November 28, 2025 • 64 mins
With illegal gambling back in baseball's news this month — with two MLB players allegedly aiding in an illegal gambling fix worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — we revisit the Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal that dominated the news in Dodgerland (and beyond) back in the Spring of 2024, when the first episodes of Dodger Blue Dream were publishing. The first of two episodes, "The Talented Mr. Ippei," was published on the feed last week. Start with that episode, and then move onto this one: "The Complain Against Ippei."
A 37-page federal criminal complaint answers questions about how Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter, allegedly stole $16 million from Ohtani to pay debts Mizuhara had accrued with an allegedly illegal bookmaker.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the show. I'm Richard Parks, the
third and this is Dodger Blue Dream. Happy Thanksgiving. We're
one step closer to Christmas, New Year's and then Spring Training.
In the meantime, we are here to bring you the
(00:25):
second installment in our rebroadcast of our little mini series
on the eBay Misuhara gambling scandal that dominated the news
during Shoho Tani's first weeks as a Dodger back in
twenty twenty four. If you haven't listened to the first part,
we published it last week on this feed. That one's
(00:47):
called the talented mister eBay. We recommend that you start
there and then move on to this one. The complaint
against eBay. A complaint is basically a official core document
that details an investigation and the case against a defendant.
In this case, Ipe Mizuhara, shohe Otani's former translator, who
(01:11):
on the first game of the season in twenty twenty four,
was fired by the Dodgers and taken down for having
stolen millions and millions of dollars from one of Shohei
Otani's bank accounts in order to pay off debts that
he had accrued with an illegal bookmaker in Orange County.
(01:32):
Iliul gambling has been back in the news in the
baseball world. Emmanuel Classe and Luis Ortiz from the Cleveland
Guardians have been accused of participating in a pitch fixing
scheme that won many hundreds of thousands of dollars for
some allegedly bad ombrace. Sports betting is getting way out
(01:57):
of control and it takes you to some dark places,
as it will in today's episode, the complaint against Epay.
Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back after a
short break with the episode. And it's an overcast day
(02:28):
in La and it feels somehow appropriate. The only thing
that eclipsed to epay in the news yesterday locally, it's
the death of OJ Simpson. Friday, April twelfth, twenty twenty four.
All right, just passing city hall. This is basically in
(02:52):
little Tokyo. I see in Otani, Jersey. There's a mural
of Otani and there it is lots of TV trucks one, two, three, four, five,
oh Man two dozen television cameras set up outside. Looks
like a fair amount of Japanese media. I got to
figure out how to park the Edward R. Royball Federal Building,
(03:15):
Downtown Los Angeles. Are you all here for the etha
thing we come from near and far to bear? Witness
our lanyards drooping heavily with our press credentials. The hallway
cannot contain our numbers. But it is our right and
our duty to see the man at the center of
Baseball's gambling scandal, who will emerge for the first time
(03:36):
since disappearing into the Dodgers' clubhouse in Seoul, South Korea,
after the first game of the season on March twentieth.
A bailiff appears in shouts, admonishments, no phones, nothing electronic.
If I even see you holding it, I'll throw you out.
And then we slowly, awkwardly bottleneck through the open double
doors and settle into the hardwood benches of the Halls
(03:58):
of Justice. The scratch pencils on paper, the murmur of journalism, gossip,
and then the room goes silent, and there's Epey and
he's in shackles. Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks.
(04:29):
I'm a writer, podcaster, and diehard Dodger fan. Born and
raised in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the
story of the twenty twenty four baseball season, and this
is a documentary about a year. We will never forget.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Time for Dodger by.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Today's episode The complaint against Epay Thursday, April eleventh, twenty
four hours.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Earlier, mister Mitsuhara, a Japanese language interpreter, began working as
a translator for mister Otani when mister Tani first came
to the United States to begin playing professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
United States Attorney Martin Estrada addressed television cameras from a
dais emblazoned with the emblem of the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The evidence we've gathered over the past few weeks has
demonstrated that, in total, mister Mitsuhara stole over sixteen million
dollars from mister Otani's account in order to pay for
these illegal sports bets.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Ipe turned himself in and he was released on a
twenty five thousand dollars bond and some conditions, including he
must not gamble nor associate with known bookmakers, he must
not make contact with Shohei Otani in any way, and
he must seek treatment for his gambling addiction.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We legend the complaint mister Mintujara committed fraud on a
massive scale.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
These are still only allegations. Ipe is innocent until proven
guilty in a court of law, but the New York
Times reported that he was in negotiations to enter a
guilty plea and he could face up to thirty years
in federal prison. I want to emphasize this point and
as for shoh mister Otani.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Is considered a victim in this case.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
One I'll pitch smacked off sider Field. That's got a
sense this is gone SUNI ut inn after watching epe
enter a federal courtroom in Shackles. I saw Shohe go
three for five that same day and the Dodgers loss
to the Padres with a double and a home run.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And still in the front part of his career, he
is tied hit Decki Matt Sui for the most Major
league home runs by Jeopardese born player.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But in this episode, Shohey takes a back seat to Epey,
who is the protagonist of the complaint.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We legend of complaint.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
The criminal complaint was filed today a federal criminal complaint.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
The complaint is like a film script. It's even printed
in courier font. It paints a portrait of a man unraveling,
ravaged by his addiction, and sucked down into an unsavory
societal undercurrent. How did he have access to the accounts,
the passwords? We closed out our last episode by asking
(07:40):
some questions. Why didn't anybody notice the money was missing? Anything?
Was he telling lies about show? He? Could epe have
been betting on baseball? After all? The complaint against Epay
Usa v. Mizuhara answers all these questions and then some.
It is authored by Chris Siemo, a special agent at
(08:01):
the Irs, Mister Seymour. It's a good script. I mean
it needed a fair amount of restructuring. Took a long
time to fuse all the various timelines. Went to the store,
got the color coded note cards, brought in the parallel
narrative of what was going on with Shohy on the
baseball field. Match that up with the original reporting done
(08:23):
in other outlets. You know, there's the trip to the
courthouse downtown where I saw yap Bay walk in and shackles.
And then we present it in our own inimitable Dodger
blue dream style. You get it. This is a big
one and I'm gonna use the complaint a lot, but
I'm gonna do my own thing with it. We start
(08:43):
in twenty twenty one, Tony Rush, is it to deep
rye field? Good? Show hey, high fly ball to the
corner goes in a deep right field by he?
Speaker 5 (09:02):
Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Show hell, Tony, what
can't you do?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Show Hay's first MVP season in the major leagues the
year he proved to the world it was possible to
excel as a hitter and as a pitcher simultaneously.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Here's the O two pitch and that is a called
third strike. He struck him out looking so a couple
more strikeouts. Or show, hey, look at that he stole
a bag? Oh he stole it back.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
In twenty twenty one, show Hay was on top of
the world. He was toppling records set by Babe Ruth,
the last two way player we saw in Major League
baseball one hundred years before that. By the All Star break,
he had thirty three home runs on pace to hit
as many as Ruth McGuire, Sosa or Bonds ever did,
(09:52):
and he had a three forty nine ERA as a pitcher. Folks,
times were.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Good, welcome every one of the twenty twenty one T
Mobile Home Run Derby, perhaps the most anticipated home run
Derby ever. All of that has to do with the headliner,
who is sho Hey Otani.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
The All Star Game twenty twenty one. Show Hay is
an All Star, of course, and he's in the starting lineup,
of course, and he's also starting the game for the
American League. And at this moment, with all eyes on him,
show Hey wanted his buddy with him. Epey, the guy
behind the guy. This is the guy behind him.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
This is ape Otani's translator.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
It just was announced he will catch for show Hay
during the twenty twenty one Home Run Derby.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
What a fun moment, doesn't be for him?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, you wonder what the reason for that is, if
there's truly a translation situation, But yeah, what a unique
instant opportunity for him.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The translation situation, it could have been the name of
Epey and show Hay's boy band, Ibe was always there
since Japan, before shohe made the leap to Major League Baseball,
before he moved to the US, before he was really
internationally famous. And now these two men were at the
(11:16):
top of their game. But everything was about to change.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
On about for the Padres after a fantastic august Is
Blake snow twenty eight year old making his twenty sixth start.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
On September seventh, twenty twenty one, the Angels were in
San Diego to play the first game of a two
game series against the Padres. Although he was leading the
majors in home runs at the time, Shohey was not
in the lineup. Back in twenty nineteen, the DH was
still not allowed in NL ballparks, but the Angels found
(11:54):
a way to win without their superstar.
Speaker 7 (11:57):
That is ball four in. The first base runner to
reach is David Fletcher.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
As he enters the dugout. After scoring what would be
the deciding run, Angels infielder David Fletcher gives Ipe a
high five, which is appropriate because later that night, Fletcher
and Ibey will sit at a card table at a
San Diego hotel with none other than Matthew Boyer, the
man who is under investigation for running an allegedly illegal
(12:25):
gambling operation that Ibe started betting with. Shortly after this night,
the OC Register reported that Ipe and Matthew Boyer met
in a hotel lobby through a mutual friend in San Diego.
After this game quote, Miezuhara was placing a bet on
(12:46):
his cell phone with another bookie. The friend overheard Mezuhara
walked over and said, this is the guy you need
to be betting with, and introduced him to Boyer. I
invite you to vision rualize slow motion shots, card decks
being shuffled, close ups on eyes, hit me, hit me,
(13:06):
room service. Of course, the mini bar. I'll just call
down and have him fill it up again. I don't know,
maybe the cigars come out ooys, you know. And at
the end of the night, Ebey and Matthew Boyer exchange
numbers something like that. The following day, Wednesday, September eighth,
(13:30):
twenty twenty one, Fletcher goes oh for four in the
Angels eight to five loss against the Padres and Ebey.
According to the complaint, this is when he first hears
from Bookmaker II. An associate of Boyers messaged him and
provided him with an account number, password, and URL for
(13:51):
a website, the online home of Matthew Boyer's allegedly illegal
gambling book, and Ipe apparently starts betting right away. Picture
a desk calendar, it reads September eighth, September eighth, the
pages fly off, filling the screen. The screen clears, and
(14:13):
now it's September twenty fourth, September twenty fourth. You'd be
amazed at how many bets you can place in that time.
The complaint says that IBE made approximately nineteen thousand wagers
(14:33):
between December twenty twenty one and January twenty twenty four.
That's nearly twenty five bets per day on average, every
day for a period just over two years straight. The
complaint says that the bets ranged from roughly ten dollars
(14:54):
to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars per bet, which
means an average bet amount of roughly twelve thousand, eight
hundred dollars per bet, twenty five times a day for
two years straight. So you can see how less than
a month after Epe met Matthew Boyer, he's already had
(15:15):
more than enough time to get into a little trouble. Friday,
September twenty fourth, epay messages Boyer's associate quote, I've just
been messing around with soccer. There's games on twenty four
to seven. Lol. I took UCLA but they lost outright.
This is our first glimpse of Epe's texting style, and
(15:37):
it seems worthy of attention. It's our primary source. The
lol is lowercase, and the end of the message has
three exclamation points. And we know from the context that
he's lost a bit of money. He's already in the red.
How does the withdrawing and paying work? Epay, writes to
Boyer's associate bookmaker two, who responds later that day. He
(16:01):
pays and collects as the week ends. Sunday night, whatever
you are up or down Sunday night, you pay or
receive last week you were down, and he rolled it
as he's okay with it. I say, have a settle figure.
You're meaning pick a number you want to settle it
either way. A month passes, the season ends.
Speaker 8 (16:30):
All right, good evening everyone. I'm Steven Nelson from will
Be Network. Just want to welcome you all to the
twenty twenty one World Series.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It's October twenty sixth, Game one of the World Series,
Braves versus Astros in Houston. A bunch of television cameras.
Commissioner Rob Manfred on Show Hayes left, Hepe on Show
Hayes right.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Most outstanding memory that we will have from twenty twenty
one was an individual performance that this game has never
seen before and, to be honest, may never see again.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award has only been given out
to sixteen players. The last to receive this honor before
Showhey was Derek Jeter in twenty fourteen, when Vin Scully
was also honored.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
Uh hetha neongle day today.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Thatction my stuff. Thank you, Steven. Nice chat with the
Jim music. You're gonna get grated later. Okay, yeah, I'll
leave it here. eBay is once again sharing the spotlight
with his friend.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
As award is not given out every year, so I
know how special it is, and I'm not fully sure
if I really deserve it, but.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mister Rappi is going to give it to me.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
I will.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, he deserves it. He does deserve I'm pretty sure.
That Wednesday, October twenty seventh, the following day or maybe
later that night, in the wee hours after the Braves
beat the Astros six to two in game one of
the World series, Bookmaker two messages EPA again. Bookmaker one
(18:02):
asked me to reach out to you dot dot dot.
He sees you playing and wants to settle this by tomorrow,
I can meet you or one of his runners can.
This text comes in on a Wednesday, not on a Sunday,
when payments are due. This was a special text to Epay,
who is already falling in a hole, already behind. How
(18:28):
far behind we can't say, but he must have been
pretty far behind because October twenty seventh, twenty twenty one,
less than two months after Epay first met Matthew Boyer,
is a turning point. The day that Epa crosses a line,
a rubicon of sorts. And to understand exactly how we
(18:52):
need to make a brief detour. It all has to
do with a bank account. The complaint calls it account
X five eight four eight account Town X five eight
four eight. This is a bank account that was opened
in March twenty eighteen during spring training show Hayes's first
(19:15):
year on the Angels. He was just in the process
of relocating to the US with eBay, and according to
the complaint, Mizuhara accompanied victim A, that's show hay to
bank a branch in Arizona to assist Victim A in
opening the X five eight four eight account and translated
for Victim A when setting up the account details totally normal.
(19:39):
By the way, part of the job description for an interpreter.
IBE would always help the guy gen players set up
their accounts in Japan and so here he is doing
it for show Hay as he arrives in America. Two
forms of picture ID, proof of address, et cetera. Account
X five eight for eight has a specific purpose. It
(20:00):
is set up to receive Shoh's salary payments as an
international superstar. He's got bank accounts in Japan, He's got
some in the US. He has different accounts set up
for different purposes. This one was for his salary, the
money he was paid by the Angels to play baseball,
and IBE helped him set it up in March twenty
(20:20):
eighteen account X five eighty four eight and somehow ebe
had access to this account and now from the complaint quote,
between twenty eighteen and October twenty seventh, twenty twenty one,
(20:40):
there was no online access activity for the X five
eight four eight account. However, on October twenty seventh, twenty
twenty one, the same day, Bookmaker two messaged Mizuhara that
Bookmaker one wanted to settle Mizuhara's losses. The X five
eight four eight account was accessed through the internet for
(21:01):
the first time since twenty eighteen. This is the moment
we can pinpoint the day circle it on a calendar.
Just a month after he meets Matthew Boyer. This is
the moment Ibe first takes action on an idea he's
had for we don't know how long, alone in a hotel,
(21:23):
sitting in his seat on the chartered plane next to
show Hay when he's in an uber from Showhey's place
back to his own place in California. After this long
day in Houston getting that award wherever he did it,
Ibe tries to log into this bank account, maybe just
to see how much money is in there? Could I
(21:46):
really log in? Should I do this? Bookmaker One asks
me to reach out to you. He sees you playing
and wants to settle this by tomorrow and again. This
is the day after Game one of the World Series,
when shohe got that award. I'm back in Anaheim now,
Ibe responds, I can wire the amount to his bank account.
(22:09):
Do you know what bank he uses? I can wire
the money. This is the first time we see the
word wire and we underline it. It's the wiring of
money that ultimately makes Epe look so guilty. This is
what they're trying to get him for bank fraud. It's
right there in the summary of probable cause in the complaint.
(22:33):
Between November twenty twenty one and January twenty twenty four,
more than sixteen million dollars was transferred via wire from
the X five eight four eight account to bank accounts
of associates of an operator of an illegal sports book
Bookmaker one. In an interview Shohe said that he did
(22:54):
not authorize these transfers, and the transfers from this account
were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Ipe Mizuhara,
who began losing substantial sums of money in late twenty
twenty one. But this continued until opening day of this
year on March twentieth. That's two and a half years.
(23:17):
How did it go on so long? How did Epe
pull it off? What happened? We'll be right back, Welcome
(23:40):
back to the show. Thursday, October twenty eighth. The following day,
Bowyer's associate, Bookmaker two, follows up with Epe. Bookmaker one
asked me if you wired? I told him, I wasn't sure.
Let me know so I can tell him. No response
(24:03):
from Epay, at least not in the complaint. Thursday turns
to Friday, Friday turns to Saturday. Saturday turns to Sunday, Halloween,
October thirty first, twenty twenty one. It might as well
be any other day except that it's Sunday. Time to
settle up. Please tell Bookmaker one, I apologize for the delay.
(24:27):
Dot dot dot dot. I've never done a wire transfer
dot dot dot dot dot. How much does he owe
at this point? Has he really never sent a wire before?
Born in Japan, grew up in the US, lived in
both countries, worked as an interpreter for American players in Japan,
(24:47):
helped them set up bank accounts, now works as an
interpreter in the US for a Japanese player. Or is
he delaying considering whether he can go through with this.
Either way, it will take a lot of effort and
doing for Epay to figure out how to send his
first wire. The complaint says that sometime in late twenty
(25:10):
twenty one, the contact information on the X five eight
four eight account was changed to link the account to
EPA's phone number and to an anonymous email account which
is connected to epay based on data found on his phone.
The email address has a similar format and numbering to
shohes actual email address, according to the complaint November two,
(25:36):
two days later, Hey, Bookmaker one asked me if it
was sent. I tried sending it two days in a row,
and it keeps getting canceled. Dot dot dot dot. Sorry
for being a pain in the X. Thursday, November fourth,
Two more days later, the bank wire keeps getting canceled. Friday,
(25:56):
November fifth. The following day, PayPal is not working. Saturday,
November sixth, the wire did not work. Dot dot dot dot.
Do you have a bank a account by any chance?
I think it's easier if it's the same bank. Bookmaker
two gives epay an account number, but three days later,
on November ninth, eBay has still not paid. I've tried
(26:19):
almost every option possible and none of it is working.
Dot dot dot dot dot. This is super stressing. This
same day, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the
finalists for the major awards for the twenty twenty one season.
Shohe was one of four finalists for the American League
MVP Award. The next day, Wednesday, November tenth, twenty twenty one,
(26:45):
the first wire from account X five eight four eight
is sent to an associate of Matthew Boyer. eBay tells
Bookmaker two that he was quote able to send forty K.
I can only send forty K at the time time.
On November fifteenth, twenty twenty one, the X five eight
(27:06):
four eight account posted a debit transaction for forty thousand
and ten dollars to Zoom dot Com Zoom with an x,
a PayPal service used to send money abroad. Chris Seymour,
the author of the complaint, writes, I believe this was
the first unauthorized wire transfer from the X five to
(27:27):
eight for eight account by Mizuhara. Ebe's first wire is
a success. It gets the bookies off his back, it
settles his debts, but it is also his downfall. It
is the thing that he lies about, the law he breaks,
and it's what enables him to continue betting almost without limits,
(27:51):
and to accrue staggering amounts of debt. And it's a
paper trail. This is what the federal prosecutors are using
to prove that Epe is guilty of bank fraud. With
a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison. On November fifteenth,
he tells Bookmaker two that he'll send another fifty k.
(28:13):
On December eighth, another fifty k. The floodgates have opened.
Then there's a gap in the story. It's the holidays.
If Epe made any resolutions about quitting gambling with Matthew Boyer,
they lasted approximately one day. On January tewod twenty twenty two,
(28:36):
Ipe messaged Bookmaker two and asked him if Bookmaker one
could quote reload my account. I lost it all. Bookmaker
two response, Bookmaker one bumped you fifty K. Bump. According
to the complaint, bump is slaying in illegal bookmaking to
(28:57):
refer to increasing the credit line of a better who
owes the bookmaker money. For example, a better who has
a credit limit of one hundred thousand dollars and owes
one hundred thousand dollars might ask for a bump up
to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars limit, thus allowing
the better to gamble further in hopes of making up
(29:17):
some of their losses. Bumps are one method illegal bookmakers
used to keep gamblers engaged while encouraging them to pay
their balance to the bookmaker. So Epe's credit with Matthew
Boyer has been bumped an additional fifty thousand dollars. What
this means is that he's played and lost all of
the credit that he has with Matthew Boyer to this point,
(29:40):
and now they're giving him an additional fifty thousand dollars
to bet with, an additional fifty thousand dollars that he
doesn't actually have. So a bump is actually a downward movement,
a deepening of the whole of debt. It's one of
the more predatory practices of illegal gambling, and it's a
clear illustration of the difference between illegal gambling and legal gambling.
(30:02):
In legal gambling, you don't get bumped. So this is
EPA's first bump January second, twenty twenty two, and it's
also the moment when the wire transfers from the X
five eight four eight account tick up. But in order
for that to happen, EPA has to first sync to
new lows of deception and lies. On January fifteenth, twenty
(30:28):
twenty two, EPA texted Bookmaker two, fuck I lost it
all LOL. Can you ask Bookmaker one if he'll bump
me fifty K. That will be my last one for
a while if I lose it. February first, another two
weeks later, he sent another wire should be there by
(30:49):
end of tomorrow. But there must have been a problem
because the next day, February second, EPA calls the bank.
He identifies himself as show Hay and he says that
he's trying to send this money for a car loan,
but the amount must have been too much. The bank
(31:09):
denies his request and they freeze online transactions for the
X five eight four eight account. Later that day, Ibe
calls the bank again. He gets a different bank employee
on the phone regarding the suspension of online banking activity
(31:29):
on the X five eight four eight account that was
imposed earlier that day. He pretends to be show Hay again.
The bank employee asks him security challenge questions biographical information
about show Hay. As a result of this call, Mizuhara
was able to successfully lift the online banking suspension on
(31:52):
the X five eight four eight account. The talented mister
eBay it off. He impersonated Showhy and got away with it.
After this phone call, things change. eBay has access to
more money than before. On February fourth, eBay messages Bookmaker two,
(32:21):
the last transaction got canceled dot dot. I went to
the teller. Everything should be sorted out. I made another
transfer for three hundred k today since I lost the
other one hundred k already. Later that day eBay messages again,
wire went through another transfer for three hundred k. Today.
(32:45):
The numbers eBay is paying back to Matthew Boyer are skyrocketing.
And this is just the beginning. With Boyer bumping Geepey
down into a deeper and deeper hole of debt. By
impersonating show Hey to the bank, eBay has unlocked access
to millions of dollars all the money show Hey has
(33:07):
made as a major leaguer, And you'd think that would
be an impossible amount of money to go through. But
a little over three weeks later, on February twenty eighth,
eBay is having cash flow problems yet again. And at
this point in our story, a new character makes a
(33:27):
big entrance. Hi, I hope you had a great weekend.
Other wires still hasn't been received. Can you just wire
the two hundred This is the very first text from
Matthew Boyer himself to Epay that we see in the
(33:48):
complaint Bookmaker two disappears. Communications from this point forward go
between Boyer himself and eBay. And why would Boyer him
self step in? Maybe Epay is becoming a top client
boier than messages Epay again he has an offer something new.
(34:09):
I will give you the free play that I was
going to give Bookmaker two since you had such a
rough stretch. Please let me know or send me screenshot
when wire sent to quote the complaint. Free play generally
refers to betting where a gambler is not required to
pay for any betting losses. In other words, free play
(34:33):
means you can keep betting, keep playing. It's the proverbial.
This one's on the house. Here, have a drink. Oh
and about your tab? Can you just wire the two hundred?
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Wire the two.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
We don't know how much free play Boyer gave Epay,
but in any case, it does not help. March sixth,
twenty twenty two, it's a Sunday, meaning payments to Boyer
are due that day. Anyway, you can bump me a
(35:09):
little bit. I will wire you my losses on Wednesday,
if that's okay. I need to wait a week to
send another big wire. This means that Ipe last sent
a quote big wire the previous Wednesday, so four days earlier,
maybe three hundred thousand dollars to pay off a week's
gambling debt. It means that over those four days he
(35:32):
has gotten into the red again, and so today Sunday,
he's asking Boyer for a bump because he can't wait
three more days until the next Wednesday to wire the
money and unlock his credit to keep betting. He has
full access to a bank account with millions and millions
of dollars in it. He's wiring as much money as
(35:55):
is permitted, as often as is permitted, and still it's
not enough to keep up with his habit. So he
asks for another bump anyway you can bump me a
little bit next the following Thursday, March tenth. In one
of the most heartbreaking scenes in the complaint, Ebe tries
to self impose limitations on his own gambling because nobody
(36:17):
else is putting limits on him and the hole is
getting deeper and deeper and deeper. eBay messages Matthew Boyer,
thank you, can you put in one hundred k instead
of three hundred k? Boyer responds, you mean lower credit
to one hundred. Ebey replies, yeah, I'll get too reckless
(36:42):
with three hundred. You might be thinking, how could this
guy be so unlucky to always lose? Well, he doesn't
always lose. On May eighteenth, twenty twenty two, Oyer messages Epay,
(37:06):
confirming that you receive the ACCH that's the wire transfer
for the forty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty Also
just confirming you still want me to wire more before
I do. I see your down so lmk t y bud.
Epe responds, yes, I received it, thank you very much,
and no, you do not need to wire anymore since
(37:27):
I'm down again. Haha. On this same day, an account
under Epay's name at the same bank as the X
five eight four eight account received a wire transfer for
forty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty dollars. The shows
that Epey's winnings were deposited into his own separate account,
(37:49):
not into the X five eight four eight account. Show
heyes account which was used to pay down Epay's debts,
and if epe really did steal six teen million dollars
out of this account, as he is alleged, to have
done that still would not pay down his entire debt
to Matthew Boyer. In all, Ibe would win over one
(38:13):
hundred and forty million dollars betting with Boyer on sports,
but he would lose one hundred and eighty million dollars.
That's a net loss of over forty million dollars. And
according to the complaint, which is based on what was
on Ebe's phone and what was on show Hay's phone,
(38:35):
and also an Excel spreadsheet with the betting history for
Ebe's account with Matthew Boyer, the records quote do not
reflect any bets on baseball games. But in the meantime,
Ibe had a front row seat watching one of the
best baseball players to ever walk the Earth.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Show.
Speaker 9 (38:56):
Hey, oh, Todi, So we got a late start out
to the for his warm up pitches because he was
just at the plate. He's a number three hitter for
the Angels or Tony three and two, but it's the
last fort.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
On May eighteenth, twenty twenty two, show Hay was being
show Hay. He was on the mound against the Texas
Rangers and he was batting third behind Mike Trout, one
of the best baseball players Alive got.
Speaker 9 (39:23):
Him slider back to backstrikeouts three on the night so.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Far for oh TONI.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And let's pause on show Hey for just a moment.
People are wondering, like, did he do anything? You know,
what did he do? What did he know? He had
to be involved, right, I mean he had to be
and I see where that's coming from. But also, guy's
a baseball player. I mean his whole life is about
(39:51):
protecting his focus and his dedication to this day in
day out craft and sleeping ten hours a day plus naps.
You think that between innings this night, he was going
back into the dugout in some sort of secret code,
communicating with eBay about what bets he wanted placed, how
much to put on, what UCLA soccer game Ibe might
(40:14):
have been betting on that night or that moment, that minute,
twenty five bets a day, Joe Hey is worried about
the game. And I think that that's how these two
best friends can sit next to each other every waking
moment of every day, and still this could be transpiring
because each has their obsession and somehow the whole thing's
(40:35):
hanging together, you know, by a thread, And it really
is truly incredible how long it hung on by a thread.
After May twenty twenty two, the text messages from the
Mezuhara phone show that Mizuhara had a quote bad run.
(40:59):
Despite bight owing Bookmaker over one million dollars in losses,
Bookmaker one continually increased Mizuhara's betting limits during a two
month stretch in twenty twenty two, Ibe wired one point
two million dollars from the X five eight four eight
account on the same device he used to place bets
(41:21):
and that he used to log into his own personal
bank account. A bad run. That's a quote from a
text message that Boyer sends Epe a year later, in
May twenty twenty three. So between May twenty twenty two
and May twenty twenty three, we don't really see much
in the complaint, but we know it was a bad run.
(41:45):
We'll sum it up this way. I'm terrible at this
sports betting thing. Huh ep a text at some point,
lol dot dot dot dot any chance you can bump
me again? Question mark she mark as you know you
don't have to worry about me not paying two exclamation points.
(42:08):
Ibe has got to be Boyer's top client at this point,
can you bump me a last two hundred? He texts
Less than a month after that, I swear on my
mom this will be the last ask before I pay
it off once I get back to the States. Sorry
for keep on asking dot dot dot dot. That message
(42:30):
came in December, and Boyer texts back NP done, Bud,
Merry Christmas. As Ebe continues his bad run, show Hey
continues to make history. Somehow, his twenty twenty two season
was matching what he had done in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Shoony, It takes the first pitch, it suits it deep
to right field, Garcia drifting, and it's gone. Otani sends
another one out to right field.
Speaker 6 (43:03):
That one does instead a.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Chance to stick around.
Speaker 9 (43:06):
Two putchouts for Showy Otani that ties a career highline.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
We're still not yet a full year into Epe's two
plus years of placing bets with Matthew Boyer and IPA
and show Hey are together day in and day out,
three hundred and sixty five days a year, according to eBay,
more than he spent with his wife. All that travel,
the time in the car, the plane, the bus, in
(43:32):
the gym, working out on the field, hitting off the
tee in the cages, playing video games, eating bento boxes,
anytime show hey wanted to talk in any detail with
pretty much anybody coaches, teammates, trainers, doctors, plus the requisite
media availabilities, even just sitting in the dugout during games.
(43:57):
So many hours of being in such close fits a
goal proximity. And there is this massive deception going on.
How often did Ibe come even a little bit close
to getting found out? How many times a day did
he think about it as he was looking his best
friend in his eyes? How many times did the plan change?
(44:21):
How many times did his intentions shift? What was it
like to live with this? And how many edits did
he do to the story he was telling himself to
justify or attempt to understand what he was doing, continuing
farther and farther down this path of theft and deceit
and harm. And how is it that sho hay didn't
(44:44):
notice anything, that he didn't see that anything was amiss
with his friend, not to mention what was going on
with his own bank account. Sho hay Otani has a
very strange relationship to money, a distant relationship. The complaint
shows Ibe was just one of several people at least
(45:07):
who knew more about what was going on with show
Hay's finances than show Hay himself. The X five eight
four to eight account was set up to receive show
Hay's salary from Baseball exclusively. Showhy receives income from other
sources like investments and his countless endorsements, which make him
as much as forty to fifty million dollars every year,
(45:32):
and all that money was not going into this account.
It was going into a different account, or probably several accounts.
There are American accounts, Japanese accounts, and there are different
people looking at these different accounts who are not show Hey.
Chief among them nez Bilelo, show Hay's agent. Show His
(45:53):
domestic endorsements and related income were managed by nez Blelo,
according to this complaint, as well as a prof professional bookkeeper,
a financial manager, and a professional tax preparer and accountant.
So that's four people right there, all of whom are
involved in managing show Hayes domestic endorsements alone. So suffice
it to say that there's a lot going on, and
(46:14):
there are a lot of accounts, and there's only one
here that Epe even has access to. And remember Epe
is sho Hay's translator, his interpreter. He is the thing
between show Hay and the English speaking world show Hey inhabits,
and that position made him incredibly powerful. There's a photo
(46:38):
of Nez, show Hay, and Ipe from when Showhy was
introduced as a Dodger big two thy grin from Nez
the agent with the slick backed hair and the slightly
sporty checked business suit, and there's show Hay in the middle,
looking iconic in Dodger blue for the very first time,
and he's got the tie on underneath with the business
(46:58):
shirt because he just took his jack it off because
they just break out the jersey and he puts it
on for the first time on stage. And then there's
Epe three piece ties in a half windsor slightly loose.
These three guys were on the top of the world
seven hundred million dollars, biggest contract in sports history. They
(47:21):
did this together, but of course Ebe speaks Japanese and
Nez does not. Nez Blelo had an hour to make
his pitch to the most coveted bat and arm in Japan.
According to an article in Sports Business Journal, actually when
factoring in the need to run each sentence through an interpreter.
(47:44):
Ballelo's introductory meeting was Shohei Otani in late twenty seventeen,
included only about forty minutes of dialogue. I'm not exactly
sure why he chose me as his agent. Blelo said.
Ebe was in with first. He was already the guy
behind the guy before Nez Ballelo came into the picture.
(48:10):
Whether this accorded Ipe some type of seniority in this situation,
or whether it was simply about the language barrier. Ipe
had this angle, and in order to pull this off,
Ipe really had to work that. While Nez Ballelo Quote
will occasionally hire Japanese language interpreters to communicate with his clients,
(48:33):
he did not hire an interpreter to communicate with Showhy
because Ipe was always with him. It continues that nes
Quote did not speak directly to victim A or regularly
exchange text messages with victim A. Instead, he relayed messages
to Victim A through Mizuhara. None of Shohei's agents, accountants,
(48:58):
or financial advisors spoke Japanese, so Showhey relied on epay
to translate conversations with those people. EPA says that he
always accompanied sho Hay to meetings with accountants and financial advisors.
Because victim A received income from a range of both
foreign and domestic sources, victim A generally would not ask
(49:20):
me Zuhara to inquire about specific accounts, and instead would
ask me Zuhara to inquire with the above identified financial
professionals for an overall picture of his income or investment profile.
So I'm imagining something, but late at night in the hotel,
when they're meeting up and talking about you know what
else for tomorrow show, he is getting a general picture
(49:42):
about what's going on with his financial accounts from EPAY
or you know, in the car between the hotel and
the ballpark, or maybe in a standing meeting where they
talk about these things specifically. But no matter the circumstances,
he's getting this information as an overview from EPAY and
EPA alone. According to the complaint, victim A stated that
(50:04):
he believed that Agent one, that's nez Bilelo, his accountants
and financial advisors were monitoring all of his accounts, including
the X five eight four eight account, and IPE is
doing everything that he can to keep them away from
that account. According to the complaint, nez Ballelo asked epe
(50:26):
on quote multiple occasions about the account. Ibe told Nez
that the account was quote private and that Shohei did
not want anyone else to monitor the account. Nez Ballelo
quote stated that he did not confirm these representations directly
with Shohy, but stated that he had no reason not
(50:47):
to believe eBay. It is a very small circle of
trust around Shohei Otani Ibe was perhaps the most powerful
person in this very small and exclusive It would take
somebody coming in from the outside to even get close
to uncovering the truth. Three different people hired by Nez
(51:11):
to help manage sho Hayes's finances were interviewed for the complaint.
Each of them had questions about the X five eight
four eight account. Two of them went to Nez. Nez
told them that Ebe told him that Shohey wanted that
account kept private, and that was that. The third person,
identified only as KF, an accountant hired to do show
(51:32):
hayes domestic taxes, has a different story. The complaint says
that KF only met show hay once for an introductory
meeting after that all communications went through nez or Epe.
Speaker 6 (51:45):
Fourteen wins and two hundred plus strikeouts as a pitcher.
Oh yeah, he also hits the baseball to a tune
of thirty four dingers for the Halos this season.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
October twenty twenty two. IBE would place over two h
hundred and thirty thousand dollars in bets on a single
day this month, and show Hey has just finished another
historic season. Sometime during this month, KF was scheduled to
meet with show Hay and eBay, but only EPA showed up.
(52:16):
He tells KF, who had only met show Hay once
at an introductory meeting, that show Hey is sick unable
to attend. KF asks Epey directly about the X five
eight four eight account. Show Hay was risking filing incorrect
tax returns if there is interest being accrued in the
account or if there are any gifts made from the
(52:37):
account at an amount that would trigger tax reporting requirements,
and epe responds, show Hey wants that account kept private
from everyone, and that account does not bear interest and
there were no gifts from that account. Did KF suspect anything?
What about the other money people who also asked nez
(52:58):
Bilelo about this account. Maybe it's a moot point. Such
was Abe's power within the inner circle around show Hay.
Even those who came close to Shohey would only know
how he felt about something from Ebe. This was key
to Ebe's deception and also the longevity of his lie,
(53:23):
and so it continued. Yeah, it's called the freeway series.
They haven't marked down. June twentieth, twenty twenty three Angels
versus Dodgers and Anaheim do it two on pets at
a swing set message strike three. Ebe messages Matthew Boyer,
it looks like I can only send five hundred per week.
(53:43):
Does five hundred a week work for you?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
A bit crowd in A big hand for sho Hey
O Taani.
Speaker 4 (53:48):
He is the reigning American League Player of the Week.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Getting close to two years after he started betting with
Matthew Boyer. Bank records show that Ebe accessed the account
again and pretending to be Shohey on this day and
the amounts have gotten incredibly high half a million dollars
a week. Smith Caleb Ferguson is three to two. Dot
(54:12):
it strike three. He strikes out O Tani and trout,
but somehow five hundred thousand dollars a week is not
enough to pay down Ebees debts. Rojas has a read
on it, and that seals it. Two nothing win for LA.
Two days later, on June twenty second, I got my
(54:33):
ex kicked again. Lol dot dot dot dot. Any chance
I can get one last bump? Okay, Bud, I just
want to be able to communicate with my partners so
he knows expectations. If I can assure him that the
minimum five hundred will be sent every week, I can
do the bump to whatever you want. It's just imperative
(54:55):
that the five hundred is sent every week. FYI. I
have already paid out of my pocket to him half
of the balance that is on the account, So whatever
is lost every week, I have to give him half
of the balance. That's why I'm asking these direct important questions.
June twenty third. The following day, I'm the worst, Lol,
(55:19):
can't catch a break? Can I get one last bump?
I swear this is going to be my last until
I get the balance down significantly. I promise this will
be the last bump for a while. Okay, NP done.
June twenty fourth another day later, I have a problem. Lol,
(55:42):
Can I get one last bump? This one is for real,
last one, for real.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Done?
Speaker 1 (55:52):
I have the same problem, crying, laughing emoji. To be
honest with you, Epee. As long as you can guarantee
the five hundred every month, I'll give you as much
as you want, because I know that you're good for it.
Time keeps passing. Another baseball season ends. In October twenty
twenty three, Federal agents raid Matthew Boyer's home in San
(56:15):
Juan Capistrano. They take electronic devices, computers, and phones. Boyer
is under investigation, but he has not been charged and
he is not in custody. He still expects Ipe to
pay him back.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
Sho Hey Otani receiving his second American League MVP award
is second unanimous honor.
Speaker 7 (56:35):
As a matter of fact, back.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
The November seventeenth, twenty twenty three, Shohey's second unanimous AL
MVP award was just announced. He gives an interview about
it from his home while holding his dog, a dog
whose name we don't know, who will become an Internet sensation. Fully,
thank think you about this. Obviously. I wanted to windy
last year, but on this day Disney Plus release. This
(57:00):
is show Hey Otani Beyond the Dream, at the very
height of the craze around Show Hay's free agency. This
is around the same time everybody is speculating that show
Hey is on a plane to Toronto. Hey, e b
It's two o'clock on Friday. I don't know why you're
(57:20):
not returning my calls. I'm here in Newport Beach and
I see show Hey walking his dog. I'm just gonna
go up and talk to him and ask him how
I can get in touch with you. Since you are
not responding, Please call me back immediately. November nineteenth, two
days later. I'm gonna be honest. I ended up losing
(57:44):
a lot of money on crypto the last couple of years,
and I took a huge hit obviously with the sports too.
Is there any way we can settle on an amount.
I've lost way too much on the site already.
Speaker 5 (57:56):
Dot dot dot.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Of course, I know it's my fault. December fourteenth, Show
hayes introductory press conference with the Dodgers. EPE is on
stage with Show Hay, Dodgers owner Mark Walter, Dodgers President
of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedmans.
Speaker 7 (58:16):
Bilo Show Hayes interpreter mostly show Hayes's best buddy, close friend,
Ipe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (58:23):
So his name is Dick. That's a Japanese name, and
December fifteenth the next day. I know you're busy, but
you need to show some respect. I put my neck
out there. Call me by tonight. I don't care what
time or how late it is. I'm so sorry, bro,
dot dot dot. I really don't mean to disrespect you
(58:44):
at all. I promise, dot dot dot. It's just been
super super busy dot dot dot, and I've got other
issues on the side going on to dot dot dot.
Everything has just been really, really tough recently. I don't
think you ever gave me the new bank account info
dot dot dot. Could I please get that. I'm gonna
try to send something tomorrow. January sixth, twenty twenty four,
Bowyer texts eBay, you're putting me in a position where
(59:07):
this is going to get out of control. If I
don't hear from you by the end of the day today,
it's going to be out of my hands. In his
original ESPN interview, Ebe described fearing for his safety and
that somebody might come to his house, and it was
only at that moment, at his nadir that he went
(59:30):
to show Hay to plead for his help. Ibay later
said that he lied in that interview that he didn't
go to show Hay, but maybe the feeling in the
situation IBE was describing really did happen at this point.
In January twenty twenty four, Ibe stops betting with Matthew Boyer.
(59:50):
The wiring also stops, but during this period, according to
the complaint, eBay transferred more than three hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars the X five eight four to eight
account to eBay and what Not, a quote online marketplace
where users can purchase products, eg. Baseball cards. In January,
(01:00:13):
as shohe was doing off season workouts at Dodger Stadium,
Ipe asked a Dodger's employee if he would set aside
some packages that were going to be mailed to epay
under an alias. At Dodger Stadium. Multiple packages were received
there and set aside by a Dodger's employee. They were
addressed to j Min, a name associated with an email
account and with websites on eBay's phone. These packages contain
(01:00:37):
baseball cards. For players including Yogi Bearra, Juan Soto, and
Shohei Otani. Chris Seymour, the author of the complaint, says
that he believes that Epe purchased these cards with the
intent to resell them. The FEDS also found boxes and
briefcases full of baseball cards inside a vehicle used by
eBay with spring training underway. We saw more and more
(01:01:01):
of show Hey, and more and more of eBay. So
she's a normal Japanese woman. March fourteenth, as the Dodgers
board a plane to Soul, Korea, sho Hey Otani posts
a photo of himself with his wife, the woman whose
identity had been kept secret to that point. Also in
the photo Ebey and his wife some Japanese lettering and
(01:01:22):
an exclamation point in the Korean flag emoji. The text
translates to can't wait. March seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Ibe
and Boyer are sending encrypted messages using the signal app
thank you for the call. Earlier, Ebe writes to Boyer,
(01:01:43):
do you think there is any way to find out
the details of the article that's coming out on La Times, Hey, Bud,
I have no idea what this idiot is printing or
trying to say.
Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
A twenty twenty four Major League Baseball season set to
get underway.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
We are in South Korea, soul to be exactly where.
Four four years ago on March twentieth, opening day, EPE message, boyer,
have you seen the reports? Yes, but that's all bullshit.
Obviously you didn't steal from him. I understand it's a
cover job. I totally get it, and EPE response, technically
(01:02:25):
I did steal from him. It's all over for me.
Based on the foregoing, there is probable cause to believe
that Mizuhara has committed bank fraud in violation of eighteen
USC Section one three four four Subsection two, signed Chris Seymour,
(01:02:49):
special Agent. Internal Revenue Service. Investigators looked at ninety seven
hundred pages of text messages between Showhy and EPE for
the complaint. There was no mention of sports betting. Dodger
(01:03:09):
Blue Dream is written and produced by Me Richard Parks.
This episode was story edited by Caitlin Esh with production
assistants from Angel kaas Original music in this episode by
William Ryan Fritch and by me. This entire episode is
based on allegations made by other people and reporting published
(01:03:30):
by other outlets. If you like Dodger Blue Dream, please
help us spread the word. After this episode, I planned
to start talking about baseball on this show. Thanks again
for listening. Go Dodgers,
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the show. I'm Richard Parks, the
third and this is Dodger Blue Dream. Happy Thanksgiving. We're
one step closer to Christmas, New Year's and then Spring Training.
In the meantime, we are here to bring you the
(00:25):
second installment in our rebroadcast of our little mini series
on the eBay Misuhara gambling scandal that dominated the news
during Shoho Tani's first weeks as a Dodger back in
twenty twenty four. If you haven't listened to the first part,
we published it last week on this feed. That one's
(00:47):
called the talented mister eBay. We recommend that you start
there and then move on to this one. The complaint
against eBay. A complaint is basically a official core document
that details an investigation and the case against a defendant.
In this case, Ipe Mizuhara, shohe Otani's former translator, who
(01:11):
on the first game of the season in twenty twenty four,
was fired by the Dodgers and taken down for having
stolen millions and millions of dollars from one of Shohei
Otani's bank accounts in order to pay off debts that
he had accrued with an illegal bookmaker in Orange County.
(01:32):
Iliul gambling has been back in the news in the
baseball world. Emmanuel Classe and Luis Ortiz from the Cleveland
Guardians have been accused of participating in a pitch fixing
scheme that won many hundreds of thousands of dollars for
some allegedly bad ombrace. Sports betting is getting way out
(01:57):
of control and it takes you to some dark places,
as it will in today's episode, the complaint against Epay.
Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back after a
short break with the episode. And it's an overcast day
(02:28):
in La and it feels somehow appropriate. The only thing
that eclipsed to epay in the news yesterday locally, it's
the death of OJ Simpson. Friday, April twelfth, twenty twenty four.
All right, just passing city hall. This is basically in
(02:52):
little Tokyo. I see in Otani, Jersey. There's a mural
of Otani and there it is lots of TV trucks one, two, three, four, five,
oh Man two dozen television cameras set up outside. Looks
like a fair amount of Japanese media. I got to
figure out how to park the Edward R. Royball Federal Building,
(03:15):
Downtown Los Angeles. Are you all here for the etha
thing we come from near and far to bear? Witness
our lanyards drooping heavily with our press credentials. The hallway
cannot contain our numbers. But it is our right and
our duty to see the man at the center of
Baseball's gambling scandal, who will emerge for the first time
(03:36):
since disappearing into the Dodgers' clubhouse in Seoul, South Korea,
after the first game of the season on March twentieth.
A bailiff appears in shouts, admonishments, no phones, nothing electronic.
If I even see you holding it, I'll throw you out.
And then we slowly, awkwardly bottleneck through the open double
doors and settle into the hardwood benches of the Halls
(03:58):
of Justice. The scratch pencils on paper, the murmur of journalism, gossip,
and then the room goes silent, and there's Epey and
he's in shackles. Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks.
(04:29):
I'm a writer, podcaster, and diehard Dodger fan. Born and
raised in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the
story of the twenty twenty four baseball season, and this
is a documentary about a year. We will never forget.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Time for Dodger by.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Today's episode The complaint against Epay Thursday, April eleventh, twenty
four hours.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Earlier, mister Mitsuhara, a Japanese language interpreter, began working as
a translator for mister Otani when mister Tani first came
to the United States to begin playing professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
United States Attorney Martin Estrada addressed television cameras from a
dais emblazoned with the emblem of the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The evidence we've gathered over the past few weeks has
demonstrated that, in total, mister Mitsuhara stole over sixteen million
dollars from mister Otani's account in order to pay for
these illegal sports bets.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Ipe turned himself in and he was released on a
twenty five thousand dollars bond and some conditions, including he
must not gamble nor associate with known bookmakers, he must
not make contact with Shohei Otani in any way, and
he must seek treatment for his gambling addiction.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We legend the complaint mister Mintujara committed fraud on a
massive scale.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
These are still only allegations. Ipe is innocent until proven
guilty in a court of law, but the New York
Times reported that he was in negotiations to enter a
guilty plea and he could face up to thirty years
in federal prison. I want to emphasize this point and
as for shoh mister Otani.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Is considered a victim in this case.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
One I'll pitch smacked off sider Field. That's got a
sense this is gone SUNI ut inn after watching epe
enter a federal courtroom in Shackles. I saw Shohe go
three for five that same day and the Dodgers loss
to the Padres with a double and a home run.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And still in the front part of his career, he
is tied hit Decki Matt Sui for the most Major
league home runs by Jeopardese born player.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
But in this episode, Shohey takes a back seat to Epey,
who is the protagonist of the complaint.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We legend of complaint.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
The criminal complaint was filed today a federal criminal complaint.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
The complaint is like a film script. It's even printed
in courier font. It paints a portrait of a man unraveling,
ravaged by his addiction, and sucked down into an unsavory
societal undercurrent. How did he have access to the accounts,
the passwords? We closed out our last episode by asking
(07:40):
some questions. Why didn't anybody notice the money was missing? Anything?
Was he telling lies about show? He? Could epe have
been betting on baseball? After all? The complaint against Epay
Usa v. Mizuhara answers all these questions and then some.
It is authored by Chris Siemo, a special agent at
(08:01):
the Irs, Mister Seymour. It's a good script. I mean
it needed a fair amount of restructuring. Took a long
time to fuse all the various timelines. Went to the store,
got the color coded note cards, brought in the parallel
narrative of what was going on with Shohy on the
baseball field. Match that up with the original reporting done
(08:23):
in other outlets. You know, there's the trip to the
courthouse downtown where I saw yap Bay walk in and shackles.
And then we present it in our own inimitable Dodger
blue dream style. You get it. This is a big
one and I'm gonna use the complaint a lot, but
I'm gonna do my own thing with it. We start
(08:43):
in twenty twenty one, Tony Rush, is it to deep
rye field? Good? Show hey, high fly ball to the
corner goes in a deep right field by he?
Speaker 5 (09:02):
Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Show hell, Tony, what
can't you do?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Show Hay's first MVP season in the major leagues the
year he proved to the world it was possible to
excel as a hitter and as a pitcher simultaneously.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Here's the O two pitch and that is a called
third strike. He struck him out looking so a couple
more strikeouts. Or show, hey, look at that he stole
a bag? Oh he stole it back.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
In twenty twenty one, show Hay was on top of
the world. He was toppling records set by Babe Ruth,
the last two way player we saw in Major League
baseball one hundred years before that. By the All Star break,
he had thirty three home runs on pace to hit
as many as Ruth McGuire, Sosa or Bonds ever did,
(09:52):
and he had a three forty nine ERA as a pitcher. Folks,
times were.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Good, welcome every one of the twenty twenty one T
Mobile Home Run Derby, perhaps the most anticipated home run
Derby ever. All of that has to do with the headliner,
who is sho Hey Otani.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
The All Star Game twenty twenty one. Show Hay is
an All Star, of course, and he's in the starting lineup,
of course, and he's also starting the game for the
American League. And at this moment, with all eyes on him,
show Hey wanted his buddy with him. Epey, the guy
behind the guy. This is the guy behind him.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
This is ape Otani's translator.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
It just was announced he will catch for show Hay
during the twenty twenty one Home Run Derby.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
What a fun moment, doesn't be for him?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, you wonder what the reason for that is, if
there's truly a translation situation, But yeah, what a unique
instant opportunity for him.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The translation situation, it could have been the name of
Epey and show Hay's boy band, Ibe was always there
since Japan, before shohe made the leap to Major League Baseball,
before he moved to the US, before he was really
internationally famous. And now these two men were at the
(11:16):
top of their game. But everything was about to change.
Speaker 7 (11:26):
On about for the Padres after a fantastic august Is
Blake snow twenty eight year old making his twenty sixth start.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
On September seventh, twenty twenty one, the Angels were in
San Diego to play the first game of a two
game series against the Padres. Although he was leading the
majors in home runs at the time, Shohey was not
in the lineup. Back in twenty nineteen, the DH was
still not allowed in NL ballparks, but the Angels found
(11:54):
a way to win without their superstar.
Speaker 7 (11:57):
That is ball four in. The first base runner to
reach is David Fletcher.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
As he enters the dugout. After scoring what would be
the deciding run, Angels infielder David Fletcher gives Ipe a
high five, which is appropriate because later that night, Fletcher
and Ibey will sit at a card table at a
San Diego hotel with none other than Matthew Boyer, the
man who is under investigation for running an allegedly illegal
(12:25):
gambling operation that Ibe started betting with. Shortly after this night,
the OC Register reported that Ipe and Matthew Boyer met
in a hotel lobby through a mutual friend in San Diego.
After this game quote, Miezuhara was placing a bet on
(12:46):
his cell phone with another bookie. The friend overheard Mezuhara
walked over and said, this is the guy you need
to be betting with, and introduced him to Boyer. I
invite you to vision rualize slow motion shots, card decks
being shuffled, close ups on eyes, hit me, hit me,
(13:06):
room service. Of course, the mini bar. I'll just call
down and have him fill it up again. I don't know,
maybe the cigars come out ooys, you know. And at
the end of the night, Ebey and Matthew Boyer exchange
numbers something like that. The following day, Wednesday, September eighth,
(13:30):
twenty twenty one, Fletcher goes oh for four in the
Angels eight to five loss against the Padres and Ebey.
According to the complaint, this is when he first hears
from Bookmaker II. An associate of Boyers messaged him and
provided him with an account number, password, and URL for
(13:51):
a website, the online home of Matthew Boyer's allegedly illegal
gambling book, and Ipe apparently starts betting right away. Picture
a desk calendar, it reads September eighth, September eighth, the
pages fly off, filling the screen. The screen clears, and
(14:13):
now it's September twenty fourth, September twenty fourth. You'd be
amazed at how many bets you can place in that time.
The complaint says that IBE made approximately nineteen thousand wagers
(14:33):
between December twenty twenty one and January twenty twenty four.
That's nearly twenty five bets per day on average, every
day for a period just over two years straight. The
complaint says that the bets ranged from roughly ten dollars
(14:54):
to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars per bet, which
means an average bet amount of roughly twelve thousand, eight
hundred dollars per bet, twenty five times a day for
two years straight. So you can see how less than
a month after Epe met Matthew Boyer, he's already had
(15:15):
more than enough time to get into a little trouble. Friday,
September twenty fourth, epay messages Boyer's associate quote, I've just
been messing around with soccer. There's games on twenty four
to seven. Lol. I took UCLA but they lost outright.
This is our first glimpse of Epe's texting style, and
(15:37):
it seems worthy of attention. It's our primary source. The
lol is lowercase, and the end of the message has
three exclamation points. And we know from the context that
he's lost a bit of money. He's already in the red.
How does the withdrawing and paying work? Epay, writes to
Boyer's associate bookmaker two, who responds later that day. He
(16:01):
pays and collects as the week ends. Sunday night, whatever
you are up or down Sunday night, you pay or
receive last week you were down, and he rolled it
as he's okay with it. I say, have a settle figure.
You're meaning pick a number you want to settle it
either way. A month passes, the season ends.
Speaker 8 (16:30):
All right, good evening everyone. I'm Steven Nelson from will
Be Network. Just want to welcome you all to the
twenty twenty one World Series.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It's October twenty sixth, Game one of the World Series,
Braves versus Astros in Houston. A bunch of television cameras.
Commissioner Rob Manfred on Show Hayes left, Hepe on Show
Hayes right.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Most outstanding memory that we will have from twenty twenty
one was an individual performance that this game has never
seen before and, to be honest, may never see again.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award has only been given out
to sixteen players. The last to receive this honor before
Showhey was Derek Jeter in twenty fourteen, when Vin Scully
was also honored.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
Uh hetha neongle day today.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Thatction my stuff. Thank you, Steven. Nice chat with the
Jim music. You're gonna get grated later. Okay, yeah, I'll
leave it here. eBay is once again sharing the spotlight
with his friend.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
As award is not given out every year, so I
know how special it is, and I'm not fully sure
if I really deserve it, but.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Mister Rappi is going to give it to me.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
I will.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, he deserves it. He does deserve I'm pretty sure.
That Wednesday, October twenty seventh, the following day or maybe
later that night, in the wee hours after the Braves
beat the Astros six to two in game one of
the World series, Bookmaker two messages EPA again. Bookmaker one
(18:02):
asked me to reach out to you dot dot dot.
He sees you playing and wants to settle this by tomorrow,
I can meet you or one of his runners can.
This text comes in on a Wednesday, not on a Sunday,
when payments are due. This was a special text to Epay,
who is already falling in a hole, already behind. How
(18:28):
far behind we can't say, but he must have been
pretty far behind because October twenty seventh, twenty twenty one,
less than two months after Epay first met Matthew Boyer,
is a turning point. The day that Epa crosses a line,
a rubicon of sorts. And to understand exactly how we
(18:52):
need to make a brief detour. It all has to
do with a bank account. The complaint calls it account
X five eight four eight account Town X five eight
four eight. This is a bank account that was opened
in March twenty eighteen during spring training show Hayes's first
(19:15):
year on the Angels. He was just in the process
of relocating to the US with eBay, and according to
the complaint, Mizuhara accompanied victim A, that's show hay to
bank a branch in Arizona to assist Victim A in
opening the X five eight four eight account and translated
for Victim A when setting up the account details totally normal.
(19:39):
By the way, part of the job description for an interpreter.
IBE would always help the guy gen players set up
their accounts in Japan and so here he is doing
it for show Hay as he arrives in America. Two
forms of picture ID, proof of address, et cetera. Account
X five eight for eight has a specific purpose. It
(20:00):
is set up to receive Shoh's salary payments as an
international superstar. He's got bank accounts in Japan, He's got
some in the US. He has different accounts set up
for different purposes. This one was for his salary, the
money he was paid by the Angels to play baseball,
and IBE helped him set it up in March twenty
(20:20):
eighteen account X five eighty four eight and somehow ebe
had access to this account and now from the complaint quote,
between twenty eighteen and October twenty seventh, twenty twenty one,
(20:40):
there was no online access activity for the X five
eight four eight account. However, on October twenty seventh, twenty
twenty one, the same day, Bookmaker two messaged Mizuhara that
Bookmaker one wanted to settle Mizuhara's losses. The X five
eight four eight account was accessed through the internet for
(21:01):
the first time since twenty eighteen. This is the moment
we can pinpoint the day circle it on a calendar.
Just a month after he meets Matthew Boyer. This is
the moment Ibe first takes action on an idea he's
had for we don't know how long, alone in a hotel,
(21:23):
sitting in his seat on the chartered plane next to
show Hay when he's in an uber from Showhey's place
back to his own place in California. After this long
day in Houston getting that award wherever he did it,
Ibe tries to log into this bank account, maybe just
to see how much money is in there? Could I
(21:46):
really log in? Should I do this? Bookmaker One asks
me to reach out to you. He sees you playing
and wants to settle this by tomorrow and again. This
is the day after Game one of the World Series,
when shohe got that award. I'm back in Anaheim now,
Ibe responds, I can wire the amount to his bank account.
(22:09):
Do you know what bank he uses? I can wire
the money. This is the first time we see the
word wire and we underline it. It's the wiring of
money that ultimately makes Epe look so guilty. This is
what they're trying to get him for bank fraud. It's
right there in the summary of probable cause in the complaint.
(22:33):
Between November twenty twenty one and January twenty twenty four,
more than sixteen million dollars was transferred via wire from
the X five eight four eight account to bank accounts
of associates of an operator of an illegal sports book
Bookmaker one. In an interview Shohe said that he did
(22:54):
not authorize these transfers, and the transfers from this account
were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Ipe Mizuhara,
who began losing substantial sums of money in late twenty
twenty one. But this continued until opening day of this
year on March twentieth. That's two and a half years.
(23:17):
How did it go on so long? How did Epe
pull it off? What happened? We'll be right back, Welcome
(23:40):
back to the show. Thursday, October twenty eighth. The following day,
Bowyer's associate, Bookmaker two, follows up with Epe. Bookmaker one
asked me if you wired? I told him, I wasn't sure.
Let me know so I can tell him. No response
(24:03):
from Epay, at least not in the complaint. Thursday turns
to Friday, Friday turns to Saturday. Saturday turns to Sunday, Halloween,
October thirty first, twenty twenty one. It might as well
be any other day except that it's Sunday. Time to
settle up. Please tell Bookmaker one, I apologize for the delay.
(24:27):
Dot dot dot dot. I've never done a wire transfer
dot dot dot dot dot. How much does he owe
at this point? Has he really never sent a wire before?
Born in Japan, grew up in the US, lived in
both countries, worked as an interpreter for American players in Japan,
(24:47):
helped them set up bank accounts, now works as an
interpreter in the US for a Japanese player. Or is
he delaying considering whether he can go through with this.
Either way, it will take a lot of effort and
doing for Epay to figure out how to send his
first wire. The complaint says that sometime in late twenty
(25:10):
twenty one, the contact information on the X five eight
four eight account was changed to link the account to
EPA's phone number and to an anonymous email account which
is connected to epay based on data found on his phone.
The email address has a similar format and numbering to
shohes actual email address, according to the complaint November two,
(25:36):
two days later, Hey, Bookmaker one asked me if it
was sent. I tried sending it two days in a row,
and it keeps getting canceled. Dot dot dot dot. Sorry
for being a pain in the X. Thursday, November fourth,
Two more days later, the bank wire keeps getting canceled. Friday,
(25:56):
November fifth. The following day, PayPal is not working. Saturday,
November sixth, the wire did not work. Dot dot dot dot.
Do you have a bank a account by any chance?
I think it's easier if it's the same bank. Bookmaker
two gives epay an account number, but three days later,
on November ninth, eBay has still not paid. I've tried
(26:19):
almost every option possible and none of it is working.
Dot dot dot dot dot. This is super stressing. This
same day, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the
finalists for the major awards for the twenty twenty one season.
Shohe was one of four finalists for the American League
MVP Award. The next day, Wednesday, November tenth, twenty twenty one,
(26:45):
the first wire from account X five eight four eight
is sent to an associate of Matthew Boyer. eBay tells
Bookmaker two that he was quote able to send forty K.
I can only send forty K at the time time.
On November fifteenth, twenty twenty one, the X five eight
(27:06):
four eight account posted a debit transaction for forty thousand
and ten dollars to Zoom dot Com Zoom with an x,
a PayPal service used to send money abroad. Chris Seymour,
the author of the complaint, writes, I believe this was
the first unauthorized wire transfer from the X five to
(27:27):
eight for eight account by Mizuhara. Ebe's first wire is
a success. It gets the bookies off his back, it
settles his debts, but it is also his downfall. It
is the thing that he lies about, the law he breaks,
and it's what enables him to continue betting almost without limits,
(27:51):
and to accrue staggering amounts of debt. And it's a
paper trail. This is what the federal prosecutors are using
to prove that Epe is guilty of bank fraud. With
a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison. On November fifteenth,
he tells Bookmaker two that he'll send another fifty k.
(28:13):
On December eighth, another fifty k. The floodgates have opened.
Then there's a gap in the story. It's the holidays.
If Epe made any resolutions about quitting gambling with Matthew Boyer,
they lasted approximately one day. On January tewod twenty twenty two,
(28:36):
Ipe messaged Bookmaker two and asked him if Bookmaker one
could quote reload my account. I lost it all. Bookmaker
two response, Bookmaker one bumped you fifty K. Bump. According
to the complaint, bump is slaying in illegal bookmaking to
(28:57):
refer to increasing the credit line of a better who
owes the bookmaker money. For example, a better who has
a credit limit of one hundred thousand dollars and owes
one hundred thousand dollars might ask for a bump up
to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars limit, thus allowing
the better to gamble further in hopes of making up
(29:17):
some of their losses. Bumps are one method illegal bookmakers
used to keep gamblers engaged while encouraging them to pay
their balance to the bookmaker. So Epe's credit with Matthew
Boyer has been bumped an additional fifty thousand dollars. What
this means is that he's played and lost all of
the credit that he has with Matthew Boyer to this point,
(29:40):
and now they're giving him an additional fifty thousand dollars
to bet with, an additional fifty thousand dollars that he
doesn't actually have. So a bump is actually a downward movement,
a deepening of the whole of debt. It's one of
the more predatory practices of illegal gambling, and it's a
clear illustration of the difference between illegal gambling and legal gambling.
(30:02):
In legal gambling, you don't get bumped. So this is
EPA's first bump January second, twenty twenty two, and it's
also the moment when the wire transfers from the X
five eight four eight account tick up. But in order
for that to happen, EPA has to first sync to
new lows of deception and lies. On January fifteenth, twenty
(30:28):
twenty two, EPA texted Bookmaker two, fuck I lost it
all LOL. Can you ask Bookmaker one if he'll bump
me fifty K. That will be my last one for
a while if I lose it. February first, another two
weeks later, he sent another wire should be there by
(30:49):
end of tomorrow. But there must have been a problem
because the next day, February second, EPA calls the bank.
He identifies himself as show Hay and he says that
he's trying to send this money for a car loan,
but the amount must have been too much. The bank
(31:09):
denies his request and they freeze online transactions for the
X five eight four eight account. Later that day, Ibe
calls the bank again. He gets a different bank employee
on the phone regarding the suspension of online banking activity
(31:29):
on the X five eight four eight account that was
imposed earlier that day. He pretends to be show Hay again.
The bank employee asks him security challenge questions biographical information
about show Hay. As a result of this call, Mizuhara
was able to successfully lift the online banking suspension on
(31:52):
the X five eight four eight account. The talented mister
eBay it off. He impersonated Showhy and got away with it.
After this phone call, things change. eBay has access to
more money than before. On February fourth, eBay messages Bookmaker two,
(32:21):
the last transaction got canceled dot dot. I went to
the teller. Everything should be sorted out. I made another
transfer for three hundred k today since I lost the
other one hundred k already. Later that day eBay messages again,
wire went through another transfer for three hundred k. Today.
(32:45):
The numbers eBay is paying back to Matthew Boyer are skyrocketing.
And this is just the beginning. With Boyer bumping Geepey
down into a deeper and deeper hole of debt. By
impersonating show Hey to the bank, eBay has unlocked access
to millions of dollars all the money show Hey has
(33:07):
made as a major leaguer, And you'd think that would
be an impossible amount of money to go through. But
a little over three weeks later, on February twenty eighth,
eBay is having cash flow problems yet again. And at
this point in our story, a new character makes a
(33:27):
big entrance. Hi, I hope you had a great weekend.
Other wires still hasn't been received. Can you just wire
the two hundred This is the very first text from
Matthew Boyer himself to Epay that we see in the
(33:48):
complaint Bookmaker two disappears. Communications from this point forward go
between Boyer himself and eBay. And why would Boyer him
self step in? Maybe Epay is becoming a top client
boier than messages Epay again he has an offer something new.
(34:09):
I will give you the free play that I was
going to give Bookmaker two since you had such a
rough stretch. Please let me know or send me screenshot
when wire sent to quote the complaint. Free play generally
refers to betting where a gambler is not required to
pay for any betting losses. In other words, free play
(34:33):
means you can keep betting, keep playing. It's the proverbial.
This one's on the house. Here, have a drink. Oh
and about your tab? Can you just wire the two hundred?
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Wire the two.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
We don't know how much free play Boyer gave Epay,
but in any case, it does not help. March sixth,
twenty twenty two, it's a Sunday, meaning payments to Boyer
are due that day. Anyway, you can bump me a
(35:09):
little bit. I will wire you my losses on Wednesday,
if that's okay. I need to wait a week to
send another big wire. This means that Ipe last sent
a quote big wire the previous Wednesday, so four days earlier,
maybe three hundred thousand dollars to pay off a week's
gambling debt. It means that over those four days he
(35:32):
has gotten into the red again, and so today Sunday,
he's asking Boyer for a bump because he can't wait
three more days until the next Wednesday to wire the
money and unlock his credit to keep betting. He has
full access to a bank account with millions and millions
of dollars in it. He's wiring as much money as
(35:55):
is permitted, as often as is permitted, and still it's
not enough to keep up with his habit. So he
asks for another bump anyway you can bump me a
little bit next the following Thursday, March tenth. In one
of the most heartbreaking scenes in the complaint, Ebe tries
to self impose limitations on his own gambling because nobody
(36:17):
else is putting limits on him and the hole is
getting deeper and deeper and deeper. eBay messages Matthew Boyer,
thank you, can you put in one hundred k instead
of three hundred k? Boyer responds, you mean lower credit
to one hundred. Ebey replies, yeah, I'll get too reckless
(36:42):
with three hundred. You might be thinking, how could this
guy be so unlucky to always lose? Well, he doesn't
always lose. On May eighteenth, twenty twenty two, Oyer messages Epay,
(37:06):
confirming that you receive the ACCH that's the wire transfer
for the forty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty Also
just confirming you still want me to wire more before
I do. I see your down so lmk t y bud.
Epe responds, yes, I received it, thank you very much,
and no, you do not need to wire anymore since
(37:27):
I'm down again. Haha. On this same day, an account
under Epay's name at the same bank as the X
five eight four eight account received a wire transfer for
forty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty dollars. The shows
that Epey's winnings were deposited into his own separate account,
(37:49):
not into the X five eight four eight account. Show
heyes account which was used to pay down Epay's debts,
and if epe really did steal six teen million dollars
out of this account, as he is alleged, to have
done that still would not pay down his entire debt
to Matthew Boyer. In all, Ibe would win over one
(38:13):
hundred and forty million dollars betting with Boyer on sports,
but he would lose one hundred and eighty million dollars.
That's a net loss of over forty million dollars. And
according to the complaint, which is based on what was
on Ebe's phone and what was on show Hay's phone,
(38:35):
and also an Excel spreadsheet with the betting history for
Ebe's account with Matthew Boyer, the records quote do not
reflect any bets on baseball games. But in the meantime,
Ibe had a front row seat watching one of the
best baseball players to ever walk the Earth.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Show.
Speaker 9 (38:56):
Hey, oh, Todi, So we got a late start out
to the for his warm up pitches because he was
just at the plate. He's a number three hitter for
the Angels or Tony three and two, but it's the
last fort.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
On May eighteenth, twenty twenty two, show Hay was being
show Hay. He was on the mound against the Texas
Rangers and he was batting third behind Mike Trout, one
of the best baseball players Alive got.
Speaker 9 (39:23):
Him slider back to backstrikeouts three on the night so.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Far for oh TONI.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And let's pause on show Hey for just a moment.
People are wondering, like, did he do anything? You know,
what did he do? What did he know? He had
to be involved, right, I mean he had to be
and I see where that's coming from. But also, guy's
a baseball player. I mean his whole life is about
(39:51):
protecting his focus and his dedication to this day in
day out craft and sleeping ten hours a day plus naps.
You think that between innings this night, he was going
back into the dugout in some sort of secret code,
communicating with eBay about what bets he wanted placed, how
much to put on, what UCLA soccer game Ibe might
(40:14):
have been betting on that night or that moment, that minute,
twenty five bets a day, Joe Hey is worried about
the game. And I think that that's how these two
best friends can sit next to each other every waking
moment of every day, and still this could be transpiring
because each has their obsession and somehow the whole thing's
(40:35):
hanging together, you know, by a thread, And it really
is truly incredible how long it hung on by a thread.
After May twenty twenty two, the text messages from the
Mezuhara phone show that Mizuhara had a quote bad run.
(40:59):
Despite bight owing Bookmaker over one million dollars in losses,
Bookmaker one continually increased Mizuhara's betting limits during a two
month stretch in twenty twenty two, Ibe wired one point
two million dollars from the X five eight four eight
account on the same device he used to place bets
(41:21):
and that he used to log into his own personal
bank account. A bad run. That's a quote from a
text message that Boyer sends Epe a year later, in
May twenty twenty three. So between May twenty twenty two
and May twenty twenty three, we don't really see much
in the complaint, but we know it was a bad run.
(41:45):
We'll sum it up this way. I'm terrible at this
sports betting thing. Huh ep a text at some point,
lol dot dot dot dot any chance you can bump
me again? Question mark she mark as you know you
don't have to worry about me not paying two exclamation points.
(42:08):
Ibe has got to be Boyer's top client at this point,
can you bump me a last two hundred? He texts
Less than a month after that, I swear on my
mom this will be the last ask before I pay
it off once I get back to the States. Sorry
for keep on asking dot dot dot dot. That message
(42:30):
came in December, and Boyer texts back NP done, Bud,
Merry Christmas. As Ebe continues his bad run, show Hey
continues to make history. Somehow, his twenty twenty two season
was matching what he had done in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Shoony, It takes the first pitch, it suits it deep
to right field, Garcia drifting, and it's gone. Otani sends
another one out to right field.
Speaker 6 (43:03):
That one does instead a.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Chance to stick around.
Speaker 9 (43:06):
Two putchouts for Showy Otani that ties a career highline.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
We're still not yet a full year into Epe's two
plus years of placing bets with Matthew Boyer and IPA
and show Hey are together day in and day out,
three hundred and sixty five days a year, according to eBay,
more than he spent with his wife. All that travel,
the time in the car, the plane, the bus, in
(43:32):
the gym, working out on the field, hitting off the
tee in the cages, playing video games, eating bento boxes,
anytime show hey wanted to talk in any detail with
pretty much anybody coaches, teammates, trainers, doctors, plus the requisite
media availabilities, even just sitting in the dugout during games.
(43:57):
So many hours of being in such close fits a
goal proximity. And there is this massive deception going on.
How often did Ibe come even a little bit close
to getting found out? How many times a day did
he think about it as he was looking his best
friend in his eyes? How many times did the plan change?
(44:21):
How many times did his intentions shift? What was it
like to live with this? And how many edits did
he do to the story he was telling himself to
justify or attempt to understand what he was doing, continuing
farther and farther down this path of theft and deceit
and harm. And how is it that sho hay didn't
(44:44):
notice anything, that he didn't see that anything was amiss
with his friend, not to mention what was going on
with his own bank account. Sho hay Otani has a
very strange relationship to money, a distant relationship. The complaint
shows Ibe was just one of several people at least
(45:07):
who knew more about what was going on with show
Hay's finances than show Hay himself. The X five eight
four to eight account was set up to receive show
Hay's salary from Baseball exclusively. Showhy receives income from other
sources like investments and his countless endorsements, which make him
as much as forty to fifty million dollars every year,
(45:32):
and all that money was not going into this account.
It was going into a different account, or probably several accounts.
There are American accounts, Japanese accounts, and there are different
people looking at these different accounts who are not show Hey.
Chief among them nez Bilelo, show Hay's agent. Show His
(45:53):
domestic endorsements and related income were managed by nez Blelo,
according to this complaint, as well as a prof professional bookkeeper,
a financial manager, and a professional tax preparer and accountant.
So that's four people right there, all of whom are
involved in managing show Hayes domestic endorsements alone. So suffice
it to say that there's a lot going on, and
(46:14):
there are a lot of accounts, and there's only one
here that Epe even has access to. And remember Epe
is sho Hay's translator, his interpreter. He is the thing
between show Hay and the English speaking world show Hey inhabits,
and that position made him incredibly powerful. There's a photo
(46:38):
of Nez, show Hay, and Ipe from when Showhy was
introduced as a Dodger big two thy grin from Nez
the agent with the slick backed hair and the slightly
sporty checked business suit, and there's show Hay in the middle,
looking iconic in Dodger blue for the very first time,
and he's got the tie on underneath with the business
(46:58):
shirt because he just took his jack it off because
they just break out the jersey and he puts it
on for the first time on stage. And then there's
Epe three piece ties in a half windsor slightly loose.
These three guys were on the top of the world
seven hundred million dollars, biggest contract in sports history. They
(47:21):
did this together, but of course Ebe speaks Japanese and
Nez does not. Nez Blelo had an hour to make
his pitch to the most coveted bat and arm in Japan.
According to an article in Sports Business Journal, actually when
factoring in the need to run each sentence through an interpreter.
(47:44):
Ballelo's introductory meeting was Shohei Otani in late twenty seventeen,
included only about forty minutes of dialogue. I'm not exactly
sure why he chose me as his agent. Blelo said.
Ebe was in with first. He was already the guy
behind the guy before Nez Ballelo came into the picture.
(48:10):
Whether this accorded Ipe some type of seniority in this situation,
or whether it was simply about the language barrier. Ipe
had this angle, and in order to pull this off,
Ipe really had to work that. While Nez Ballelo Quote
will occasionally hire Japanese language interpreters to communicate with his clients,
(48:33):
he did not hire an interpreter to communicate with Showhy
because Ipe was always with him. It continues that nes
Quote did not speak directly to victim A or regularly
exchange text messages with victim A. Instead, he relayed messages
to Victim A through Mizuhara. None of Shohei's agents, accountants,
(48:58):
or financial advisors spoke Japanese, so Showhey relied on epay
to translate conversations with those people. EPA says that he
always accompanied sho Hay to meetings with accountants and financial advisors.
Because victim A received income from a range of both
foreign and domestic sources, victim A generally would not ask
(49:20):
me Zuhara to inquire about specific accounts, and instead would
ask me Zuhara to inquire with the above identified financial
professionals for an overall picture of his income or investment profile.
So I'm imagining something, but late at night in the hotel,
when they're meeting up and talking about you know what
else for tomorrow show, he is getting a general picture
(49:42):
about what's going on with his financial accounts from EPAY
or you know, in the car between the hotel and
the ballpark, or maybe in a standing meeting where they
talk about these things specifically. But no matter the circumstances,
he's getting this information as an overview from EPAY and
EPA alone. According to the complaint, victim A stated that
(50:04):
he believed that Agent one, that's nez Bilelo, his accountants
and financial advisors were monitoring all of his accounts, including
the X five eight four eight account, and IPE is
doing everything that he can to keep them away from
that account. According to the complaint, nez Ballelo asked epe
(50:26):
on quote multiple occasions about the account. Ibe told Nez
that the account was quote private and that Shohei did
not want anyone else to monitor the account. Nez Ballelo
quote stated that he did not confirm these representations directly
with Shohy, but stated that he had no reason not
(50:47):
to believe eBay. It is a very small circle of
trust around Shohei Otani Ibe was perhaps the most powerful
person in this very small and exclusive It would take
somebody coming in from the outside to even get close
to uncovering the truth. Three different people hired by Nez
(51:11):
to help manage sho Hayes's finances were interviewed for the complaint.
Each of them had questions about the X five eight
four eight account. Two of them went to Nez. Nez
told them that Ebe told him that Shohey wanted that
account kept private, and that was that. The third person,
identified only as KF, an accountant hired to do show
(51:32):
hayes domestic taxes, has a different story. The complaint says
that KF only met show hay once for an introductory
meeting after that all communications went through nez or Epe.
Speaker 6 (51:45):
Fourteen wins and two hundred plus strikeouts as a pitcher.
Oh yeah, he also hits the baseball to a tune
of thirty four dingers for the Halos this season.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
October twenty twenty two. IBE would place over two h
hundred and thirty thousand dollars in bets on a single
day this month, and show Hey has just finished another
historic season. Sometime during this month, KF was scheduled to
meet with show Hay and eBay, but only EPA showed up.
(52:16):
He tells KF, who had only met show Hay once
at an introductory meeting, that show Hey is sick unable
to attend. KF asks Epey directly about the X five
eight four eight account. Show Hay was risking filing incorrect
tax returns if there is interest being accrued in the
account or if there are any gifts made from the
(52:37):
account at an amount that would trigger tax reporting requirements,
and epe responds, show Hey wants that account kept private
from everyone, and that account does not bear interest and
there were no gifts from that account. Did KF suspect anything?
What about the other money people who also asked nez
(52:58):
Bilelo about this account. Maybe it's a moot point. Such
was Abe's power within the inner circle around show Hay.
Even those who came close to Shohey would only know
how he felt about something from Ebe. This was key
to Ebe's deception and also the longevity of his lie,
(53:23):
and so it continued. Yeah, it's called the freeway series.
They haven't marked down. June twentieth, twenty twenty three Angels
versus Dodgers and Anaheim do it two on pets at
a swing set message strike three. Ebe messages Matthew Boyer,
it looks like I can only send five hundred per week.
(53:43):
Does five hundred a week work for you?
Speaker 3 (53:45):
A bit crowd in A big hand for sho Hey
O Taani.
Speaker 4 (53:48):
He is the reigning American League Player of the Week.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Getting close to two years after he started betting with
Matthew Boyer. Bank records show that Ebe accessed the account
again and pretending to be Shohey on this day and
the amounts have gotten incredibly high half a million dollars
a week. Smith Caleb Ferguson is three to two. Dot
(54:12):
it strike three. He strikes out O Tani and trout,
but somehow five hundred thousand dollars a week is not
enough to pay down Ebees debts. Rojas has a read
on it, and that seals it. Two nothing win for LA.
Two days later, on June twenty second, I got my
(54:33):
ex kicked again. Lol dot dot dot dot. Any chance
I can get one last bump? Okay, Bud, I just
want to be able to communicate with my partners so
he knows expectations. If I can assure him that the
minimum five hundred will be sent every week, I can
do the bump to whatever you want. It's just imperative
(54:55):
that the five hundred is sent every week. FYI. I
have already paid out of my pocket to him half
of the balance that is on the account, So whatever
is lost every week, I have to give him half
of the balance. That's why I'm asking these direct important questions.
June twenty third. The following day, I'm the worst, Lol,
(55:19):
can't catch a break? Can I get one last bump?
I swear this is going to be my last until
I get the balance down significantly. I promise this will
be the last bump for a while. Okay, NP done.
June twenty fourth another day later, I have a problem. Lol,
(55:42):
Can I get one last bump? This one is for real,
last one, for real.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Done?
Speaker 1 (55:52):
I have the same problem, crying, laughing emoji. To be
honest with you, Epee. As long as you can guarantee
the five hundred every month, I'll give you as much
as you want, because I know that you're good for it.
Time keeps passing. Another baseball season ends. In October twenty
twenty three, Federal agents raid Matthew Boyer's home in San
(56:15):
Juan Capistrano. They take electronic devices, computers, and phones. Boyer
is under investigation, but he has not been charged and
he is not in custody. He still expects Ipe to
pay him back.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
Sho Hey Otani receiving his second American League MVP award
is second unanimous honor.
Speaker 7 (56:35):
As a matter of fact, back.
Speaker 1 (56:36):
The November seventeenth, twenty twenty three, Shohey's second unanimous AL
MVP award was just announced. He gives an interview about
it from his home while holding his dog, a dog
whose name we don't know, who will become an Internet sensation. Fully,
thank think you about this. Obviously. I wanted to windy
last year, but on this day Disney Plus release. This
(57:00):
is show Hey Otani Beyond the Dream, at the very
height of the craze around Show Hay's free agency. This
is around the same time everybody is speculating that show
Hey is on a plane to Toronto. Hey, e b
It's two o'clock on Friday. I don't know why you're
(57:20):
not returning my calls. I'm here in Newport Beach and
I see show Hey walking his dog. I'm just gonna
go up and talk to him and ask him how
I can get in touch with you. Since you are
not responding, Please call me back immediately. November nineteenth, two
days later. I'm gonna be honest. I ended up losing
(57:44):
a lot of money on crypto the last couple of years,
and I took a huge hit obviously with the sports too.
Is there any way we can settle on an amount.
I've lost way too much on the site already.
Speaker 5 (57:56):
Dot dot dot.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Of course, I know it's my fault. December fourteenth, Show
hayes introductory press conference with the Dodgers. EPE is on
stage with Show Hay, Dodgers owner Mark Walter, Dodgers President
of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedmans.
Speaker 7 (58:16):
Bilo Show Hayes interpreter mostly show Hayes's best buddy, close friend,
Ipe Mizuhara.
Speaker 1 (58:23):
So his name is Dick. That's a Japanese name, and
December fifteenth the next day. I know you're busy, but
you need to show some respect. I put my neck
out there. Call me by tonight. I don't care what
time or how late it is. I'm so sorry, bro,
dot dot dot. I really don't mean to disrespect you
(58:44):
at all. I promise, dot dot dot. It's just been
super super busy dot dot dot, and I've got other
issues on the side going on to dot dot dot.
Everything has just been really, really tough recently. I don't
think you ever gave me the new bank account info
dot dot dot. Could I please get that. I'm gonna
try to send something tomorrow. January sixth, twenty twenty four,
Bowyer texts eBay, you're putting me in a position where
(59:07):
this is going to get out of control. If I
don't hear from you by the end of the day today,
it's going to be out of my hands. In his
original ESPN interview, Ebe described fearing for his safety and
that somebody might come to his house, and it was
only at that moment, at his nadir that he went
(59:30):
to show Hay to plead for his help. Ibay later
said that he lied in that interview that he didn't
go to show Hay, but maybe the feeling in the
situation IBE was describing really did happen at this point.
In January twenty twenty four, Ibe stops betting with Matthew Boyer.
(59:50):
The wiring also stops, but during this period, according to
the complaint, eBay transferred more than three hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars the X five eight four to eight
account to eBay and what Not, a quote online marketplace
where users can purchase products, eg. Baseball cards. In January,
(01:00:13):
as shohe was doing off season workouts at Dodger Stadium,
Ipe asked a Dodger's employee if he would set aside
some packages that were going to be mailed to epay
under an alias. At Dodger Stadium. Multiple packages were received
there and set aside by a Dodger's employee. They were
addressed to j Min, a name associated with an email
account and with websites on eBay's phone. These packages contain
(01:00:37):
baseball cards. For players including Yogi Bearra, Juan Soto, and
Shohei Otani. Chris Seymour, the author of the complaint, says
that he believes that Epe purchased these cards with the
intent to resell them. The FEDS also found boxes and
briefcases full of baseball cards inside a vehicle used by
eBay with spring training underway. We saw more and more
(01:01:01):
of show Hey, and more and more of eBay. So
she's a normal Japanese woman. March fourteenth, as the Dodgers
board a plane to Soul, Korea, sho Hey Otani posts
a photo of himself with his wife, the woman whose
identity had been kept secret to that point. Also in
the photo Ebey and his wife some Japanese lettering and
(01:01:22):
an exclamation point in the Korean flag emoji. The text
translates to can't wait. March seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Ibe
and Boyer are sending encrypted messages using the signal app
thank you for the call. Earlier, Ebe writes to Boyer,
(01:01:43):
do you think there is any way to find out
the details of the article that's coming out on La Times, Hey, Bud,
I have no idea what this idiot is printing or
trying to say.
Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
A twenty twenty four Major League Baseball season set to
get underway.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
We are in South Korea, soul to be exactly where.
Four four years ago on March twentieth, opening day, EPE message, boyer,
have you seen the reports? Yes, but that's all bullshit.
Obviously you didn't steal from him. I understand it's a
cover job. I totally get it, and EPE response, technically
(01:02:25):
I did steal from him. It's all over for me.
Based on the foregoing, there is probable cause to believe
that Mizuhara has committed bank fraud in violation of eighteen
USC Section one three four four Subsection two, signed Chris Seymour,
(01:02:49):
special Agent. Internal Revenue Service. Investigators looked at ninety seven
hundred pages of text messages between Showhy and EPE for
the complaint. There was no mention of sports betting. Dodger
(01:03:09):
Blue Dream is written and produced by Me Richard Parks.
This episode was story edited by Caitlin Esh with production
assistants from Angel kaas Original music in this episode by
William Ryan Fritch and by me. This entire episode is
based on allegations made by other people and reporting published
(01:03:30):
by other outlets. If you like Dodger Blue Dream, please
help us spread the word. After this episode, I planned
to start talking about baseball on this show. Thanks again
for listening. Go Dodgers,
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