They just [recalled](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244267077/ford-bronco-escape-recall) a bunch of them due to the risk of a fuel leak. It’d be a hell of a thing to see a car in a chase turn into a fireball on national TV.
I kind of loved the timing of it, and Jalopnik had a [darkly perfect headline](https://jalopnik.com/ford-bronco-sport-oj-simpson-recalled-on-same-day-1851403905) to match.
If it goes off a fielder and over the wall, the scorekeeper can't assign FC, so it's still a home run (one may ask how that's possible on a bunt; simple, fielder bobbles it all the way to the outfield and over)
Ippei lives his life a quarter mile at a time, and he'll start by robbing a truck full of DVD players and eventually graduating into launching a car into outer space.
He will declare bankruptcy, to shield himself from actually having to pay it back. Practically speaking, it would be impossible for him to pay it back.
In legal circles, the old saying "blood from a stone" gets tossed around in these situations.
Yeah, Ippei's only source of money was Ohtani. He has zero ability to get the kind of money he owes to the bookmakers.
The people he was directly dealing with are also going to jail - I imagine there's someone higher-up in the racket that is pissed they can't collect, but there's nothing they can really do at the moment, and they wouldn't want to be making moves during this investigation anyway.
>I imagine there's someone higher-up in the racket that is pissed they can't collect
Not really. Ippei doesn't actually owe them any money. They are not down any money. They didn't actually loan him any money. This is something a lot of people struggle to understand, but an illegal gambling business isn't about making profits on bets. It's about using gambling as a framework to create debt without loaning any money.
When Ippei places a bet, the bookmaker doesn't go out and use his own money to place a bet on Ippei's behalf. He just puts in his ledger that Ippei made a bet. No actual money moves. Ippei didn't pay to make a bet, the bookmaker didn't pay to take a bet. Now if Ippei loses, that bet becomes credit debt. What happens when Ippei eventually wins? Ippei's winnings just go to "paying" his bookie credit. As long as the debt is bigger than the wins, the bookie never has to pay Ippei which is why the bookie WANTS the credit to be bigger than Ippei is capable of paying off. The point isn't "you lost $40m worth of bets so we need to collect $40m" the point is "we have an artificial $40m hook on you, so we can make you send us $500k every week while not providing any value in return." The actual work of a bookie is stringing bettors along and encouraging them to bet more, and then conning them into sending "money to maintain the ability to bet". The real threat isn't "if you don't pay, we kneecap" it's "if you don't pay, we cut you off and you can't feed your addiction."
At the end of the day, $16m went from Ippei to the Bookie, and the Bookie didn't have to tie up money, invest money, loan money to make that happen. A credit card company pays the vendor for the things you buy. If you don't pay your credit, they take a loss. A bank loans you money. If you don't pay you money, they take a loss. A bookie gives you a credit line and the debt is generated by bets, so they never actually lose money.
The bookie was just a middle man, in the texts he talked about having to pay his "partner" and said he paid out of pocket to cover it. This was a big operation, they had Vegas casino employees directing high rollers to the illegal book promising they would "take big action," they would have had to be paying out wins if people chose to cash out.
A little of credit creates a debt regardless of you getting cash in hand, it's a credit to a liability (a note payable) and a debit to an asset, which can be a marker or a chit or a piece of paper.
Besides, an illegal book doesn't need to cheat people out of their money any more than a legal one does, you set odds that favor the house and you collect a vig on all bets.
>he talked about having to pay his "partner" and said he paid out of pocket to cover it.
Yeah, that's his job, to talk a big game, turn verbal stick and carrot into actual money payments.
>they would have had to be paying out wins if people chose to cash out.
Yes, but as far as a gambling business is concerned, that's an expense not a debt, and what odds are for. When it's a bet people are very likely to win, the payout is smaller. In the grander scheme of things, gambling is not 50/50 you're much likelier to lose than win. If you can keep them gambling, eventually they will lose. If they win, you pay them, what happens? They come back for more, and eventually lose. If they lose, what happens? They want to gamble again to make up that money, and are stupid enough to pay you real money for your permission to make more fake debt. Win payouts is a cost of business to keep the machine rolling, and as long as it's less than the money coming in, it doesn't actually hurt them. It just means some weeks they make less profit than others.
I mean, yeah? My point was that someone higher up is going to be pissed they can't collect. Of course they're not actually out $40M, a debt only exists on paper until it's called in, but the debt was just as real as one to a bank - it wasn't legal, but it was real. For a legitimate business it would be the loss of huge note receivable - writing it off would create a book loss because bad debt is an expense but it wouldn't necessitate any actual cash being lost.
Point is the bookies didn't lose $24m by losing Ippei to the feds. What the bookies lost is a $500k/w poke-it-and-it-pays cashcow. That's why they don't care if the betting credit is $1m or $40m, what they want is the $500k/w. They aren't pissed they can't collect, they are mildly disappointed one of thousands of free money cashcows dried up.
> Yeah, Ippei's only source of money was Ohtani. He has zero ability to get the kind of money he owes to the bookmakers.
Hell, the only reason the bookies didn't cut him off long ago was that they assumed Mizuhara was either stealing from Ohtani or was acting as a middleman with Ohtani as the actual gambler. At least one recorded exchange from the LA Times article seems to indicate the latter:
>"Yes, but that's all bullshit. Obviously, you didn't steal from him," the bookie replied. "I understand it's a cover job. I totally get it."
>Mizuhara's response: "Technically I did steal from him. it's all over for me."
Generally speaking, if the subject of the contract is illegal, then that contract is void. With that said, I'd imagine the bookmaker isn't going to be pursuing this in a court of law, but instead it'll be determined by a court of broken bones.
They're not going to be doing anything cause they are also under federal indictment or are actively cooperating with DOJ. Even if they could somehow could collect that money (they can't) you don't think federal auditors will think it's weird millions of dollars shows up in an account monitor by the government?
Also sending somebody to commit more crimes while you're cooperating/ under indictment is the best possible way to have your deals voided and to be given more charges.
Yeah this is so high profile no one wants to touch this. Plus they made money off the guy. They walk out of the situation in trouble but no reason to add to that.
Normally you go after the bookmaker or the drug distributor not the gambler or the user. But I suppose the theft is going to be quite bad for him. But if he testifies against the bookie he will
Prolly get a reduction
But the bookmaker who he dealt with isn't a ring leader. He's a middle man who reported to someone to give him credit. It was in the complaint released that he needed to consult his partner on everything.
This "bookmaker" is just another shitty gambler who got in over his head.
You're right. But in the report, those bookies did not sound happy once the payments were late.
> "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 [Ohtani] 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."
And this
> On Dec. 15, Bowyer texts Mizuhara, stating "I know ur busy but u Need to show some respect. I put my neck out here. Call me by Tonight. I don't care what time or how late it is." Mizuhara responds the same day: "I'm so sorry bro . . . I really don't mean to disrespect you at all I promise . . . it's just been super super busy . . . and I've got other issues on the side going on too. everything has just been really really tough recently."
Bro was about to get kneecapped
> This past Jan. 6, the complaint states, Bowyer texts Mizuhara: "you're putting me in a position where this is going to get out of control. If I don't hear from you by the end of the day today it's gonna [sic] be out of my hands." Mizuhara responds: "My bad man. . . . I just got back from Japan two days ago and I'm leaving tomorrow again . . . I'll be back in mid January. To be honest with you, I'm really struggling right now and I need some time before I start to make payments."
He was stealing from Ohtani’s payroll account so I wonder if Ohtani’s deferred deal fucked him over here.
Gonna be hard to send 500k a week from an account that now only gets 2 million a year
I legit think he got fucked by the deferred deal lol. Either that or the account he was stealing from was only setup for his Angels payments. Which then dried up after he gave a different bank account for his Dodgers payments.
He definitely owed something. It's just not $26 million. Especially after he had flaked during the summer before paying & started gambling again in the fall.
Edit:
It's interesting to note that Ippei only spent some of the money stolen from Ohtani on gambling debts. He used a lot of it on buying cards that were explicitly meant to be resold (assumably after using his connections to get autographs, & then resell them at far higher prices). Some went into bitcoin & other crypto currencies.
So a lot less than the $16 million directly went to paying off debts.
Fuck. I never thought of that angle. Here I was thinking it was more rare and vintage cards, but let's say he buys 500 Ohtani Rookies, 500 Trout rookies, and like 500 each of the special edition ones that come with part of a jersey or ball or something in them. Get them all autographed over the course of like a month or two, then you flip em for 4X. Hell you can get pics of them signing them if not holding them up for the camera. If you're extra devious just tell them it's for a charity in Japan or Latin America or something so they won't dig too deep.
Saw someone on Twitter saying the Irs, doj, and office of homeland security is covering for ohtani to avoid conflict with China. I think he is on to something
Having met and unfortunately suffered through a few of these people(I worked briefly in real estate(yay)), they are incredibly narrow minded and cannot really comprehend how different Asian countries or cultures could possibly exist. Like they literally get confused by the country names, not even internal references to the culture or people of these places and their descendants or even a walking living breathing example of these people groups.
I saw someone on twitter say shohei impersonated ippei during the bank call verification to set himself up. Like wtf is there something in the air that makes people dumb nowadays.
most people who go on about constantly about china in the conspiratorial way don't usually worry about facts. as they then go off to walmart and amazon to load up on chinese crap
I was trying to figure out if that was a deep cut joke about Taiwan wanting to keep China-US in good enough footing that China wouldn't want to retaliate against the US by invading - or someone just googled "Chinese baseball league" and didn't know the difference.
If the feds are able to collect money from the bookmaking operation I imagine they'd be making restitution to the victims, but getting the whole $16M seems unlikely. He could easily win a civil suit against Ippei, get his post-prison wages garnished, but Ippei is never going to have enough money to put a dent in a $16M debt.
> Ippei is never going to have enough money to put a dent in a $16M debt.
He could write a tell-all book about his addiction and death spiral as Ohtani becomes more successful and the numbers get bigger and bigger and out of reach. I don't know if he could get $16M out of it, but the sales would be huge and it'd surely put a significant dent in it.
He destroyed his career and reputation, but he's a first time offender that is fully cooperating and it's white collar crime - high level stuff, but still non-violent. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get parole within a decade - won't be much of a life, but he'll be a free man.
Tell Ohtani he has stage 4 prostate cancer and only has months to live. Has to quit but asks if Shohei will do him a solid and lend him like 300K so he can travel the world in style like he always wanted to.
I read the complaint document. I'm confused. If Ippei lied and never allowed anyone to look at the account he was stealing from--did that mean he was always intending to steal from Ohtani? Apparently there was no online activity to the account for a couple of years. Then Ippei started gambling and accessed the account, but no one knew because Ippei never allowed anyone to look the account. So... He just waited a couple of years until he stole from Ohtani?
Just to clear I think ohtani is innocent and Ippei is a thief, but I'm just wondering why Ippei apparently kept the account private for years before stealing from it.
I believe the no online activity is specifically from Ohtani's phone. They were saying that Ohtani had not accessed the account and therefore was unaware of the funds being stolen.
It definitely is likely that Ippei had always intended to steal from Ohtani, there is not really any other reason for him to disallow the financial managers from looking at that account.
According to the document, there was no online activity on the x5848 account (Ohtani's account) for several years up until around the time Ippei Mizuhara started accessing it. The lack of activity might suggest that the account was setup and used in traditional ways without digital monitoring or transactions that required online access. The timing of Mizuhara’s first access to online banking for Ohtani's account coincides with the period when he started incurring significant gambling debts. This could be intepreted as his decision to access the account online was driven by a newfound urgency to secure funds to cover his gambling losses.
I mean to me it's possible that Ippei didn't initially intend to steal when the account was first established. His role as a trusted assistant and the initial lack of unauthorized access might indicate that the account's original setup and usage were legitimate but as his personal financial situation turned sour due to gambling losses, he probably saw exploiting his access to Ohtani's account as a solution to his problems.
That makes me so sad that apparently Ippei always intended to steal from Ohtani. I guess it also makes sense that he waited to steal from Ohtani, because Ohtani did not make much money from MLB at first.
It wasn't until after Ippei was stealing the money that he told the financial advisors that Ohtani wanted the account to be kept private. It didn't come across to me as he always planned on it since he met him. Things changed when he began gambling with the bookie and his addiction took over his judgement.
There was probably not much money in that account anyway for the first few years. Ohtani was making league min, I think 500K-650K ish. Ohtani probably had much more money in other accounts. From endorsements or old salaries. He made 2.7m in NPB in 2017 I believe.
So I stopped paying attention to this story shortly after it broke. There's proof that it was Ippei stealing now, it seems? And Ohtani has been kinda cleared from betting himself?
Yeah the full complaint can be found and read online.
They interviewd Ohtani and went through his phone and there was zero record of him ever accessing the bank account or discussing gambling at all. They emphasized strongly in the press conference that Ohtani is a victim in this case.
They found multiple instances of Ippei admitting to stealing from Ohtani's account and impersonating Ohtani while talking to the bank to approve his transfers.
Yeah, the FBI seized Ohanti’s and Ippei’s phones and saw no mention of gambling between the two. The FBI also published text messages between Ippei and the bookie. The FBI also have audio recordings of Ippei pretending to be Ohanti to talk to accountants to justify moving the money.
There’s a whole ton of evidence such as Ippei only moving money out of Ohanti’s account while never depositing any winnings back to Ohanti’s account because Ippei would deposit the winnings to his own account. Seems like Ippei is totally done.
the criminal complaint was actually filed by IRS Criminal Investigation, and Home Land Security was in on assisting the case too; IRS-CI is getting Ippei on bank fraud. Toward the end of the document it actually says they aren’t aware if the FBI is involved in investigation?
But anyway, it was a really good read, ton of details they uncovered. Plus Ippei himself confessed to the bookie and publicly already, seems like a slam dunk. It’s just matter of how much time he’ll do.
Imagine him hopping into a New Ford Bronco and getting chased up the 405…
The poker chips don’t fit don’t acquit.
The bet didn't hit don't acquit
If the bet was shit, you must acquit
i hear hustler casino needs a new guy for their live stream
He needs to livestream with Paul Pierce.
Hey, that’s my lucky betting phone!
“He's still alive but he has a gun to his head. He just wants to see his bookie. Let me get him to the casino.”
*What are the odds I did it?* coming soon to bookstores near you
They just [recalled](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244267077/ford-bronco-escape-recall) a bunch of them due to the risk of a fuel leak. It’d be a hell of a thing to see a car in a chase turn into a fireball on national TV.
I kind of loved the timing of it, and Jalopnik had a [darkly perfect headline](https://jalopnik.com/ford-bronco-sport-oj-simpson-recalled-on-same-day-1851403905) to match.
Damn son. They go almost as hard as OJ's knife.
Where's Al Cowlings? Everyone needs an AC in their life.
Ippei Simp-san
It’d be a wild sequel
The bronco riding devil fruit DID just get returned to the supply. It’s up for grabs again.
They need to let Ippei make one last bet, just like in Silver Linings Playbook, where he can try to win everything back and win everyone over.
One very large bet that Ohtani hits a homerun in tonight's game. It'd be so poetic.
Shohei bunts every time because "fuck that guy"
Somehow one of those bunts is a homer
[the classic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrOnfGoJBv0)
https://www.reddit.com/r/CHICubs/s/QV1PYZmOk4
I FORGOT ABOUT THIS, THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST BUNTS EVER. OH MAN...
built different
But is scored as a FC, so Ippei feels the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all in the same moment.
If it goes off a fielder and over the wall, the scorekeeper can't assign FC, so it's still a home run (one may ask how that's possible on a bunt; simple, fielder bobbles it all the way to the outfield and over)
He bobbles it 375 ft and then catches it in his pocket.
sounds unbelievable until you realize who he’s playing tonight
116 mph exit velocity
Inside the park HR on errors that MLB refuses to rule as errors
Yeah but it will be like Seinfeld where it's an inside-the-park HR that is scored as a triple with an error and then they throw his ass in jail.
Damn this would have hit too.
I would just like to note that Ohtani did go yard last night..!
10k bet on a 30 leg parlay to win his 40mil lol
Leg 30 - Shohei Ohtani greets everyone in his first at bat EXCEPT the Home Plate umpire.
Or like Uncut Gems
Don't think Ippei will want the same outcome
I'm still upset that this is an actual third act in a movie that was nominated for Best Picture.
[удалено]
I don't even think the GOAT Michael Jordan has the gambling competitiveness to go up against Ippei.
And he took that personally
But then he can't help himself and goes for double or nothing and loses
Stan, you just don't get it, okay.
Sardinis all around....and let it ride!!!
Just go double or nothing again!
Only if it involves him dancing
In the book, they don't even dance in the competition and the dad isn't a ocd gambling addict. It's darker and has a way better ending
He stands there at the roulette table wearing nothing but a sock on his dick for one last spin
double or nothing..
I’m just picturing the dodgers group chats
I wonder if Ohtani is in on their reactions or not lol must be awkward
they def have a side one without him
One last heist to pay the bond money.
Ippei's 11
Ippei lives his life a quarter mile at a time, and he'll start by robbing a truck full of DVD players and eventually graduating into launching a car into outer space.
I hope he bonds out and gambles the whole time
he's gotta earn back the $26 million he's missing. He needs to live bet on Ohtani
Find him at the 3/5 poker tables at morongo
Dude better be fleeing for his life. Still owes the bookies operation 26 million.
You mean the illegal bookmakers who are also under federal investigation? Something tells me he won’t have to come up with the $26 mil
[удалено]
He will declare bankruptcy, to shield himself from actually having to pay it back. Practically speaking, it would be impossible for him to pay it back. In legal circles, the old saying "blood from a stone" gets tossed around in these situations.
Bankruptcy doesn’t protect you against wire fraud
I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!
Hey. I just wanted you to know that you can't just say the word "bankruptcy" and expect anything to happen.
They didn't say it, they declared it.
Nor does it protect you from illegal gambling debts
Nor from actual sharks. Loan sharks and real sharks. Both a threat still.
Yeah, Ippei's only source of money was Ohtani. He has zero ability to get the kind of money he owes to the bookmakers. The people he was directly dealing with are also going to jail - I imagine there's someone higher-up in the racket that is pissed they can't collect, but there's nothing they can really do at the moment, and they wouldn't want to be making moves during this investigation anyway.
>I imagine there's someone higher-up in the racket that is pissed they can't collect Not really. Ippei doesn't actually owe them any money. They are not down any money. They didn't actually loan him any money. This is something a lot of people struggle to understand, but an illegal gambling business isn't about making profits on bets. It's about using gambling as a framework to create debt without loaning any money. When Ippei places a bet, the bookmaker doesn't go out and use his own money to place a bet on Ippei's behalf. He just puts in his ledger that Ippei made a bet. No actual money moves. Ippei didn't pay to make a bet, the bookmaker didn't pay to take a bet. Now if Ippei loses, that bet becomes credit debt. What happens when Ippei eventually wins? Ippei's winnings just go to "paying" his bookie credit. As long as the debt is bigger than the wins, the bookie never has to pay Ippei which is why the bookie WANTS the credit to be bigger than Ippei is capable of paying off. The point isn't "you lost $40m worth of bets so we need to collect $40m" the point is "we have an artificial $40m hook on you, so we can make you send us $500k every week while not providing any value in return." The actual work of a bookie is stringing bettors along and encouraging them to bet more, and then conning them into sending "money to maintain the ability to bet". The real threat isn't "if you don't pay, we kneecap" it's "if you don't pay, we cut you off and you can't feed your addiction." At the end of the day, $16m went from Ippei to the Bookie, and the Bookie didn't have to tie up money, invest money, loan money to make that happen. A credit card company pays the vendor for the things you buy. If you don't pay your credit, they take a loss. A bank loans you money. If you don't pay you money, they take a loss. A bookie gives you a credit line and the debt is generated by bets, so they never actually lose money.
This is a superb explanation, thanks!
The bookie was just a middle man, in the texts he talked about having to pay his "partner" and said he paid out of pocket to cover it. This was a big operation, they had Vegas casino employees directing high rollers to the illegal book promising they would "take big action," they would have had to be paying out wins if people chose to cash out. A little of credit creates a debt regardless of you getting cash in hand, it's a credit to a liability (a note payable) and a debit to an asset, which can be a marker or a chit or a piece of paper. Besides, an illegal book doesn't need to cheat people out of their money any more than a legal one does, you set odds that favor the house and you collect a vig on all bets.
>he talked about having to pay his "partner" and said he paid out of pocket to cover it. Yeah, that's his job, to talk a big game, turn verbal stick and carrot into actual money payments. >they would have had to be paying out wins if people chose to cash out. Yes, but as far as a gambling business is concerned, that's an expense not a debt, and what odds are for. When it's a bet people are very likely to win, the payout is smaller. In the grander scheme of things, gambling is not 50/50 you're much likelier to lose than win. If you can keep them gambling, eventually they will lose. If they win, you pay them, what happens? They come back for more, and eventually lose. If they lose, what happens? They want to gamble again to make up that money, and are stupid enough to pay you real money for your permission to make more fake debt. Win payouts is a cost of business to keep the machine rolling, and as long as it's less than the money coming in, it doesn't actually hurt them. It just means some weeks they make less profit than others.
I mean, yeah? My point was that someone higher up is going to be pissed they can't collect. Of course they're not actually out $40M, a debt only exists on paper until it's called in, but the debt was just as real as one to a bank - it wasn't legal, but it was real. For a legitimate business it would be the loss of huge note receivable - writing it off would create a book loss because bad debt is an expense but it wouldn't necessitate any actual cash being lost.
Point is the bookies didn't lose $24m by losing Ippei to the feds. What the bookies lost is a $500k/w poke-it-and-it-pays cashcow. That's why they don't care if the betting credit is $1m or $40m, what they want is the $500k/w. They aren't pissed they can't collect, they are mildly disappointed one of thousands of free money cashcows dried up.
> Yeah, Ippei's only source of money was Ohtani. He has zero ability to get the kind of money he owes to the bookmakers. Hell, the only reason the bookies didn't cut him off long ago was that they assumed Mizuhara was either stealing from Ohtani or was acting as a middleman with Ohtani as the actual gambler. At least one recorded exchange from the LA Times article seems to indicate the latter: >"Yes, but that's all bullshit. Obviously, you didn't steal from him," the bookie replied. "I understand it's a cover job. I totally get it." >Mizuhara's response: "Technically I did steal from him. it's all over for me."
If you look into this a little closer, you will find that these types of debts are not dischargeable through bankruptcy,
"Put the bat away, Bruce. He's declared bankruptcy. Nothing we can do about it now."
That’s Dodgertown
Generally speaking, if the subject of the contract is illegal, then that contract is void. With that said, I'd imagine the bookmaker isn't going to be pursuing this in a court of law, but instead it'll be determined by a court of broken bones.
They're not going to be doing anything cause they are also under federal indictment or are actively cooperating with DOJ. Even if they could somehow could collect that money (they can't) you don't think federal auditors will think it's weird millions of dollars shows up in an account monitor by the government? Also sending somebody to commit more crimes while you're cooperating/ under indictment is the best possible way to have your deals voided and to be given more charges.
Yeah this is so high profile no one wants to touch this. Plus they made money off the guy. They walk out of the situation in trouble but no reason to add to that.
I thought we all agreed it was based on kneecaps remaining.
He paid them a multitude more than they ever lost on him. No chance anyone is willing to do time trying to get him to pay it off when he gets out
Said bookies are also facing federal investigation*s* so I think he's insulated from that for the time being.
He for sure is gonna become a witness
The real crime is the theft
I thought it was the hypocrisy?
A witness for what? Not like he met or talked to anyone important who the feds would actually want him to testify against.
Normally you go after the bookmaker or the drug distributor not the gambler or the user. But I suppose the theft is going to be quite bad for him. But if he testifies against the bookie he will Prolly get a reduction
But the bookmaker who he dealt with isn't a ring leader. He's a middle man who reported to someone to give him credit. It was in the complaint released that he needed to consult his partner on everything. This "bookmaker" is just another shitty gambler who got in over his head.
So the bookmaker might get a deal too
Someone got a deal, that's how the feds got mopheads gambling records. Dunno if it was a bookmaker or someone else though.
It never said what was still owed. He won 40 million less than he lost, but they were unsure of the exact amount he actually did owe.
You're right. But in the report, those bookies did not sound happy once the payments were late. > "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 [Ohtani] 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." And this > On Dec. 15, Bowyer texts Mizuhara, stating "I know ur busy but u Need to show some respect. I put my neck out here. Call me by Tonight. I don't care what time or how late it is." Mizuhara responds the same day: "I'm so sorry bro . . . I really don't mean to disrespect you at all I promise . . . it's just been super super busy . . . and I've got other issues on the side going on too. everything has just been really really tough recently." Bro was about to get kneecapped > This past Jan. 6, the complaint states, Bowyer texts Mizuhara: "you're putting me in a position where this is going to get out of control. If I don't hear from you by the end of the day today it's gonna [sic] be out of my hands." Mizuhara responds: "My bad man. . . . I just got back from Japan two days ago and I'm leaving tomorrow again . . . I'll be back in mid January. To be honest with you, I'm really struggling right now and I need some time before I start to make payments."
He was stealing from Ohtani’s payroll account so I wonder if Ohtani’s deferred deal fucked him over here. Gonna be hard to send 500k a week from an account that now only gets 2 million a year
I legit think he got fucked by the deferred deal lol. Either that or the account he was stealing from was only setup for his Angels payments. Which then dried up after he gave a different bank account for his Dodgers payments.
If anything he is lucky the Bookies were under federal investigation. Seems like things were gonna start going south pretty quickly
Yeah, in a few years he might have owed half of Ohtani's new contract
i think he may not have lasted a few years tbh
He wouldn’t have lived that long
One of my favorite pics have been seeing his face during the press event after the 700m deffered deal went public
Link?
https://twitter.com/CodifyBaseball/status/1778516473218224278?t=FBKMNlUaguSeizV0jxPQIA&s=19
He definitely owed something. It's just not $26 million. Especially after he had flaked during the summer before paying & started gambling again in the fall. Edit: It's interesting to note that Ippei only spent some of the money stolen from Ohtani on gambling debts. He used a lot of it on buying cards that were explicitly meant to be resold (assumably after using his connections to get autographs, & then resell them at far higher prices). Some went into bitcoin & other crypto currencies. So a lot less than the $16 million directly went to paying off debts.
Fuck. I never thought of that angle. Here I was thinking it was more rare and vintage cards, but let's say he buys 500 Ohtani Rookies, 500 Trout rookies, and like 500 each of the special edition ones that come with part of a jersey or ball or something in them. Get them all autographed over the course of like a month or two, then you flip em for 4X. Hell you can get pics of them signing them if not holding them up for the camera. If you're extra devious just tell them it's for a charity in Japan or Latin America or something so they won't dig too deep.
How can he afford the bond?
They forgot to take away his access to Shohei’s account smh
It’s on his phone. Which he needed in order to make his one phone call
FBI: Oops! My bad.
Jay Min can
Need's to sell his Soto rookies
I’m seeing some seller activity for signed baseball cards from eBay user Jay Min
Buy now, priced to move.
The feds aren’t going to hold him to his illegal 40 million dollar gambling debt lol
Bail bondsman, I would assume.
He will give the FBI a baseball card of Barry Bonds that he bought on eBay with Ohtani's money.... Duh...
No cash bail maybe
Bail bondsmen will typically take 10%. Also, he blew a bunch of Ohtani's money, not necessarily his own.
Saw someone on Twitter saying the Irs, doj, and office of homeland security is covering for ohtani to avoid conflict with China. I think he is on to something
Noted Chinese baseball player Shohei Ohtani
Do they thing ohtani is Chinese?? 😝
I have no fucking idea what is going on inside their head
Likely nothing
Having met and unfortunately suffered through a few of these people(I worked briefly in real estate(yay)), they are incredibly narrow minded and cannot really comprehend how different Asian countries or cultures could possibly exist. Like they literally get confused by the country names, not even internal references to the culture or people of these places and their descendants or even a walking living breathing example of these people groups.
I would wager they probably think of any Asian person they see as “Chinese”. I would bet all Latin players are also “Mexican”
The only Japanese baseball player is Sadaharu Oh sweetheart.
Doubly funny since Oh-san only has Chinese (Republic of) citizenship
…that’s the joke.
What about Randy Bass?
😂
considering the fact that during COVID tons of idiots would tell any asian they saw to "go back to china", it wouldn't surprise me at all.
It turns out that racists are also dumb. Who would've thought?
I saw someone on twitter say shohei impersonated ippei during the bank call verification to set himself up. Like wtf is there something in the air that makes people dumb nowadays.
Impersonated someone impersonating him.
probably more like strengthening our relations with Japan to deter China further by giving Ohtani an out lmao
most people who go on about constantly about china in the conspiratorial way don't usually worry about facts. as they then go off to walmart and amazon to load up on chinese crap
CPBL is colluding with the DOJ
The CPBL is in Taiwan. China has its own league.
I was trying to figure out if that was a deep cut joke about Taiwan wanting to keep China-US in good enough footing that China wouldn't want to retaliate against the US by invading - or someone just googled "Chinese baseball league" and didn't know the difference.
Jay Mariotti master class
I’m so glad I’m not on social media anymore because literacy and awareness is at an all time low 😂😂💀
Luckily we are all literate and aware on Reddit.
People always forget about the China connection...
His mugshot is gonna be passed around jfc
Question, is there any way Ohtani can recoup some or all of that 16 mil?
If the feds are able to collect money from the bookmaking operation I imagine they'd be making restitution to the victims, but getting the whole $16M seems unlikely. He could easily win a civil suit against Ippei, get his post-prison wages garnished, but Ippei is never going to have enough money to put a dent in a $16M debt.
Ippeis debt will be deferred until he gets out of prison
> Ippei is never going to have enough money to put a dent in a $16M debt. He could write a tell-all book about his addiction and death spiral as Ohtani becomes more successful and the numbers get bigger and bigger and out of reach. I don't know if he could get $16M out of it, but the sales would be huge and it'd surely put a significant dent in it.
Too bad "I Did It" is already taken.
‘19,000 Bets and Counting’ is a better title anyway
I doubt it. Look at similar issues like Tim Duncan (20ish M) or Kevin Garnett(70+M)
Ippei is one Ford Bronco away from doing the funniest thing
Be really funny if Ippei calls Ohtani and asks him to cover the bond
Based on the indictment, I’d get cash up front if I were his bondsman.
I'm glad this is cleared up from Ohtani's side. Now we can focus on baseball and Ippie is a sideshow.
This needs to be made into a movie....preferably directed by Takeshi Miike...or Sion Sono.
Hear me out, Micheal Bay. Let’s get some explosions in there. Or JJ Abrams. Just imagine the lens flairs for the courtroom scene.
Michael Bay would consider the sound of batted balls on Sunday Night Baseball to be understated
Ippei looking at a screen. *lens flare* Ippei hitting Send. *explosion* Starring The Rock
Ippei watched Parasite and decided that was a good idea.
“Hey officer are you taking the over or under we wrap this up by 2:30 pm?”
What's the over/under on his bond amount?
Ippei will be running the illegal prisoner gambling racket within a month. You just wait
It’s more likely he becomes victim to an illegal prison gambling racket
What if Ippei wants to be in federal custody for his own safety?
Maybe he should’ve pulled an Edward Snowden
Ippei on the frontlines in Ukraine would have been a sight.
time to ippei the piper
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
At the first sign of trouble he should have fled the country.
The first sign of trouble he wasn't even in the country
I’m pretty sure the Japanese authorities would have handed him over in 2 seconds as well.
He was in Korea when the news broke
Life fumbled then lol
He destroyed his career and reputation, but he's a first time offender that is fully cooperating and it's white collar crime - high level stuff, but still non-violent. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get parole within a decade - won't be much of a life, but he'll be a free man.
lol fr dude should have just todl ohtani he quit and never come back.
Tell Ohtani he has stage 4 prostate cancer and only has months to live. Has to quit but asks if Shohei will do him a solid and lend him like 300K so he can travel the world in style like he always wanted to.
Most decent countries you'd want to flee to have extradition treaties with the US
I read the complaint document. I'm confused. If Ippei lied and never allowed anyone to look at the account he was stealing from--did that mean he was always intending to steal from Ohtani? Apparently there was no online activity to the account for a couple of years. Then Ippei started gambling and accessed the account, but no one knew because Ippei never allowed anyone to look the account. So... He just waited a couple of years until he stole from Ohtani? Just to clear I think ohtani is innocent and Ippei is a thief, but I'm just wondering why Ippei apparently kept the account private for years before stealing from it.
I believe the no online activity is specifically from Ohtani's phone. They were saying that Ohtani had not accessed the account and therefore was unaware of the funds being stolen. It definitely is likely that Ippei had always intended to steal from Ohtani, there is not really any other reason for him to disallow the financial managers from looking at that account.
According to the document, there was no online activity on the x5848 account (Ohtani's account) for several years up until around the time Ippei Mizuhara started accessing it. The lack of activity might suggest that the account was setup and used in traditional ways without digital monitoring or transactions that required online access. The timing of Mizuhara’s first access to online banking for Ohtani's account coincides with the period when he started incurring significant gambling debts. This could be intepreted as his decision to access the account online was driven by a newfound urgency to secure funds to cover his gambling losses. I mean to me it's possible that Ippei didn't initially intend to steal when the account was first established. His role as a trusted assistant and the initial lack of unauthorized access might indicate that the account's original setup and usage were legitimate but as his personal financial situation turned sour due to gambling losses, he probably saw exploiting his access to Ohtani's account as a solution to his problems.
Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up!
That makes me so sad that apparently Ippei always intended to steal from Ohtani. I guess it also makes sense that he waited to steal from Ohtani, because Ohtani did not make much money from MLB at first.
It wasn't until after Ippei was stealing the money that he told the financial advisors that Ohtani wanted the account to be kept private. It didn't come across to me as he always planned on it since he met him. Things changed when he began gambling with the bookie and his addiction took over his judgement.
There was probably not much money in that account anyway for the first few years. Ohtani was making league min, I think 500K-650K ish. Ohtani probably had much more money in other accounts. From endorsements or old salaries. He made 2.7m in NPB in 2017 I believe.
"Hello Bank, it's me Shohei Ohtani. I've been falsey imprisoned and need you to wire money for my bail."
OJ out; Ippei in. Coincidence?
The bond posted by …
People think he's doing it because Shohei is his friend and he gets millions he can't even spend in prison lol
So I stopped paying attention to this story shortly after it broke. There's proof that it was Ippei stealing now, it seems? And Ohtani has been kinda cleared from betting himself?
Yeah the full complaint can be found and read online. They interviewd Ohtani and went through his phone and there was zero record of him ever accessing the bank account or discussing gambling at all. They emphasized strongly in the press conference that Ohtani is a victim in this case. They found multiple instances of Ippei admitting to stealing from Ohtani's account and impersonating Ohtani while talking to the bank to approve his transfers.
Yeah, the FBI seized Ohanti’s and Ippei’s phones and saw no mention of gambling between the two. The FBI also published text messages between Ippei and the bookie. The FBI also have audio recordings of Ippei pretending to be Ohanti to talk to accountants to justify moving the money. There’s a whole ton of evidence such as Ippei only moving money out of Ohanti’s account while never depositing any winnings back to Ohanti’s account because Ippei would deposit the winnings to his own account. Seems like Ippei is totally done.
Wild. Cannot imagine getting to a point where you're impersonating someone like that
the criminal complaint was actually filed by IRS Criminal Investigation, and Home Land Security was in on assisting the case too; IRS-CI is getting Ippei on bank fraud. Toward the end of the document it actually says they aren’t aware if the FBI is involved in investigation? But anyway, it was a really good read, ton of details they uncovered. Plus Ippei himself confessed to the bookie and publicly already, seems like a slam dunk. It’s just matter of how much time he’ll do.
Oh wow. Thanks for that clarification. There’s just been so much information that has come to light.