The gambling scandal facing Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani has the potential to become a “Pandora’s box,” according to Craig Carton, the sports radio host who spent a year in prison for a fraud scheme designed to to cover your own gambling debts.
Ohtani’s longtime interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was fired Wednesday amid questions about at least $4.5 million in suspicious wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank to a California gambling operation that ESPN reports is under federal investigation.
But as Carton noted, the original story presented publicly differed significantly and the developing story could be a troubling sign for Ohtani, the Dodgers and their fans.
“The Ohtani camp made a calculated mistake by changing the original story,” Carton said The New York Post Thursday morning by telephone.
Ohtani spokespeople first said this ESPN that the 29-year-old slugger covered Mizuhara’s extensive gambling debts. Later, after ESPN spoke to Mizuhara about the allegations, Ohtani’s spokespeople dismissed the translator’s comments to the network, instead offering a statement from lawyers representing the two-time MVP.
Los Angeles Dodgers star player Shohei Ohtani and his now fired interpreter Ippei Mizuhara
Craig Carton is seen leaving the United States Court House on November 30, 2017 in New York
“While responding to recent media inquiries, we learned that Shohei has been the victim of a grand theft, and we are turning the matter over to authorities,” said the statement from Ohtani’s law firm, Berk Brettler LLP.
The statement did not specifically accuse Mizuhara of theft, but the The Los Angeles Times reports this that the interpreter is accused of taking millions from Ohtani. Meanwhile, ESPN reports that Mizuhara’s debt totaled at least $4.5 million.
“At first it was a friend with a gambling problem and Ohtani saved him, which is very credible to help a friend as was made public,” Carton told The Post.
“When they came back and said the money had been stolen, they opened Pandora’s box and now they really have to trust this interpreter.”
Ohtani’s spokespeople have denied that he is involved in illegal gambling. Neither Ohtani nor Mizuhara have been charged with any crimes.
At ESPN, Mizuhara reportedly admitted that he gambled on sports — but not baseball — before vowing to stop gambling altogether. He declined further comment after the law firm’s statement, which claimed Ohtani was the victim of theft.
Ohtani (right) has been working with Mizuhara (left) since the 2013 season.
“Now you’re making the friend the center of a criminal investigation,” Carton said. ‘Now the charges are fraud, theft and embezzlement. The more people delve into this, the more it will emerge.
“Maybe there’s a lot of smoke and no fire, but the fact that they made the man available and fully investigated the story is certainly a concern.”
Carton also expressed some skepticism that Mizuhara avoided betting on baseball.
“The big problem is that when the FBI is done looking into this, there will be big problems if there is even one bet on a baseball game,” Carton said.
“The way a gambling addict thinks, which is not rational, is that if you are in a financial hole and you are going to gamble from this hole, you would be betting on what you know best, which in this case would be baseball. So it doesn’t take a huge leap of faith to figure out that he might have bet on baseball.”
But even if Mizuhara wasn’t betting on baseball, sports gambling remains illegal in California and is a violation of Rule 21 of the MLB collective bargaining agreement.
‘Betting on non-baseball events with an ILLEGAL Bookie is against Rule 21 of the CBA, but is NOT an automatic suspension – this is at the discretion of the Commissioner – there is precedent where a player has been fined and not suspended – it is unlikely that Ohtani was suspended if the story is as presented,” Carton wrote on X.
The bottom line, as Carton told the Post, is that this “story isn’t going away anytime soon.”