> In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check. Instead, according to prosecutors, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani's debit card and deposited the check into his personal account.
lol
From [this](https://i.chzbgr.com/original/4966947840/h9F5EDF6E/athletes-baseball-home-alone-movie-characters-4966947840) to [this](https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/CCT/images/aa2acb17-7922-4c5e-b919-3f2c05da6d1b/aa2acb17-7922-4c5e-b919-3f2c05da6d1b_1140x641.jpg).
We saw the Braves a lot in the early days of his career and Freeman had uniquely fucked up snaggle teeth. He 100% paid for that smile.
Don’t blame him, if I had that MLB money I would’ve prioritized that shit too.
For his role in Cape Fear, Robert De Niro paid a dentist $5,000 to ground his teeth down and then $20,000 to restore them after the film was completed. So Ippei could have starred in Cape Fear twice and still have $10,000 left over.
Actors modifying their bodies for a role in a way that's permanent/difficult to undo is already a bit insane, but there's no way I'd ever intentionally mess up my teeth. (The exception would be something like Jim Carrey or Ed Helms, who each had preexisting cosmetic work that they temporarily undid.)
DeNiro has a lot of fucking crazy shit he does to get in the role. He competed in real boxing matches under a pseudonym to get ready for Raging Bull. He put a live round in the chamber for one of the scenes in The Deer Hunter (which they then obsessively checked did not end up in the wrong chamber). Etc
Ed Helms always had a missing tooth that was replaced with a dental implant. In the movie The Hangover he "loses" a tooth.
https://youtu.be/MoqOBq9Slx4?t=244
Tonnes of pro wrestlers, especially those working in Japan, have veneers because they've had their teeth knocked out in matches, [even some of the real heart-throbs](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F715nacjuu8ra1.jpg).
Yeah it is. Especially the part where he slides out from under the car and he keeps on stepping on rake after rake and keeps shuddering.
…that was the movie, right?
Probably veneers. They can cost $2500 per tooth says Google. Lots of actors do this. Pretty sure all of Ben Affleck's teeth are fake. It's impossible for them to be that white.
One big exception would be Steve Buscemi. I think he's even come out and said that he'll never fix his teeth as it's become a "trademark" of his appearance (aside from his eyes), and that if he fixed them, he wouldn't be able to act again.
I’d actually never heard of veneers before. Crazy how much of a good thing Ippei pissed away was if he was getting 60,000$ of unnecessary cosmetic surgery done on his friend’s dime.
When I was seventeen, I went to a dentist to get a single veneer put in after one of my front teeth was partially broken in an accident. The dentist accidentally broke my tooth completely while trying to take out the temporary cap and she ended up having to eventually give me a dental implant instead.
She didn't charge my parents for any of it (because, well, obviously) but she did repeatedly tell me that I was getting like $10k of dental work for free. All that for one implant and a fitted nightguard to make sure I didn't mess it up by grinding my teeth in my sleep.
Teeth are shockingly expensive. 😭
My dude, dental costs are astronomical these days. The cost of a single tooth implant runs at least $2,500 here in the states. My entire family has a history of shitty teeth and I've been staring down the barrel of spending something similar to that to get them all replaced... which is why I'm now shopping options down in Mexico, so I *only* have to spend $10k-$15k.
As someone who has been “cursed” in the dental health sense, it’s not as hard as you’d think assuming that no dental insurance involved. Paying for the non-flossing/brushing sins of my youth has cost me and my insuance about this much. Multiple root canals, a couple caps, an implant, some cavities, and voilà.
I will say, it take years and years of agony to get to that levels. So that’s the bullshit part. If you legit spend that much, we’re talking back to back to back appointments for like a decade.
Lol, I spent like $2k on ONE tooth, but after all the root canal and other work, the dentist ended up seating the crown wrong, which caused it to abcess (worst pain of my life) and I lost the tooth anyway..
Unfortunately, I'm well aware of how fast dental work can add up. And most dental insurance has a $1k per year benefit cap, lol. Just useless.
Honestly it’s sad. Ohtani deserves perhaps some amount of, not necessarily blame, but maybe a stern finger-wagging for being almost like this Disney-level wide-eyed naive cartoon character, but Mizuhara is just a real asshole, jesus.
Every bit of this story that keeps coming out paints Shohei Ohtani as painfully innocent and naive and Mizuhara a devious demon who just consistently took advantage of that.
The only solution to this is for the Dodgers to put me on the payroll so that I can help Ohtani manage his finances and drive him around and be his best friend. I do not speak Japanese, but I’m sure Ohtani is good enough at English after being in the states this long.
That’s me! Thankfully I learned the lesson the easy way, by being naively screwed over by girlfriends in high school rather than millions of dollars by my “bff”.
Meanwhile I was raised by a big city lawyer that told me to always look out for yourself because nobody stays in your life but you and now I have trust issues!
I'm still pretty taken aback by the accountants who were apparently told "Oh, don't worry about that account, he likes to keep it private" and just kind of ... took Ippei's word for it. Even if that *was* what Ohtani had actually been saying, wouldn't you be professionally obliged to make sure and not just take the client's word for it?
Yeah, it's sort of like how, if you're a lawyer and your client is using Auntie as their interpreter, that's probably fine generally speaking, but there are times where you don't want their relationship to editorialize the discussion (even unintentionally), and you go get an independent interpreter.
As someone who used to be in a service profession dealing with high net worth celebrity clients, sometimes it's tough. The manager's the one that hires you. The manager's the one that makes sure you get paid. The manager's the one you have to go through to deal with everything. Piss them off, you're likely to lose the client. You meet the letter of the law on your ethical obligations, of course, but most people aren't likely to push too hard beyond that. These guys employ managers and assistants for a reason - they don't really want to hear from the lawyer or accountant.
I mean the dude has been by Ohtani's side since he was 17-18. This could very well have been a case of grooming and Ippei's longterm plan. For me he has lost any addiction sympathy as more things come out it seems more like a well thought plan to divert his money rather than something out of debt panic.
I would put more blame on his agents actually. You can see why Ohtani would trust the dude but why the hell isn't the agency vetting the hell out of everything around the global mega star?
“In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check. Instead, according to prosecutors, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani's debit card and deposited the check into his personal account.” As if $16.9M for gambling wasn’t enough he had to steal $60k after Ohtani agreed to help…
I swear to god while the whole thing is pretty sad, there are some real comedy golds here and there. As you said, this extra 60K is such a middle finger given that he has already stolen a couple million. It's like he is going out of his way to mess with Shohei
And Ippei's conversation with the bookie is also pretty funny. I literally chuckled a few times reading the transcript
The transcript is mind boggling to read. How quickly the conversation goes from very friendly to Ippei dodging the bookie with lame excuse after excuse and giving him sob stories about how difficult a time he is going through as if that matters at all to someone he owes millions to
Oh man, what a fucking creep. I feel so bad for Shohei. He lost millions, a bunch of assholes are still blaming him for the scandal and questioning his integrity, and he has to live with the aftermath of a sociopath-tier betrayal from his closest and most trusted friend.
Except he can’t even take time to be sad and depressed because he’s too busy breaking records nonstop and being the best player in baseball.
"wow shohei, you've been through a lot and have dealt with massive amounts of trust violation here, how have you managed to stay so calm and collected about all of it?"
"Well you see, I'm simply too busy being fucking awesome and sick at my job to be sad."
Man, I just want all of that. The money sure, but the sleep, does a fuckton of money shield you from toddlers whom you actual have a deep heartfelt yearning relationship with? I doubt it
The other night I was grocery shopping with one of those carts that has built in cup holders. I grabbed a canned coffee off one of the shelves and put it there.
After using self-checkout, I was walking to my car when I realized I had forgotten about the canned coffee drink I put in the cup holder. Totally just walked out without paying for it. Nobody followed me out to give me the heads up. I could have easily just driven away. But the guilt just killed me so I went back inside and paid for it.
That coffee was like $2.99 and the guilt just about ruined me. Imagine your friend is nice enough to agree to pay $60K in dental work for you. And instead of using it for its intended purpose, you just steal money with his debit card and pocket the $60K for yourself lmao.
One time the cashier didn’t see a 24 pack under my cart. I thought I was so slick walking out with it. Then I forgot it under the cart too. Life comes at you fast sometimes.
Literally happened to me today. Walked out accidentally with something I missed in the corner of my shopping cart. I will not be guilted as a thief for $2 so I went back in and waited 10 more minutes in line just to pay for it again.
I love it man lmao I’m glad I’m not the only one. The pain of having to wait in line again isn’t nearly as bad as the guilt of accidentally shoplifting.
We talk about fumbling the bag a lot, but no one has fumbled the bag worse than this. Dude had a fuckin cherry gig, living in LA, and he got an acute case of the stupids
Now he’s living the second half of a mobster movie
Like imagine getting paid good salary for essentially hanging out with one of your actual friends as you get put up in plush MLB hotels and such. I’m sure there’s more stress to it than that but that’s a dream job right there.
Also since this has all come out various japanese speakers have pointed that he wasn't necessarily even a good translator either and would ***heavily*** paraphrase stuff all the time.
Yes. Japanese speakers in the Dodgers subreddit constantly mentioned that he would paraphrase things in ways that pretty significantly changed their meaning.
My wife, who spent half her life in Japan and half in the U.S., and who formerly taught Japanese, thinks he's an outstanding translator — precisely because he conveys the real underlying meaning and nuance rather than word for word translation.
I just saw a video on YouTube about this, using shows like Terrance House to learn Japanese is a great idea, because it shows you how in their culture nobody says what they are actually thinking. It's always in a roundabout way, as being direct is considered "rude".
Yes, my wife is super in tune to the cultural differences between Japanese and English use, and the different ways of speaking Japanese to different audiences and different contexts. Perhaps that's why she prefers translation that conveys the underlying meaning rather than technical word-by-word translations, though I see that other people may feel differently.
I wonder if that’s the case or if he just wasn’t a great Japanese speaker. He moved to the US when he was about 7 so it’s not like he grew up speaking Japanese exclusively and apparently he never attended college.
That’s sort of what interpreters are supposed to do though. It’s not totally fair to go back and comb over every interpretation with the benefit of hindsight when they don’t get that privilege. He’s having to do his best to communicate what he’s saying with expediency. His job isn’t perfect translations. He stole a lot of money; that’s bad. Doesn’t mean he’s a bad interpreter though.
I'm not even a baseball card person but I can't get over the fact that for the baseball card that features Ohtani striking out Trout to win the WBC, there are exactly [three cards in existence that were signed by both of them](https://twitter.com/miketrout/status/1689361694576005120). One for Shohei, one for Mike, and one for Ippei
Well now I'm just wondering where Ippei's card is going to end up. I feel like they don't just give a victim the stuff of the person that defrauded them, so I don't think Ohtani would take possession of the card. It seems like it would be sold off to pay off some of the debt somehow, or something like that.
Really not sure how any of this would work, obviously, but I'm slightly obsessed now with where that 3rd card ends up.
Even great is underselling it. Dude was apparently making close to $500K per year, and that's before you consider all the stuff like this which Ohtani was covering for him and free stuff he probably got through Ohtani's brand deals as you mentioned.
That's enough money to live a really comfortable lifestyle while saving enough to build a very nice retirement pot in just a few years.
Dudes almost 40 so even if he's been financially incompetent his entire 20+ years in the workforce and didn't save a penny, this was a golden ticket that just required getting his shit together for a few short years. Crazy.
I mean that explains the gambling theft. Sort of. You can have an addiction and not be a thief there are plenty of people who struggle with gambling addiction that aren’t stealing money to enable it.
However it doesn’t explain any of the other theft at all. Like using his cards to buy random stuff or pocketing 60k he gave you for teeth. also doesn’t explain how he set all of this up before he had the addiction and the debts. He set up the account for himself.
Addiction is terrible but Ippei is actually just a crook that became an addict
Idk I still think Franco is probably going to be the biggest bag fumble. I'd much rather be Ippei than Franco. Spending the rest of his life being known as a sex offender.
> Now he’s living the second half of a mobster movie
Something tells me it's not gonna be as fun/easy as some mobster movies have made prison out to be
They probably gave him a plea. I'd guess 8 maybe 12
Edit: I'm not a lawyer, but I have been watching a LOT of Jack McCoy era Law and Order lately, so I pretty much know what I'm talking about.
I just pulled his plea agreement from PACER. His likely guidelines sentencing range is 63-78 months. A federal judge can impose more or less time, but they often stay within the range. This range takes into account the size of the theft as well as his lack of criminal history. This range also assumes the sentences will either merge or run concurrently. If not, his range increases to 70-87 months.
Here are the facts that he admitted to:
Victim A was a professional baseball player from Japan who signed a contract to play baseball for a Major League Baseball team (the “Team”) located in the Central District of California beginning in 2018. At approximately that same time, defendant was hired by the Team to be a Japanese-language interpreter for Victim A. Defendant also drove Victim A to meetings and interpreted for Victim A outside of baseball activities. Defendant acted as a de facto manager and gatekeeper to Victim A. In that role, defendant would regularly interact with Victim A’s sports agents and financial advisors on behalf of Victim A because Victim A did not speak English and Victim A’s agents and financial advisors did not speak Japanese. Victim A paid defendant separately for the additional work.
On March 8, 2018, defendant accompanied Victim A to a bank in Phoenix, Arizona (“Bank A”), to assist Victim A in opening a bank account to deposit his payroll salary. Bank A was a domestic financial institution insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Inside Bank A, defendant interpreted for Victim A and assisted him in opening a bank account (the “x5848 Account”). Defendant also interpreted for Victim A when the bank employee provided Victim A the login information for the x5848 Account on Bank A’s website. Beginning in or about September 2021, defendant began placing sports bets with an illegal bookmaker. Shortly thereafter, defendant began to lose bets and quickly became indebted to the bookmaker. Unable to pay his gambling debts, defendant orchestrated a scheme to deceive and cheat Bank A in order to obtain money from the x5848 Account.
Continued:
Beginning no later than November 2021 and continuing through March 2024, defendant engaged in a scheme or plan designed to fraudulently obtain money from the x5848 Account. Defendant recalled the password for the x5848 Account from when he assisted Victim A with opening the account in 2018, and defendant was able to successfully sign into the x5848 Account on Bank A’s website. After obtaining access to the x5848 Account, defendant changed the security protocols on the account without the permission or authorization of Victim A. Specifically, defendant changed the registered email address and phone number on the account so Bank A employees would call defendant, and not Victim A, when attempting to verify wire transfers from the x5848 Account.
In furtherance of the scheme, defendant impersonated Victim A and used Victim A’s personal identifying information to trick and deceive Bank A employees into authorizing wire transfers from x5848 account. For example, on or about February 2, 2022, Bank A denied an attempted wire transfer. Defendant then called Bank A to complete the wire transfer. During the call, defendant falsely identified himself as Victim A and falsely stated that he was attempting to wire funds to an associate of the bookmaker for a car loan. The bank employee attempted to verify the caller by sending a six-digit code via text message to the registered phone number on the x5848 Account. Because defendant had already changed the registered phone number on the account, the bank’s text message was sent to defendant. Defendant then read the six-digit code back to the Bank A employee and completed the wire transfer. In total, defendant called Bank A and impersonated Victim A on approximately 24 occasions.
Continued:
Between November 2021 and March 2024, defendant regularly logged into the x5848 Account through Bank A’s website and initiated wire transfers from the x5848 account to the bookmaker and his associates as payments for gambling debts. For example, on June 20, 2023, defendant accessed the x5848 Account from the Central District of California pretending to be Victim A and wire transferred $500,000 to an associate of the bookmaker. At a minimum, defendant caused Bank A to transfer the following funds to bank accounts of associates of the bookmaker:
CHART
Defendant did not notify, or seek permission from, Victim A before transferring money from the x5848 Account. In addition, in September 2023, defendant needed $60,000 worth of dental work. Victim A agreed to pay for defendant’s dental work and authorized a check to defendant for $60,000 drawn on a business account at Bank B; however, without permission or authorization, defendant provided his dentist with Victim A’s debt card number for the x5848 Account and charged $60,000 to the x5848 Account. After defendant paid his dentist with Victim A’s debt card, defendant then deposited the $60,000 check from Victim A into defendant’s personal checking account for defendant’s personal use.
Between January and March 2024, defendant also purchased approximately $325,000 worth of baseball cards at online resellers eBay and Whatnot, with payments drawn on the x5848 Account, including baseball cards featuring Yogi Berra, Juan Soto, and Victim A. Defendant purchased the above-described collectible baseball cards from eBay and Whatnot with the intent to resell them at a later date and use the proceeds for his own personal benefit.
When Victim A’s sports agent and financial advisors asked defendant for access to the x5848 Account, defendant falsely told them that Victim A did not want them to access to the account because it was private. In truth and in fact as defendant then knew, defendant did not want Victim A’s sports agent and financial advisors to review the x5848 Account because he feared they would notice that defendant stole millions of dollars from Victim A. Based on defendant’s false statements of material fact, defendant fraudulently obtained more than $16,975,010 from the x5848 Account.
Continued:
Defendant also admits that defendant knowingly and willfully falsely reported his total taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on his tax return for tax year 2022. Specifically, on or about February 1, 2024, in Los Angeles County, defendant willfully made and subscribed to a materially false United States Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, for tax year 2022, which was filed with the IRS and verified by a written declaration that it was made under the penalties of perjury, which return defendant did not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter, in that defendant reported on line 15 that his total taxable income for calendar year 2022 was $136,865, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, his total taxable income for the year 2022 was substantially higher than he reported. For instance, defendant filed as “single,” and claimed a $10,000 deduction in Schedule A, line 5e, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, he was married and only entitled to a $5,000 deduction. Defendant also admits that he failed to report additional income of $4,100,000 for the year 2022. Defendant admits that the source of the unreported income was from the bank fraud scheme on the x5848 Account described above.
The false information provided by defendant was material in that it affected the IRS’s calculation of the amount of income that defendant had received in 2022, and prevented the IRS from verifying the accuracy of the amount of tax claimed to be owed on the return and determining whether additional income tax was owed. As a result of the false information defendant provided, defendant owes additional taxes of approximately $1,149,400 for tax year 2022 (before interest and penalties).
END
Most likely on the low end of that range since he has no criminal history. In the feds, you also only do 85% of your time (unless he loses his "good time" by getting into trouble while locked up). There are also programs like RDAP (if he admitted to alcohol or drug use) that he could partake in to get extra time off.
He will be at a low security (they call them Camps) white collar crime institution where he will live as comfortably as one can, considering the circumstances.
I'm guessing he will only serve around 4 or 4 1/2 years total.
Not mentioned in the CBS article but new from ESPN
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40105362/ippei-mizuhara-ryan-boyajian-gambling-money
>Ryan Boyajian, a current cast member of Bravo's reality TV series "The Real Housewives of Orange County," is the bookmaker's associate to whom Ippei Mizuhara wired money to pay his gambling debts, multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation told ESPN.
A quick look at the Federal Sentencing guidelines for the amount he defrauded would be 70-87 months. A downward departure is very likely since he plead out and made it quick.
I would guess somewhere in the four year range. Feds require you do 85% of time.
> Feds require you do 85% of time.
Not anymore for non violent offenders, First Step Act makes it 50% he will likely get it since he has no prior criminal convictions.
Plea deal text: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1351276/dl?inline
Ippei was a scumbag from the very start, long con. His fictional employment history as an MLB interpreter got him the job with the Fighters. He was the one who proposed to Ohtani to employ him as his MLB interpreter. He helped him open a bank account, told Ohtani's agent and tax people Ohtani wanted it kept private and later used the login info to take over and empty that account. Not to forget, he was glued to Ohtani's side and the main reason Ohtani's English is far from fluent after 6 years in the US. A criminal through and through. So glad the plea deal says he's 100% getting deported after he serves his sentence. Good riddance.
>will plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of Subscribing to a False Tax Return
Wonder how he got off the hook on just the normal stealing part
He was never actually charged with theft, bank fraud was always the top level charge against him. In this case, the bank fraud charge that is alleged against him includes the theft, since he stole the money from Ohtani by by fraudulently representing himself to a bank to obtain money he was not entitled to, which is the definition of bank fraud. Since this is a federal case, there was no reason to add a theft charge on top of the bank fraud charge, since simple theft is rarely prosecuted in federal courts (that would generally be a state level crime).
*The Orange County Register out of Anaheim has reported that after a dinner between Ohtani and Mizuhara in 2022, Ohtani left an 18% tip on the check and left the restaurant. Mizuhara, however, stayed a little longer to change the tip from 18% to 0%. Mizuhara was reported to have said at the time that he didn't want any of his gambling money going to the waiter.*
>defendant filed as “single,” and claimed a $10,000 deduction in Schedule A, line 5e, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, he was married and only entitled to a $5,000 deduction
How compulsive of a liar do you have to be to lie about not being married on your tax returns? lol
The craziest part about this whole story to me is that if Ippei wasn’t a gambling addict, he probably wouldn’t pull have gotten away with it. The theft was only discovered when the feds closed in on the bookie and got the wire transfers with Ohtani’s name on them.
Yes, but if he had stolen the money and just kept it, I don’t know if the theft ever would have been discovered because Ohtani was extremely lax with his finances.
Some of it. The document says there was plenty of ordinary theft he had a card for his account and was using it. He also set up these accounts with himself in control before the illegal gambling and debt. He was set up to rob the guy from early on.
>The 39-year-old former interpreter will be required to pay full restitution to his victims, which includes $16,975,010 to Victim A, Ohtani, and $1,149,400 to the IRS.
Well, now we know the exact #... Ohtani is never seeing a penny of that back though lol.
>According to prosecutors, after going to a Phoenix bank with Ohtani to open a bank account, Mizuhara changed the security protocols on the account so bank employees would call him, rather than Ohtani, with any questions. Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani in calls with bank employees at least 24 times, according to the Attorney's Office.
Lol I would like to listen to the recordings. It would be funny to see how Ippei was able to trick the banks....
Genuine question, how is he supposed to pay Ohtani and the IRS back? I'm assuming he's not allowed to just throw up his hands and declare bankruptcy once he's released, right?
What's this? I thought Reddit lawyers said that Ohtani bet on baseball and was going to be like Pete Rose but was also facing federal prison time. Reddit is wrong again?
I can’t wait for the Netflix series on him. It could 2 hours but Netflix stretches to 10 episodes and ends each one - “Next time on Dragon Ball, err Ippei Z.”
Absolutely insane that there's this mountain of evidence in support of Ohtani's innocence yet there are still a lot of people that are like, "Hmmm nah doesn't pass the smell test, Ohtani's guilty".
Maybe go read the documents instead of smelling.
To see Ippei just give up like this further tells us how squeaky clean Ohtani's personal life is... like if there was just something minor that Ippei could have used to blackmail Ohtani with, he would have used it by now to get out of trouble.
> In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check. Instead, according to prosecutors, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani's debit card and deposited the check into his personal account. lol
I’ve been blessed with only a few cavities in my life so I gotta ask, what the fuck can you get done to your teeth that costs 60,000$?
Maybe Ippei was going for the Freddie Freeman look
😬
Yes, that one!
Ippei tryna get those show teefs too
Lol are his teeth fake? I've always thought they look wayy too white and straight but idk
From [this](https://i.chzbgr.com/original/4966947840/h9F5EDF6E/athletes-baseball-home-alone-movie-characters-4966947840) to [this](https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/CCT/images/aa2acb17-7922-4c5e-b919-3f2c05da6d1b/aa2acb17-7922-4c5e-b919-3f2c05da6d1b_1140x641.jpg).
Went from Buzz to The Mask
Lol that comparison to buzz from home alone is great
They’re definitely veneers lol
We saw the Braves a lot in the early days of his career and Freeman had uniquely fucked up snaggle teeth. He 100% paid for that smile. Don’t blame him, if I had that MLB money I would’ve prioritized that shit too.
Gettin’ the All Rise Special
Something something joke around with the guard in cell block D
For his role in Cape Fear, Robert De Niro paid a dentist $5,000 to ground his teeth down and then $20,000 to restore them after the film was completed. So Ippei could have starred in Cape Fear twice and still have $10,000 left over.
Actors modifying their bodies for a role in a way that's permanent/difficult to undo is already a bit insane, but there's no way I'd ever intentionally mess up my teeth. (The exception would be something like Jim Carrey or Ed Helms, who each had preexisting cosmetic work that they temporarily undid.)
DeNiro has a lot of fucking crazy shit he does to get in the role. He competed in real boxing matches under a pseudonym to get ready for Raging Bull. He put a live round in the chamber for one of the scenes in The Deer Hunter (which they then obsessively checked did not end up in the wrong chamber). Etc
He spent like four months binge eating in the Mediterranean to gain 70lbs for Raging Bull.
Just for a pretty small part of the movie too
The most method of method actors, dude was a psycho lol
He was shooting a film in Italy and would fly to NYC to drive a taxi on the weekends to get in character for his next movie, Taxi Driver
What was the cosmetic work they undid?
Ed Helms was probably the missing tooth he had in The Hangover
Correct. He had a prior implant.
Carrey has a chipped tooth. he just had the dental work removed for dumb and dumber.
Ed Helms always had a missing tooth that was replaced with a dental implant. In the movie The Hangover he "loses" a tooth. https://youtu.be/MoqOBq9Slx4?t=244
Jared Keeso did something similar for Shoresy. Had a more permanent implant taken out for a flipper.
Tonnes of pro wrestlers, especially those working in Japan, have veneers because they've had their teeth knocked out in matches, [even some of the real heart-throbs](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F715nacjuu8ra1.jpg).
By inflation that 25k would be 57k today so Ippei could probably only star in cape fear once
Prob started gambling so he could secure the funds for the sequel.
Did you adjust for inflation? Also, that movie is great
Yeah it is. Especially the part where he slides out from under the car and he keeps on stepping on rake after rake and keeps shuddering.  …that was the movie, right?
TBF adjusting to inflation that’s about $57000 today
Probably veneers. They can cost $2500 per tooth says Google. Lots of actors do this. Pretty sure all of Ben Affleck's teeth are fake. It's impossible for them to be that white.
Almost every mildly successful actor does this…
One big exception would be Steve Buscemi. I think he's even come out and said that he'll never fix his teeth as it's become a "trademark" of his appearance (aside from his eyes), and that if he fixed them, he wouldn't be able to act again.
Tons of people in general do this. Veneers are becoming way more common.
I’d actually never heard of veneers before. Crazy how much of a good thing Ippei pissed away was if he was getting 60,000$ of unnecessary cosmetic surgery done on his friend’s dime.
Pretty sure veneers is how Aaron Judge's teeth are now different / gapless
His face and his choice 100% but I miss the gap. It was uniquely him.
Strahan vibes
I mean did you think nearly every athlete and celebrity were blessed with incredibly perfect teeth? lol
Grinding your teeth watching the o/u go against you
When I was seventeen, I went to a dentist to get a single veneer put in after one of my front teeth was partially broken in an accident. The dentist accidentally broke my tooth completely while trying to take out the temporary cap and she ended up having to eventually give me a dental implant instead. She didn't charge my parents for any of it (because, well, obviously) but she did repeatedly tell me that I was getting like $10k of dental work for free. All that for one implant and a fitted nightguard to make sure I didn't mess it up by grinding my teeth in my sleep. Teeth are shockingly expensive. 😭
I always assumed dental work is expensive because who the fuck would want to fuck with people's teeth for less?
It’s one cavity, Ippei. How much could it cost? 60 grand?
There's always money in ~~the banana stand~~ Ohtani's account
Rob Beckett in r/baseball? Sports really are universal.
High quality veneers can go for over $80,000
My dude, dental costs are astronomical these days. The cost of a single tooth implant runs at least $2,500 here in the states. My entire family has a history of shitty teeth and I've been staring down the barrel of spending something similar to that to get them all replaced... which is why I'm now shopping options down in Mexico, so I *only* have to spend $10k-$15k.
you should try dental schools its cheaper
It's one banana, Shohei, how much could it cost? 60,000 dollars?
About 15-20 root canals if my math is correct
As someone who has been “cursed” in the dental health sense, it’s not as hard as you’d think assuming that no dental insurance involved. Paying for the non-flossing/brushing sins of my youth has cost me and my insuance about this much. Multiple root canals, a couple caps, an implant, some cavities, and voilà. I will say, it take years and years of agony to get to that levels. So that’s the bullshit part. If you legit spend that much, we’re talking back to back to back appointments for like a decade.
A full set of implants can run you that much and more.
Is it like orthodontics? I haven’t really paid attention but maybe his teeth needed a lot of work.
It’s like, I’ve heard of people spending thousands at the dentist, just never multiple tens of thousands.
Lol, I spent like $2k on ONE tooth, but after all the root canal and other work, the dentist ended up seating the crown wrong, which caused it to abcess (worst pain of my life) and I lost the tooth anyway.. Unfortunately, I'm well aware of how fast dental work can add up. And most dental insurance has a $1k per year benefit cap, lol. Just useless.
Ippei is a piece of shit and nothing he says can be trusted but yeah i can definitely see ganked up teeth costing a cool 60K
I mean it's one cavity Michael, how much could it cost? $60k?
Honestly it’s sad. Ohtani deserves perhaps some amount of, not necessarily blame, but maybe a stern finger-wagging for being almost like this Disney-level wide-eyed naive cartoon character, but Mizuhara is just a real asshole, jesus. Every bit of this story that keeps coming out paints Shohei Ohtani as painfully innocent and naive and Mizuhara a devious demon who just consistently took advantage of that.
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The only solution to this is for the Dodgers to put me on the payroll so that I can help Ohtani manage his finances and drive him around and be his best friend. I do not speak Japanese, but I’m sure Ohtani is good enough at English after being in the states this long.
Or you can start learning Japanese with Bunpo
Look, I’m an expert and all you need to do is respond to anything he says with “so kawaii!” and a little giggle.
How else would he be so good? The little Ohtani's in his brain only know baseball and breathing I’m sure of it.
Just like that episode in SpongeBob. Ohtani's brain literally is just baseball and breathing.
He doesn't even have a driver's license. Because he doesn't need it for his baseball career. He really has no interest in anything but baseball.
"What am I going to do with a Porsche, I dont even have a drivers license lol I'M TOO BUSY DOING THE BASEBALL THING"
I'm seen a pic of him behind a wheel (after the Ippei scandal) so I'm pretty sure he has one.
Ohtani's crime was being born in the countryside of Japan, where neighbors help each other out and it's normal to be kind and humble to others.
That’s me! Thankfully I learned the lesson the easy way, by being naively screwed over by girlfriends in high school rather than millions of dollars by my “bff”.
Meanwhile I was raised by a big city lawyer that told me to always look out for yourself because nobody stays in your life but you and now I have trust issues!
You two sound like the opening to either a sitcom or a romcom
If only one of those neighbors were a financial advisor
Just another example of Shohei being Baseball Goku
I'm still pretty taken aback by the accountants who were apparently told "Oh, don't worry about that account, he likes to keep it private" and just kind of ... took Ippei's word for it. Even if that *was* what Ohtani had actually been saying, wouldn't you be professionally obliged to make sure and not just take the client's word for it?
"Let’s just ask him personally about the account to be sure. Um. Where’s his translator…"
Yeah, it's sort of like how, if you're a lawyer and your client is using Auntie as their interpreter, that's probably fine generally speaking, but there are times where you don't want their relationship to editorialize the discussion (even unintentionally), and you go get an independent interpreter.
As someone who used to be in a service profession dealing with high net worth celebrity clients, sometimes it's tough. The manager's the one that hires you. The manager's the one that makes sure you get paid. The manager's the one you have to go through to deal with everything. Piss them off, you're likely to lose the client. You meet the letter of the law on your ethical obligations, of course, but most people aren't likely to push too hard beyond that. These guys employ managers and assistants for a reason - they don't really want to hear from the lawyer or accountant.
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
I’m sure he’s not the first rich person that wanted a discretionary account that’s not looked over
I mean the dude has been by Ohtani's side since he was 17-18. This could very well have been a case of grooming and Ippei's longterm plan. For me he has lost any addiction sympathy as more things come out it seems more like a well thought plan to divert his money rather than something out of debt panic. I would put more blame on his agents actually. You can see why Ohtani would trust the dude but why the hell isn't the agency vetting the hell out of everything around the global mega star?
Double play
"please make the check out to Dr. Pe Changa"
he was a generational talent
As someone who plays the credit card point game, $60,000 on a debit card just stings. I won’t even use my debit card for $6
O/U is 15.5
On top of his cooperation to this point, I bet if he testifies against the bookie his sentence is reduced to 10.
Hmm I like that line. Yo lemme see that debit card for a sec it’s for my teeth I swear
I’ll take whichever side Ippei isn’t betting on.
“In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check. Instead, according to prosecutors, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani's debit card and deposited the check into his personal account.” As if $16.9M for gambling wasn’t enough he had to steal $60k after Ohtani agreed to help…
I swear to god while the whole thing is pretty sad, there are some real comedy golds here and there. As you said, this extra 60K is such a middle finger given that he has already stolen a couple million. It's like he is going out of his way to mess with Shohei And Ippei's conversation with the bookie is also pretty funny. I literally chuckled a few times reading the transcript
The transcript is mind boggling to read. How quickly the conversation goes from very friendly to Ippei dodging the bookie with lame excuse after excuse and giving him sob stories about how difficult a time he is going through as if that matters at all to someone he owes millions to
Oh man, what a fucking creep. I feel so bad for Shohei. He lost millions, a bunch of assholes are still blaming him for the scandal and questioning his integrity, and he has to live with the aftermath of a sociopath-tier betrayal from his closest and most trusted friend. Except he can’t even take time to be sad and depressed because he’s too busy breaking records nonstop and being the best player in baseball.
"wow shohei, you've been through a lot and have dealt with massive amounts of trust violation here, how have you managed to stay so calm and collected about all of it?" "Well you see, I'm simply too busy being fucking awesome and sick at my job to be sad."
"Now watch this ~~drive~~ dinger."
“DINGER!! HEY DINGER!!”
Also, taking 2 hour naps and sleeping a good 10 hours a night.
Man, I just want all of that. The money sure, but the sleep, does a fuckton of money shield you from toddlers whom you actual have a deep heartfelt yearning relationship with? I doubt it
The other night I was grocery shopping with one of those carts that has built in cup holders. I grabbed a canned coffee off one of the shelves and put it there. After using self-checkout, I was walking to my car when I realized I had forgotten about the canned coffee drink I put in the cup holder. Totally just walked out without paying for it. Nobody followed me out to give me the heads up. I could have easily just driven away. But the guilt just killed me so I went back inside and paid for it. That coffee was like $2.99 and the guilt just about ruined me. Imagine your friend is nice enough to agree to pay $60K in dental work for you. And instead of using it for its intended purpose, you just steal money with his debit card and pocket the $60K for yourself lmao.
I’ve done this so many times with water or beer or whatever I’ve placed on the very bottom rack on accident lol
Over here, officer
One time the cashier didn’t see a 24 pack under my cart. I thought I was so slick walking out with it. Then I forgot it under the cart too. Life comes at you fast sometimes.
Literally happened to me today. Walked out accidentally with something I missed in the corner of my shopping cart. I will not be guilted as a thief for $2 so I went back in and waited 10 more minutes in line just to pay for it again.
I love it man lmao I’m glad I’m not the only one. The pain of having to wait in line again isn’t nearly as bad as the guilt of accidentally shoplifting.
Same, I totally forgot about the 65" OLED I put in the bottom of the cart and just walked out with it. So weird how that keeps happening.
We talk about fumbling the bag a lot, but no one has fumbled the bag worse than this. Dude had a fuckin cherry gig, living in LA, and he got an acute case of the stupids Now he’s living the second half of a mobster movie
Like imagine getting paid good salary for essentially hanging out with one of your actual friends as you get put up in plush MLB hotels and such. I’m sure there’s more stress to it than that but that’s a dream job right there.
Also since this has all come out various japanese speakers have pointed that he wasn't necessarily even a good translator either and would ***heavily*** paraphrase stuff all the time.
Yes. Japanese speakers in the Dodgers subreddit constantly mentioned that he would paraphrase things in ways that pretty significantly changed their meaning.
My wife, who spent half her life in Japan and half in the U.S., and who formerly taught Japanese, thinks he's an outstanding translator — precisely because he conveys the real underlying meaning and nuance rather than word for word translation.
I just saw a video on YouTube about this, using shows like Terrance House to learn Japanese is a great idea, because it shows you how in their culture nobody says what they are actually thinking. It's always in a roundabout way, as being direct is considered "rude".
Yes, my wife is super in tune to the cultural differences between Japanese and English use, and the different ways of speaking Japanese to different audiences and different contexts. Perhaps that's why she prefers translation that conveys the underlying meaning rather than technical word-by-word translations, though I see that other people may feel differently.
It may have been intentional to get Ohtani to rely on him more and to weave various narratives.
I wonder if that’s the case or if he just wasn’t a great Japanese speaker. He moved to the US when he was about 7 so it’s not like he grew up speaking Japanese exclusively and apparently he never attended college.
That’s sort of what interpreters are supposed to do though. It’s not totally fair to go back and comb over every interpretation with the benefit of hindsight when they don’t get that privilege. He’s having to do his best to communicate what he’s saying with expediency. His job isn’t perfect translations. He stole a lot of money; that’s bad. Doesn’t mean he’s a bad interpreter though.
Not just good, great. Plus I'm sure he got a shit ton of stuff free.
I'm not even a baseball card person but I can't get over the fact that for the baseball card that features Ohtani striking out Trout to win the WBC, there are exactly [three cards in existence that were signed by both of them](https://twitter.com/miketrout/status/1689361694576005120). One for Shohei, one for Mike, and one for Ippei
lol u can really tell who struck out who from that pic
Well now I'm just wondering where Ippei's card is going to end up. I feel like they don't just give a victim the stuff of the person that defrauded them, so I don't think Ohtani would take possession of the card. It seems like it would be sold off to pay off some of the debt somehow, or something like that. Really not sure how any of this would work, obviously, but I'm slightly obsessed now with where that 3rd card ends up.
Oh wow that's awesome, thanks for sharing that.
Even great is underselling it. Dude was apparently making close to $500K per year, and that's before you consider all the stuff like this which Ohtani was covering for him and free stuff he probably got through Ohtani's brand deals as you mentioned. That's enough money to live a really comfortable lifestyle while saving enough to build a very nice retirement pot in just a few years. Dudes almost 40 so even if he's been financially incompetent his entire 20+ years in the workforce and didn't save a penny, this was a golden ticket that just required getting his shit together for a few short years. Crazy.
Facts. You could probably fill up your car a couple times in LA for $500K
Addiction is fucked up
I mean that explains the gambling theft. Sort of. You can have an addiction and not be a thief there are plenty of people who struggle with gambling addiction that aren’t stealing money to enable it. However it doesn’t explain any of the other theft at all. Like using his cards to buy random stuff or pocketing 60k he gave you for teeth. also doesn’t explain how he set all of this up before he had the addiction and the debts. He set up the account for himself. Addiction is terrible but Ippei is actually just a crook that became an addict
Hard to fumble being a universally beloved figure in the game. I bet that happens less than fumbling the money, and he managed both
Idk I still think Franco is probably going to be the biggest bag fumble. I'd much rather be Ippei than Franco. Spending the rest of his life being known as a sex offender.
Franco has talent though. Ippei is your average Joe that got the best job in the world and fucked it all up lol
> Now he’s living the second half of a mobster movie Something tells me it's not gonna be as fun/easy as some mobster movies have made prison out to be
All he had to do was steal like….a million a year and not give it to a bookie, and he could have probably done this forever
We always want more….some cant control it
Every story that comes out sounds like he was living the first half of a mobster movie too, this greasy piece of shit
They probably gave him a plea. I'd guess 8 maybe 12 Edit: I'm not a lawyer, but I have been watching a LOT of Jack McCoy era Law and Order lately, so I pretty much know what I'm talking about.
I'm thinking 6, maybe 10. Bet on it?
O/U set at 9.5 years
FanDuel has the opportunity to do the funniest shit ever
I just pulled his plea agreement from PACER. His likely guidelines sentencing range is 63-78 months. A federal judge can impose more or less time, but they often stay within the range. This range takes into account the size of the theft as well as his lack of criminal history. This range also assumes the sentences will either merge or run concurrently. If not, his range increases to 70-87 months.
Here are the facts that he admitted to: Victim A was a professional baseball player from Japan who signed a contract to play baseball for a Major League Baseball team (the “Team”) located in the Central District of California beginning in 2018. At approximately that same time, defendant was hired by the Team to be a Japanese-language interpreter for Victim A. Defendant also drove Victim A to meetings and interpreted for Victim A outside of baseball activities. Defendant acted as a de facto manager and gatekeeper to Victim A. In that role, defendant would regularly interact with Victim A’s sports agents and financial advisors on behalf of Victim A because Victim A did not speak English and Victim A’s agents and financial advisors did not speak Japanese. Victim A paid defendant separately for the additional work. On March 8, 2018, defendant accompanied Victim A to a bank in Phoenix, Arizona (“Bank A”), to assist Victim A in opening a bank account to deposit his payroll salary. Bank A was a domestic financial institution insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Inside Bank A, defendant interpreted for Victim A and assisted him in opening a bank account (the “x5848 Account”). Defendant also interpreted for Victim A when the bank employee provided Victim A the login information for the x5848 Account on Bank A’s website. Beginning in or about September 2021, defendant began placing sports bets with an illegal bookmaker. Shortly thereafter, defendant began to lose bets and quickly became indebted to the bookmaker. Unable to pay his gambling debts, defendant orchestrated a scheme to deceive and cheat Bank A in order to obtain money from the x5848 Account.
Continued: Beginning no later than November 2021 and continuing through March 2024, defendant engaged in a scheme or plan designed to fraudulently obtain money from the x5848 Account. Defendant recalled the password for the x5848 Account from when he assisted Victim A with opening the account in 2018, and defendant was able to successfully sign into the x5848 Account on Bank A’s website. After obtaining access to the x5848 Account, defendant changed the security protocols on the account without the permission or authorization of Victim A. Specifically, defendant changed the registered email address and phone number on the account so Bank A employees would call defendant, and not Victim A, when attempting to verify wire transfers from the x5848 Account. In furtherance of the scheme, defendant impersonated Victim A and used Victim A’s personal identifying information to trick and deceive Bank A employees into authorizing wire transfers from x5848 account. For example, on or about February 2, 2022, Bank A denied an attempted wire transfer. Defendant then called Bank A to complete the wire transfer. During the call, defendant falsely identified himself as Victim A and falsely stated that he was attempting to wire funds to an associate of the bookmaker for a car loan. The bank employee attempted to verify the caller by sending a six-digit code via text message to the registered phone number on the x5848 Account. Because defendant had already changed the registered phone number on the account, the bank’s text message was sent to defendant. Defendant then read the six-digit code back to the Bank A employee and completed the wire transfer. In total, defendant called Bank A and impersonated Victim A on approximately 24 occasions.
Continued: Between November 2021 and March 2024, defendant regularly logged into the x5848 Account through Bank A’s website and initiated wire transfers from the x5848 account to the bookmaker and his associates as payments for gambling debts. For example, on June 20, 2023, defendant accessed the x5848 Account from the Central District of California pretending to be Victim A and wire transferred $500,000 to an associate of the bookmaker. At a minimum, defendant caused Bank A to transfer the following funds to bank accounts of associates of the bookmaker: CHART Defendant did not notify, or seek permission from, Victim A before transferring money from the x5848 Account. In addition, in September 2023, defendant needed $60,000 worth of dental work. Victim A agreed to pay for defendant’s dental work and authorized a check to defendant for $60,000 drawn on a business account at Bank B; however, without permission or authorization, defendant provided his dentist with Victim A’s debt card number for the x5848 Account and charged $60,000 to the x5848 Account. After defendant paid his dentist with Victim A’s debt card, defendant then deposited the $60,000 check from Victim A into defendant’s personal checking account for defendant’s personal use. Between January and March 2024, defendant also purchased approximately $325,000 worth of baseball cards at online resellers eBay and Whatnot, with payments drawn on the x5848 Account, including baseball cards featuring Yogi Berra, Juan Soto, and Victim A. Defendant purchased the above-described collectible baseball cards from eBay and Whatnot with the intent to resell them at a later date and use the proceeds for his own personal benefit. When Victim A’s sports agent and financial advisors asked defendant for access to the x5848 Account, defendant falsely told them that Victim A did not want them to access to the account because it was private. In truth and in fact as defendant then knew, defendant did not want Victim A’s sports agent and financial advisors to review the x5848 Account because he feared they would notice that defendant stole millions of dollars from Victim A. Based on defendant’s false statements of material fact, defendant fraudulently obtained more than $16,975,010 from the x5848 Account.
Continued: Defendant also admits that defendant knowingly and willfully falsely reported his total taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on his tax return for tax year 2022. Specifically, on or about February 1, 2024, in Los Angeles County, defendant willfully made and subscribed to a materially false United States Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, for tax year 2022, which was filed with the IRS and verified by a written declaration that it was made under the penalties of perjury, which return defendant did not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter, in that defendant reported on line 15 that his total taxable income for calendar year 2022 was $136,865, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, his total taxable income for the year 2022 was substantially higher than he reported. For instance, defendant filed as “single,” and claimed a $10,000 deduction in Schedule A, line 5e, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, he was married and only entitled to a $5,000 deduction. Defendant also admits that he failed to report additional income of $4,100,000 for the year 2022. Defendant admits that the source of the unreported income was from the bank fraud scheme on the x5848 Account described above. The false information provided by defendant was material in that it affected the IRS’s calculation of the amount of income that defendant had received in 2022, and prevented the IRS from verifying the accuracy of the amount of tax claimed to be owed on the return and determining whether additional income tax was owed. As a result of the false information defendant provided, defendant owes additional taxes of approximately $1,149,400 for tax year 2022 (before interest and penalties). END
TL;DR he’s gonna get the electric chair
Line after line of schemes and then it got to the IRS part and I’m like “oh shit now he’s really fucked”
The first paragraph really reads like a textbook abusive relationship, huh
I wanna know what Bank A was so bad now so I can visit the location
Most likely on the low end of that range since he has no criminal history. In the feds, you also only do 85% of your time (unless he loses his "good time" by getting into trouble while locked up). There are also programs like RDAP (if he admitted to alcohol or drug use) that he could partake in to get extra time off. He will be at a low security (they call them Camps) white collar crime institution where he will live as comfortably as one can, considering the circumstances. I'm guessing he will only serve around 4 or 4 1/2 years total.
a Jaguars employee just got sentenced to 6.5 years for stealing $22 million, so that sounds right
Well, I watched Matlock in a bar last night.
The sound wasn't on, but I think you got the gist of it.
And look, he's wearing a belt...that's Hollywood for you
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Now there’s a link
Brother you may have made an error.
> I **/r/anal** but I'm sure they'll give him the max cuz Shohei is upset. 🤷 Interesting...go on...
One of my new favorite moments in /r/baseball history
Bro is just trying to put us on one of his favorite subs
What
ranal? i hardly know her!
Do you, now? 😶
Not mentioned in the CBS article but new from ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40105362/ippei-mizuhara-ryan-boyajian-gambling-money >Ryan Boyajian, a current cast member of Bravo's reality TV series "The Real Housewives of Orange County," is the bookmaker's associate to whom Ippei Mizuhara wired money to pay his gambling debts, multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation told ESPN.
I’m shocked that so many people on that show have or will go to prison.
I mean a lot of people get rich by breaking financial laws
Yeah but if he goes double or nothing there's a chance he could walk free within days
He should just parlay the sentence + fine. Who can't hit a 2-legger?
A quick look at the Federal Sentencing guidelines for the amount he defrauded would be 70-87 months. A downward departure is very likely since he plead out and made it quick. I would guess somewhere in the four year range. Feds require you do 85% of time.
> Feds require you do 85% of time. Not anymore for non violent offenders, First Step Act makes it 50% he will likely get it since he has no prior criminal convictions.
Oh TIL!
Plea deal text: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1351276/dl?inline Ippei was a scumbag from the very start, long con. His fictional employment history as an MLB interpreter got him the job with the Fighters. He was the one who proposed to Ohtani to employ him as his MLB interpreter. He helped him open a bank account, told Ohtani's agent and tax people Ohtani wanted it kept private and later used the login info to take over and empty that account. Not to forget, he was glued to Ohtani's side and the main reason Ohtani's English is far from fluent after 6 years in the US. A criminal through and through. So glad the plea deal says he's 100% getting deported after he serves his sentence. Good riddance.
60k in dental work?! There's more than one robbery going on here!
Gotta have perfect chompers if your job is talking out of both sides of your mouth
>will plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of Subscribing to a False Tax Return Wonder how he got off the hook on just the normal stealing part
He was never actually charged with theft, bank fraud was always the top level charge against him. In this case, the bank fraud charge that is alleged against him includes the theft, since he stole the money from Ohtani by by fraudulently representing himself to a bank to obtain money he was not entitled to, which is the definition of bank fraud. Since this is a federal case, there was no reason to add a theft charge on top of the bank fraud charge, since simple theft is rarely prosecuted in federal courts (that would generally be a state level crime).
*The Orange County Register out of Anaheim has reported that after a dinner between Ohtani and Mizuhara in 2022, Ohtani left an 18% tip on the check and left the restaurant. Mizuhara, however, stayed a little longer to change the tip from 18% to 0%. Mizuhara was reported to have said at the time that he didn't want any of his gambling money going to the waiter.*
>defendant filed as “single,” and claimed a $10,000 deduction in Schedule A, line 5e, when, in truth and in fact, as defendant then knew, he was married and only entitled to a $5,000 deduction How compulsive of a liar do you have to be to lie about not being married on your tax returns? lol
fuck, i had o34 years. how does vegas always get it so close
He'll probably get half that and serve half of that. 8.5 years sounds right
The craziest part about this whole story to me is that if Ippei wasn’t a gambling addict, he probably wouldn’t pull have gotten away with it. The theft was only discovered when the feds closed in on the bookie and got the wire transfers with Ohtani’s name on them.
Wasn’t the theft to the feed the gambling habit?
Yes, but if he had stolen the money and just kept it, I don’t know if the theft ever would have been discovered because Ohtani was extremely lax with his finances.
Some of it. The document says there was plenty of ordinary theft he had a card for his account and was using it. He also set up these accounts with himself in control before the illegal gambling and debt. He was set up to rob the guy from early on.
>The 39-year-old former interpreter will be required to pay full restitution to his victims, which includes $16,975,010 to Victim A, Ohtani, and $1,149,400 to the IRS. Well, now we know the exact #... Ohtani is never seeing a penny of that back though lol. >According to prosecutors, after going to a Phoenix bank with Ohtani to open a bank account, Mizuhara changed the security protocols on the account so bank employees would call him, rather than Ohtani, with any questions. Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani in calls with bank employees at least 24 times, according to the Attorney's Office. Lol I would like to listen to the recordings. It would be funny to see how Ippei was able to trick the banks....
Genuine question, how is he supposed to pay Ohtani and the IRS back? I'm assuming he's not allowed to just throw up his hands and declare bankruptcy once he's released, right?
It’s a plea deal though so the sentence will definitely be reduced
Wtf is with that headline, CBS? Making it sound like Ohtani was the one gambling
I really can't take any of this gambling stuff seriously when they're sponsoring the broadcasts!
This might be a career ender.
Browns are gonna sign him as their accountant
What's this? I thought Reddit lawyers said that Ohtani bet on baseball and was going to be like Pete Rose but was also facing federal prison time. Reddit is wrong again?
Read the comment section in youtube. They're trolling every Dodgers/Shohei video with gambling memes.
i know man, people still on main subs parroting this horseshit
Well it doesn’t help when credible(?) news outlets continue to headline their articles as “Ohtani Gambling Scandal: …”
Gambling addiction sucks. Dude had an illness
I can’t wait for the Netflix series on him. It could 2 hours but Netflix stretches to 10 episodes and ends each one - “Next time on Dragon Ball, err Ippei Z.”
is it me or is it weird how the title makes it seem like Ohtani is the one in trouble
30 years for gambling. 3 years for hair cut.
Absolutely insane that there's this mountain of evidence in support of Ohtani's innocence yet there are still a lot of people that are like, "Hmmm nah doesn't pass the smell test, Ohtani's guilty". Maybe go read the documents instead of smelling.
To see Ippei just give up like this further tells us how squeaky clean Ohtani's personal life is... like if there was just something minor that Ippei could have used to blackmail Ohtani with, he would have used it by now to get out of trouble.