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He's literally on tape pretending to be Ohtani to banks.
The evidence in whole is fairly overwhelming that Ohtani is a victim here, but you do you I guess.
Before this most recent revelation, a lot of people were (justifiably) suspicious that the interpreter was the “fall guy” for Ohtani — that Ohtani was actually placing the bets himself, or that the interpreter was placing the bets on Ohtani’s behalf.
The fact that the interpreter impersonated Ohtani on the phone to make the transfers, does not preclude the possibility that he did so with Ohtani’s permission, as a means of accessing the funds while still keeping Ohtani one step removed from the transactions and maintaining plausible deniability.
Initially the thought was that the interpreter accessed the funds via computer by using Ohtani’s password, or through written request by forging his signature.
The revelation that he accessed the funds by impersonating Ohtani’s voice over the phone doesn’t by itself undermine the “fall guy theory” and is in fact perfectly compatible with that theory.
The fact that there were no gambling related texts discovered between Ohtani and the interpreter might be treated as conclusive evidence that they did not discuss betting via text message, but it’s entirely possible that they only discussed betting in person; by all accounts this would be easy for them to do as they spent almost all of their time in each others’ company.
Lastly, the two text exchanges quoted in the article which explicitly implicate the interpreter took place in November 2023 and March 2024. The bookmaker’s house was raided by federal investigators in October 2023, meaning the texts were sent after both parties were almost certainly aware that their convo’s were either being actively monitored, or that transcripts could eventually end up being disclosed to investigators. Again, this is entirely compatible with the theory that the interpreter was/is willingly taking the fall for Ohtani.
That said, I have no idea what happened and have no strong opinion one way or another. Just pointing out that the evidence disclosed in that ESPN article doesn’t really exonerate Ohtani, and that it’s not unreasonable for someone to remain skeptical.
I will say that it’s curious that no bets were placed on baseball— presumably the American sport the interpreter was most intimately familiar with. I’m curious to know if he was asked about that and if so how he explained his rationale.