“An obvious coverup" - Compliance officer calls out MLB for allegedly covering Shohei Ohtani's tracks in Ippei Mizuhara betting scandal

Many people have alleged that Shohei Ohtani was involved in his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara's betting scandal, while others have supported the player, believing him to be a victim. An anonymous senior executive and compliance officer of an East Coast financial firm called out MLB for allegedly covering up Shohei Ohtani's involvement in Mizuhara's betting scandal.

The compliance officer was pretty vocal about his thoughts on Mizuhara pleading guilty to tax and bank fraud. He said that this could all be an attempt to protect MLB's biggest star:

“This is a completely obvious coverup for MLB’s biggest star. Whenever you transfer a cash amount larger than $10,000 in the U.S. banking system, it triggers an SARs (Suspicious Activity Report).

"This must be reviewed, reported, and documented by multiple layers of bank management, from the branch system to the compliance department and even the legal department when there are multiple instances."

The anonymous executive added:

“These are must-comply matters. These are then required to be filed with FinCEN [the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network run by the U.S. Treasury] whenever fraudulent activities are even suspected.

"The pattern here screams ‘Fraud!’ Red flags everywhere. Or are we to believe that there were, say, 34 transfers of $500,000 [totaling $17 million] each to a known bookmaker or bookmakers and no one noticed? Impossible!”

During the team's South Korea tour, it came to light that Mizuhara had made multi-million dollar transactions from the Japanese baseball star's account to pay off his gambling debt.

However, later it was found that these transactions were all made without the player's knowledge. The ex-interpreter pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud in May. This cleared Ohtani's name.

Shohei Ohtani issues statement following Ippei Mizuhara's guilty plea for bank and tax fraud

Japanese star Shohei Ohtani shared a statement after his ex-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud. He said:

"Now that the investigation has been completed, this full admission of guilt has brought important closure to me and my family. I want to sincerely thank the authorities for finishing their thorough and effective investigation so quickly and uncovering all of the evidence.

“This has been a uniquely challenging time, so I am especially grateful for my support team - my family, agent, agency, lawyers, and advisors along with the entire Dodger organization, who showed endless support throughout this process. It’s time to close this chapter, move on and continue to focus on playing and winning ballgames.”

Now that the ex-interpreter has admitted his guilt, Ohtani must surely feel a lot free as the pressure regarding the investigation is gone and the player can totally focus on his on-field progress.