2024 MLB Season

[celticsclay]

Update on the Ohtani saga.

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
17m
US Attorney Martin Estrada announces a federal criminal complaint against Ippei Mizuhara.

The complaint alleges bank fraud, to finance “voracious appetite for illegal sports betting.”
Nicole Auerbach reposted
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
US Attorney Martin Estrada said the bank account was set up by Ippei Mizuhara in 2018.

He said the Ippei's illegal gambling began in 2021, and his bets became more and more prevalent.

"The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball."
12:38 PM · Apr 11, 2024
·
11.4K
 Views

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
13m
US Attorney Martin Estrada said Ippei Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Shohei Ohtani.

He allegedly lied to the bank to steal the money. And pretended to be Ohtani in order to convince the bank to approve the wire transfers.
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
11m
When Ippei did win a bet, the money was not deposited into Ohtani's bank account. Rather, the US attorney said, it would go into Ippei's bank account.

He "used and abused that position of trust."
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
2m
Bank fraud carries a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison.

The U.S. attorney did not say to what degree Ippei Mizuhara complied with the investigation.

He's set to appear in federal court in the coming days.

It’s appearing plausible if not likely that Shohei was a victim and not a participant in nefarious actions.  Does go to show that ‘naive’ takes that are often scoffed at are sometimes correct.  When situations like this emerge, it’s usually a rush to believe the worst - in this case with no one knowing details, no one knowing Shohei or the interpreter, know one (probably) knowing what it’s like to have tens of millions of dollars in the bank and entrusting someone to the point that they have access to accounts. People just rush to thinking they know how the world operates and how people operate and therefore jump to conclusions and roll their eyes at those who think otherwise.

Not everyone here or elsewhere presumed Shohei had involvement, but many did. Shows that patience is probably the wiser way to go.


EDIT: wrote the above before reading what CC wrote. I agree with you.

Thanks NG. I appreciate it. Yes, a poster literally mocked me and said they wanted to sell me a bridge because I thought it was possible Shohei was the victim of a crime. The poster unfortunately won't even apologize or admit they were wrong after making 10+ posts adamantly claiming Shohei was guilty and demanding a lengthy suspension (and anyone that disagreed was naive or stupid). A lesson to not rush to judgement in the Twitter age.

And for those that have not followed this, this is not a matter of the MLB sweeping something under the rug. This was a criminal investigation that among other things showed the translator with documented cases of impersonating shohei with his bank and using his security questions to access the accounts.

[Donoghus]

Update on the Ohtani saga.

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
17m
US Attorney Martin Estrada announces a federal criminal complaint against Ippei Mizuhara.

The complaint alleges bank fraud, to finance “voracious appetite for illegal sports betting.”
Nicole Auerbach reposted
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
US Attorney Martin Estrada said the bank account was set up by Ippei Mizuhara in 2018.

He said the Ippei's illegal gambling began in 2021, and his bets became more and more prevalent.

"The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball."
12:38 PM · Apr 11, 2024
·
11.4K
 Views

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
13m
US Attorney Martin Estrada said Ippei Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Shohei Ohtani.

He allegedly lied to the bank to steal the money. And pretended to be Ohtani in order to convince the bank to approve the wire transfers.
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
11m
When Ippei did win a bet, the money was not deposited into Ohtani's bank account. Rather, the US attorney said, it would go into Ippei's bank account.

He "used and abused that position of trust."
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
2m
Bank fraud carries a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison.

The U.S. attorney did not say to what degree Ippei Mizuhara complied with the investigation.

He's set to appear in federal court in the coming days.

It’s appearing plausible if not likely that Shohei was a victim and not a participant in nefarious actions.  Does go to show that ‘naive’ takes that are often scoffed at are sometimes correct.  When situations like this emerge, it’s usually a rush to believe the worst - in this case with no one knowing details, no one knowing Shohei or the interpreter, know one (probably) knowing what it’s like to have tens of millions of dollars in the bank and entrusting someone to the point that they have access to accounts. People just rush to thinking they know how the world operates and how people operate and therefore jump to conclusions and roll their eyes at those who think otherwise.

Not everyone here or elsewhere presumed Shohei had involvement, but many did. Shows that patience is probably the wiser way to go.


EDIT: wrote the above before reading what CC wrote. I agree with you.

Thanks NG. I appreciate it. Yes, a poster literally mocked me and said they wanted to sell me a bridge because I thought it was possible Shohei was the victim of a crime. The poster unfortunately won't even apologize or admit they were wrong after making 10+ posts adamantly claiming Shohei was guilty and demanding a lengthy suspension (and anyone that disagreed was naive or stupid). A lesson to not rush to judgement in the Twitter age.

And for those that have not followed this, this is not a matter of the MLB sweeping something under the rug. This was a criminal investigation that among other things showed the translator with documented cases of impersonating shohei with his bank and using his security questions to access the accounts.

Not anything new with him so I wouldn't take it too personally.

"The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something."

[Moranis]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

[Donoghus]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

Seems like there were a lot of things you didn't consider and immediately & emphatically just went straight to guilt & burying the guy. 

[celticsclay]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

Well half a tommy point for coming close to admitting you were wrong. You get the other half if you can admit it wasn't the best idea/nicest to imply I was a complete idiot for believing what actually turned to out to be the truth as a possibility.

[celticsclay]

Update on the Ohtani saga.

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
17m
US Attorney Martin Estrada announces a federal criminal complaint against Ippei Mizuhara.

The complaint alleges bank fraud, to finance “voracious appetite for illegal sports betting.”
Nicole Auerbach reposted
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
US Attorney Martin Estrada said the bank account was set up by Ippei Mizuhara in 2018.

He said the Ippei's illegal gambling began in 2021, and his bets became more and more prevalent.

"The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball."
12:38 PM · Apr 11, 2024
·
11.4K
 Views

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
13m
US Attorney Martin Estrada said Ippei Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Shohei Ohtani.

He allegedly lied to the bank to steal the money. And pretended to be Ohtani in order to convince the bank to approve the wire transfers.
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
11m
When Ippei did win a bet, the money was not deposited into Ohtani's bank account. Rather, the US attorney said, it would go into Ippei's bank account.

He "used and abused that position of trust."
Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
2m
Bank fraud carries a statutory maximum of 30 years in prison.

The U.S. attorney did not say to what degree Ippei Mizuhara complied with the investigation.

He's set to appear in federal court in the coming days.

It’s appearing plausible if not likely that Shohei was a victim and not a participant in nefarious actions.  Does go to show that ‘naive’ takes that are often scoffed at are sometimes correct.  When situations like this emerge, it’s usually a rush to believe the worst - in this case with no one knowing details, no one knowing Shohei or the interpreter, know one (probably) knowing what it’s like to have tens of millions of dollars in the bank and entrusting someone to the point that they have access to accounts. People just rush to thinking they know how the world operates and how people operate and therefore jump to conclusions and roll their eyes at those who think otherwise.

Not everyone here or elsewhere presumed Shohei had involvement, but many did. Shows that patience is probably the wiser way to go.


EDIT: wrote the above before reading what CC wrote. I agree with you.

Thanks NG. I appreciate it. Yes, a poster literally mocked me and said they wanted to sell me a bridge because I thought it was possible Shohei was the victim of a crime. The poster unfortunately won't even apologize or admit they were wrong after making 10+ posts adamantly claiming Shohei was guilty and demanding a lengthy suspension (and anyone that disagreed was naive or stupid). A lesson to not rush to judgement in the Twitter age.

And for those that have not followed this, this is not a matter of the MLB sweeping something under the rug. This was a criminal investigation that among other things showed the translator with documented cases of impersonating shohei with his bank and using his security questions to access the accounts.

Not anything new with him so I wouldn't take it too personally.

"The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something."

Good quote. I think this probably changed at some point, but I haven’t had a hard time admitting when I was wrong about something in a long time. I’m now in my 40’s, if I was never wrong about something in my life I would be inviting you all to join me in suites for the playoff games and fly on my private jet. It’s almost cathartic to just be like, yeah man boy was I way off on that one. My most humbling “got it wrong” was selling a sizeable amount of bitcoin for about 4k a bitcoin 4 or 5 years back. Thats a tougher one than predicting whether ohtani was guilty and being wrong.

[Neurotic Guy]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

I have a story.   Not precisely analogous but close enough to be worth recounting.

My dad was a pretty smart guy - and also (apparently) a trusting guy.  He had just attained a new position and simultaneously had sold his interest in a business. I remember his exact salary when he started this new executive job because it was public: $27,500.  The sale of his business was to be paid in annual payments of $20k per year for 15 years.  So his annual income was just a touch under $50,000 - that was in 1972. So, not exactly analogous to Shohei money, however, my dad, my mom, and their 5 kids thought we were rich. And our thoughts weren’t too far off - that was a pretty comfortable household income in 1972.   

Over the next 7 or 8 years, he entrusted his secretary to take his weekly paycheck and deposit it into the credit union account he had in the building in which they worked. The tellers knew my dad and knew his secretary. What my dad unfortunately didn’t know was that the secretary pulled a small amount of cash out of the deposit every week - for years. It was enough to accumulate to about $25,000 over the years, but - due to my dad’s poor oversight wasn’t discovered for a long time. Basically, he’d check his balance every once in a while and i guess it seemed to him in the right ballpark. If you knew my father you’d understand that his focus was elsewhere - a diligent and committed worker, but not so big on organizing the home finances.  Anyway, eventually he became aware that something seemed screwy and he alerted the police who investigated and eventually charged his secretary with theft. She was found guilty. 

Point being that smart people are capable of doing not smart things - like trusting people and not paying close enough attention to details. Doesn’t make my father or Shohei dumb people, just fallible people vulnerable to being conned by someone they trust.

[Moranis]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

I have a story.   Not precisely analogous but close enough to be worth recounting.

My dad was a pretty smart guy - and also (apparently) a trusting guy.  He had just attained a new position and simultaneously had sold his interest in a business. I remember his exact salary when he started this new executive job because it was public: $27,500.  The sale of his business was to be paid in annual payments of $20k per year for 15 years.  So his annual income was just a touch under $50,000 - that was in 1972. So, not exactly analogous to Shohei money, however, my dad, my mom, and their 5 kids thought we were rich. And our thoughts weren’t too far off - that was a pretty comfortable household income in 1972.   

Over the next 7 or 8 years, he entrusted his secretary to take his weekly paycheck and deposit it into the credit union account he had in the building in which they worked. The tellers knew my dad and knew his secretary. What my dad unfortunately didn’t know was that the secretary pulled a small amount of cash out of the deposit every week - for years. It was enough to accumulate to about $25,000 over the years, but - due to my dad’s poor oversight wasn’t discovered for a long time. Basically, he’d check his balance every once in a while and i guess it seemed to him in the right ballpark. If you knew my father you’d understand that his focus was elsewhere - a diligent and committed worker, but not so big on organizing the home finances.  Anyway, eventually he became aware that something seemed screwy and he alerted the police who investigated and eventually charged his secretary with theft. She was found guilty. 

Point being that smart people are capable of doing not smart things - like trusting people and not paying close enough attention to details. Doesn’t make my father or Shohei dumb people, just fallible people vulnerable to being conned by someone they trust.

There is a very large difference with someone skimming off the top and what may have happened with Ohtani. It would be fairly easy for someone in the interpreters position to take the same amount off of every Ohtani deposit and for Ohtani not to know it. People don't tend to look at pay stubs (which is the only way to verify) and if the same amount gets paid and deposited each time that can go on for years.  Vastly different than direct payments to the tune of 16.5 million right out of your account and with at least 2 large 500,000 direct payments. You can't hide that.  It is open and obvious.

[Celtics2021]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

I have a story.   Not precisely analogous but close enough to be worth recounting.

My dad was a pretty smart guy - and also (apparently) a trusting guy.  He had just attained a new position and simultaneously had sold his interest in a business. I remember his exact salary when he started this new executive job because it was public: $27,500.  The sale of his business was to be paid in annual payments of $20k per year for 15 years.  So his annual income was just a touch under $50,000 - that was in 1972. So, not exactly analogous to Shohei money, however, my dad, my mom, and their 5 kids thought we were rich. And our thoughts weren’t too far off - that was a pretty comfortable household income in 1972.   

Over the next 7 or 8 years, he entrusted his secretary to take his weekly paycheck and deposit it into the credit union account he had in the building in which they worked. The tellers knew my dad and knew his secretary. What my dad unfortunately didn’t know was that the secretary pulled a small amount of cash out of the deposit every week - for years. It was enough to accumulate to about $25,000 over the years, but - due to my dad’s poor oversight wasn’t discovered for a long time. Basically, he’d check his balance every once in a while and i guess it seemed to him in the right ballpark. If you knew my father you’d understand that his focus was elsewhere - a diligent and committed worker, but not so big on organizing the home finances.  Anyway, eventually he became aware that something seemed screwy and he alerted the police who investigated and eventually charged his secretary with theft. She was found guilty. 

Point being that smart people are capable of doing not smart things - like trusting people and not paying close enough attention to details. Doesn’t make my father or Shohei dumb people, just fallible people vulnerable to being conned by someone they trust.

There is a very large difference with someone skimming off the top and what may have happened with Ohtani. It would be fairly easy for someone in the interpreters position to take the same amount off of every Ohtani deposit and for Ohtani not to know it. People don't tend to look at pay stubs (which is the only way to verify) and if the same amount gets paid and deposited each time that can go on for years.  Vastly different than direct payments to the tune of 16.5 million right out of your account and with at least 2 large 500,000 direct payments. You can't hide that.  It is open and obvious.

Ohtani made near $100 million last year alone. He has so much money he deferred several hundred million of salary this offseason.  He didn’t notice because he’s unfavorably wealthy.  His financial advisors should be answering some questions about why they didn’t notice anything, that being their jobs.  But Ohtani?  Please stop trying to invent reasons why you weren’t just out and out wrong from the getgo, for once on this board.

[celticsclay]

There was obviously a third scenario I never considered which may be what happened i.e. Ohtani is so dumb and disconnected from reality that someone could openly and obviously steal from him for over 2 years to the tune of 16 million dollars and he didn't know.  I mean it isn't like it was hidden. Direct payments right from his account in huge dollar amounts.  Still doesn't seem all that plausible given the amount and blatant nature, but there are a lot of morons in the world so maybe that is what happened here.

I have a story.   Not precisely analogous but close enough to be worth recounting.

My dad was a pretty smart guy - and also (apparently) a trusting guy.  He had just attained a new position and simultaneously had sold his interest in a business. I remember his exact salary when he started this new executive job because it was public: $27,500.  The sale of his business was to be paid in annual payments of $20k per year for 15 years.  So his annual income was just a touch under $50,000 - that was in 1972. So, not exactly analogous to Shohei money, however, my dad, my mom, and their 5 kids thought we were rich. And our thoughts weren’t too far off - that was a pretty comfortable household income in 1972.   

Over the next 7 or 8 years, he entrusted his secretary to take his weekly paycheck and deposit it into the credit union account he had in the building in which they worked. The tellers knew my dad and knew his secretary. What my dad unfortunately didn’t know was that the secretary pulled a small amount of cash out of the deposit every week - for years. It was enough to accumulate to about $25,000 over the years, but - due to my dad’s poor oversight wasn’t discovered for a long time. Basically, he’d check his balance every once in a while and i guess it seemed to him in the right ballpark. If you knew my father you’d understand that his focus was elsewhere - a diligent and committed worker, but not so big on organizing the home finances.  Anyway, eventually he became aware that something seemed screwy and he alerted the police who investigated and eventually charged his secretary with theft. She was found guilty. 

Point being that smart people are capable of doing not smart things - like trusting people and not paying close enough attention to details. Doesn’t make my father or Shohei dumb people, just fallible people vulnerable to being conned by someone they trust.

There is a very large difference with someone skimming off the top and what may have happened with Ohtani. It would be fairly easy for someone in the interpreters position to take the same amount off of every Ohtani deposit and for Ohtani not to know it. People don't tend to look at pay stubs (which is the only way to verify) and if the same amount gets paid and deposited each time that can go on for years.  Vastly different than direct payments to the tune of 16.5 million right out of your account and with at least 2 large 500,000 direct payments. You can't hide that.  It is open and obvious.

Ohtani made near $100 million last year alone. He has so much money he deferred several hundred million of salary this offseason.  He didn’t notice because he’s unfavorably wealthy.  His financial advisors should be answering some questions about why they didn’t notice anything, that being their jobs.  But Ohtani?  Please stop trying to invent reasons why you weren’t just out and out wrong from the getgo, for once on this board.

I agree. You are just embarrassing yourself at this point mo rather just say “yes I was wrong, pretty badly.” No qualifiers. No arguments why. Just say it. You realize what would have happened if  the league had suspended ohtani like you repeatedly demanded and the federal government determined all he did was be the victim of a crime? He has a massive lawsuit against them, especially if he lost sponsors. Your take was unequivocally terrible at the time and even more brutal now. Let it go and move on. We’ve all been debating stuff with you for 15 years at this point. I promise you people would gain a lot more respect for you if you just owned it at this point. Literally everyone else on the board does get things wrong and has admitted it. (And like I said even more if you admitted you went a bit over board calling me an idiot you wanted to sell a bridge to for wanting to hear the process out).