What is Ippei Mizuhara accused of? Allegations against Shohei Ohtani's ex-interpreter in wake of betting controversy explored

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a difficult day. Before losing 15-11 to the San Diego Padres, it was announced that Shohei Ohtani's interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had been fired.

It was surprising for many, as Ohtani and Mizuhara were seen looking happy enough together during the Dodgers-Padres game on Wednesday. That changed quickly, and Ippei Mizuhara is accused by Ohtani's representatives of theft.

Berk Brettler LLP, the firm representing Ohtani, gave the following statement:

“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities."

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Ippei Mizuhara initially gave a different version of events, saying Shohei Ohtani paid off his debts

The situation is unusual, so let's go through the background. The Los Angeles Times made an inquiry into Mizuhara after his name appeared in an investigation into Orange County's Mathew Bowyer.

The Times reported that the translator paced bets with Bowyer, contrary to the MLB's gambling policy. Speaking to ESPN on Tuesday, Ippei Mizuhara said that he had placed bets with DraftKings in the past and did not know his bets with Bowyer were illegal. He also said that Ohtani paid off his debts for him:

"Obviously, he (Ohtani) wasn't happy about it and said he would help me out to make sure I never do this again," Mizuhara said. "He decided to pay it off for me.

"I want everyone to know Shohei had zero involvement in betting. I want people to know I did not know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never do sports betting ever again."

Mizuhara affirmed that he never bet on baseball and said he was a bad gambler:

"I never bet on baseball," Mizuhara said. "That's 100 percent. I knew that rule.

"I'm terrible [at gambling]. Never going to do it again. Never won any money," Mizuhara said. "I mean, I dug myself a hole and it kept on getting bigger, and it meant I had to bet bigger to get out of it and just kept on losing. It's like a snowball effect."

This is certainly in contrast to the message being received from Shohei Ohtani's camp.

On Wednesday, Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani was unaware of his gambling debts. He also said that Shohei Ohtani had not transferred the money and that he was ready to face the consequences:

"Obviously, this is all my fault, everything I've done," he said. "I'm ready to face all the consequences."

Shohei Ohtani is, at the time of writing, not set to face consequences from the MLB, and neither he nor the Dodgers have commented on the situation.