“Shohei Ohtani is betting” - Ippei Mizuhara’s bookie breaks silence on “holy sh*t” moment related to Dodgers $700M superstar’s betting scandal

Shohei Ohtani's name had come up in a federal investigation into Orange County bookie Mathew Bowyer, who was running a gambling site. Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was directly involved with a bookie to place bets.

After a long investigation, it was found that Mizuhara had defrauded Ohtani to pay off his gambling debts. While Miuzuhara was charged on multiple counts, Ohtani got away unscathed.

However, Bowyer has dropped a big bombshell with his latest interview with ESPN. While he admitted that he never met the $700 million Dodgers superstar, he believes Ohtani had knowledge of what was going and could also be directly involved with betting.

"I think he's betting. Absolutely," Bowyer said (2:45 onwards). "I thought Ippei was putting in bets either with or for Shohei Ohtani. I'm at an Angels game -- he's on the mound, he's pitching, and I'm on my website. Of course, I'm watching bets, and bets are coming in while he's pitching. So that answered the question right there, in my mind, that they were all Ippei's.

"The only things in question at that point are: (A) does he know? Is he part of it? Are they partners? We've done that many times. Or (B) does he just help his friend out financially? And frankly, whether it was him, Shohei, or their dog betting - that's not my business."

That's a big claim by Bowyer. Some speculate that Mizuhara might have taken the fall for Ohtani, but there's also a good chance that Ohtani didn't know what was going on at all.

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Mathew Bowyer's "holy s**t" moment after seeing a wire transfer by Shohei Ohtani's name

The verdict from the court is that Ippei Mizuhara defrauded Shohei Ohtani by paying off his gambling debts.

During the aforementioned interview with ESPN, Mathew Bowyer shared his reaction when he first witnessed a wire transfer in Ohtani's name.

"I'll just tell you, the oh f*** moment was when I found out that the wire transfer was not from Ippei Mizuhara," Bowyer said. "That was the holy f*** moment. I was actually sitting in my office, and I got a phone call. The gentleman who received the wire transfer said, 'Are you sitting down?' And I said, 'Yeah.'

"He said, 'Well, I just received a $500,000 wire.' I said, 'Okay, yes, thank you, that’s great.' And he said, 'It’s Shohei Ohtani -- that’s the name on the account.' And I just went, 'What the f***?' I was like, wow. That’s when I said, holy f***."

For Bowyer, it was both good and bad. On the bright side, he could have had a client in Ohtani who could afford to lose "$50 million," but on the downside, being in business with a big name would attract unwanted attention to his illegal gambling operation.