Ippei Mizuhara changed his story about Shohei Ohtani's role in gambling debts

Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s close friend and interpreter, abruptly changed his story over whether the Dodgers star had any knowledge of more than $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account to an illegal bookmaker.

Mizuhara was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday after Ohtani’s lawyers claimed the star player had been the subject of “a massive theft.” Reporting by the Los Angeles Times suggested that Mizuhara had taken millions of dollars from Ohtani in order to pay Mathew Bowyer, a Southern California bookmaker under federal investigation.

On Tuesday, however, Mizuhara had told a different story. ESPN became aware of two wire payments of $500,000 sent from Ohtani’s account to one of Bowyer’s associates last September and October, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. On Tuesday, an Ohtani spokesperson told ESPN that Ohtani had transferred the funds in order to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debt, and also made Mizuhara available for an interview.

In the interview with ESPN, Mizuhara said he had asked Ohtani to help him pay off his gambling debt, and that Ohtani decided to “help me out to make sure I never do this again.” The interpreter added that he had been under the impression that he was gambling legally, and that Ohtani had “zero involvement” in gambling himself. In addition, Mizuhara said he had promised to pay Ohtani back, and that Ohtani had refused to give him the money personally because the two-way star did not trust his interpreter to gamble it away. Mizuhara was adamant that he had never bet on baseball.

On Wednesday, when ESPN asked Ohtani’s spokesperson about Mizuhara’s claims about Ohtani helping move the money, Ohtani’s attorneys responded by issuing the statement claiming the player was the victim of “massive theft.” Mizuhara then walked back what he had told ESPN one day earlier, instead claiming that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts or efforts to pay them off.

Based on this reporting, both Ohtani’s camp and Mizuhara initially acknowledged that Ohtani had helped pay off Mizuhara’s debts, only to walk that back one day later. That will only prompt further questions about the payments linked to Ohtani’s account and whether the player was aware of them or not.

Mizuhara has served as Ohtani’s interpreter since Ohtani joined the Angels in 2017. The two had been known to be very close off the field to the point that they were rarely separated, with Mizuhara even running Ohtani’s errands for him.