled on what on 200 300,000 out there has to be something missing and what was missing is the pure Insanity of the details that are now laid out and ultimately ultimately just think his all of these facts that are laid out right here his first way of going about it and explaining himself to a reporter from ESPN and a lead pipe wielding professional from their investigative unit you don't want these people on your no tail okay to tell Tisha Thompson oh he knew all about it he was just cover my Debs cuz we're friends we're buddies he's got me and he's just gonna boy just I know how much money he's gonna he he didn't think they'd find every penny nine figures of money was being gambled over 19,000 bets leading to a $40 million debt and he tells ESPN oh sh I knew all about who's just going cover for me because we're Pals and think that Otani would just like upon learning all of the details where he thought well maybe it wasn't thinking this thing through oh yeah so I of course my reaction was that way so I will just say based on everything that I'm seeing right now I am thrilled to hear that showy Otani is um innocent of everything that has been thrown at his feet including the questions that I have had uh that have been taken by many of his supporters as to think that I think that he's nefarious I was just wondering I needed to get some answers having no idea about the craziness of all of this and the other thing is I'm also dismayed that Otani got ripped off there's no way any sane rational person could listen to you and think that you were anti at this point people who think that to talk to talk they're just surfing into my one tweet or one post or one comment or what have you I just wanted to you know put it all into one box as we learn just how patently insane this whole thing is this is crazy wow catch the rich eyes and show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to 3 Eastern for free

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 104,934

Keywords: Rich Eisen, Rich Eisen Show, sports, NFL, football, CFP, MLB, baseball, pop culture, Roku, Chris Brockman, Super Bowl, sports talk, Football, CFB, College Football, Baseball, NFL Draft, Dodgers, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Dave Roberts, Kershaw, James Outman, Dodger Blue, Walker Buehler, Will Smith, Chris Taylor, Dustin May, World Series, Andrew Friedman, Chavez Ravine, Ohtani gambling, Ohtani interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara

Id: GT_WcGpqaTs

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024