More than a year after one of baseball’s most shocking scandals rocked Major League Baseball, newly released audio is shedding fresh light on the deception that nearly tarnished the reputation of global superstar Shohei Ohtani.
The latest revelations come from ESPN’s six-part 30 for 30 Podcasts series, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani”, which includes previously unheard audio from former Dodgers interpreter Ippei Mizuhara’s first interview with ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson. The recordings provide a chilling look at how Mizuhara initially attempted to explain away millions of dollars in gambling debt before ultimately changing his story less than 24 hours later.
In the original interview, Mizuhara claimed Ohtani knowingly agreed to help pay off debts he had accumulated with an illegal bookmaker after years of sports betting.
“I asked him if he could pay my debt off. He had to give it some thought,” Mizuhara said.
When Thompson questioned why Ohtani didn’t simply hand him the money, Mizuhara replied that the Dodgers superstar wanted to make sure the funds went directly toward the debt.
“He wanted to make sure it’s going back to the debts,” Mizuhara said.
That version of events unraveled almost immediately.
Within a day, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Mizuhara, while Ohtani’s legal team issued a statement declaring the reigning National League MVP the victim of what they described as a “massive theft.” Mizuhara soon contacted Thompson again, admitting he had fabricated key portions of his original account.
Federal investigators would later determine that Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling operation. Instead, prosecutors concluded that Mizuhara secretly accessed Ohtani’s bank accounts over several years, stealing nearly $17 million to cover mounting gambling losses and other personal expenses. Earlier this year, Mizuhara began serving a 57-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell, the initial ESPN interview complicated the government’s investigation by fueling widespread speculation that Ohtani had been involved.
“No matter how many times the government stands up and tells the world that Mr. Ohtani is a victim and that there is no evidence that he was ever involved in the gambling, people still refuse to believe it,” Mitchell said during Mizuhara’s sentencing.
The podcast also uncovers several previously unreported details surrounding the case.
Mizuhara’s childhood friends recalled his early obsession with Japanese baseball stars, saying he first rooted for the Dodgers because of Hideo Nomo before switching his allegiance to the Seattle Mariners when Ichiro Suzuki arrived in Major League Baseball.
The illegal bookmaker at the center of the investigation also described the moment he realized whose money was allegedly flowing into the operation.
“That was the holy s— moment,” he said after seeing a wire transfer bearing Ohtani’s name.
Perhaps most telling was the account from one of the federal agents who reviewed thousands of communications between Ohtani and Mizuhara during the investigation. According to the agent, there was never any evidence tying the three-time MVP to sports betting.
The investigator described their text message exchanges as “vanilla,” adding that he never found a single conversation referencing gambling.
For baseball fans, the new audio serves as another reminder of how close one of the game’s most marketable stars came to having his legacy unfairly questioned. While conspiracy theories lingered online for months, the federal investigation ultimately painted a far different picture: a trusted interpreter exploiting one of baseball’s biggest names through years of deception.
The scandal may be over in the courtroom, but with the release of The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani, fans are now hearing firsthand how one of the sport’s most unbelievable stories unfolded from the inside.
