The allegations against Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter who helped Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers) with illegal gambling and theft, are growing stronger by the day.
The American sports media outlet The Athletic reported on Thursday that Mizuhara’s college and major league interpreting experience in the United States was either exaggerated or inaccurate.
The US media first questioned Mizuhara’s alma mater, the University of California, Riverside, California. “We have no record of a student named Ippei Mizuhara attending the school,” a spokesperson for the university told The Athletic. However, the University of California, Riverside declined to respond to The Athletic’s query as to whether it had any other or similar names for Mizuhara in its academic records.
The second allegation involves Mizuhara’s work as an interpreter for Japanese left-handed pitcher Hideki Okajima in 2010 and 2012. Okajima played for the Boston Red Sox from 2007-2011 and the Oakland Athletics in 2013. In February 2012, he was released by the New York Yankees after failing a physical just before the start of spring training.
Mizuhara reportedly began his major league career in 2010 working as an interpreter for Boston, but the Red Sox responded in a statement to reporters on Wednesday, saying, “At no time was Mizuhara employed as an interpreter while Okajima was playing for our team.”
In addition, the 2019 media guide for the Los Angeles Angels, the former employer of both Otani and Mizuhara, states that Mizuhara served as Okajima’s interpreter during spring training in 2012, even though Okajima signed with the Yankees as a minor leaguer in 2012 and was released before the start of spring training.
Mizuhara later became a foreign interpreter for Nippon Ham in Nippon Professional Baseball and remained a close friend and interpreter of Ohtani for more than seven years before he was released by Seoul on the 21st day of his major league debut. As the two-hitter became the face of the major leagues, his shadow, Mizuhara, also garnered a great deal of attention from fans.
Mizuhara’s history has come under scrutiny because the credibility of his statements regarding illegal gambling and theft could affect investigations by the U.S. Internal 카지노 Revenue Service and Major League Baseball. Mizuhara, who has gambled illegally on multiple sports, told ESPN that Ohtani sent money directly to the bookie to pay off his gambling debts on his behalf.
However, Ohtani’s legal representative countered that Ohtani was a victim of Mizuhara’s theft, and Mizuhara abruptly changed his story, saying that Ohtani was unaware of his gambling.
Whether or not Mizuhara gambled is one thing, but whether or not Ohtani knew about Mizuhara’s illegal gambling and wired the money directly to him, or whether or not he was unaware of it, is what will determine whether or not Ohtani participated in illegal gambling, which is why the media in both countries are on high alert.
If Mizuhara is correct that he gambled on baseball and Ohtani knew about it, then any athlete who bets on baseball, whether legally or illegally, is banned for a year. For illegal gambling on other sports, the punishment is at the discretion of Commissioner Rob Manfred.