Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani addressed the media for the first time since the gambling scandal involving him and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, broke last week. The scandal emerged as the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the San Diego Padres in MLB’s season opener in the Seoul Series in South Korea.
Here was the interaction between Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his translator Mizuhara
Through his new interpreter, Will Ireton, Ohtani read a statement addressing the situation. Despite not taking any questions from the media present at Dodger Stadium, he spoke for around 10 minutes and claimed that he knew nothing about Mizuhara’s gambling.
Ohtani accused Mizuhara of ‘stealing from him’ and denied using a middleman to place bets in his name, according to a statement excerpt from the Japanese.
Just on a personal note, I’m very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this. So, I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do that on my behalf. And I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know that this was happening.Just to kind of go over the result, in conclusion, Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.
The two versions of the story
The first version given by Ippei Mizuhara to ESPN’s Trisha Thompson mentions that Shohei Ohtani settled his debt to an illegal bookie, which amounted to $4.5 million; stressing that the player was not involved in his activities at all.
However, the version changed before the interview was published, with Ohtani’s lawyers now saying that the player knew nothing of Mizuhara’s activities and that he was ‘the victim of a massive theft’ from his bank accounts, and that the first version exposed by the performer was not true.
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