Ohtani interpreter

[packs]

The story I read also claims that the interpreter was able to steal this insane amount of money by simply turning off the notifications that would have alerted Ohtani to the transactions.

I don't know who is expected to believe that. I guess maybe if you're a person who's never had a personal bank account you might believe it's that easy to steal millions of dollars from someone undetected.

But does a person who has a personal bank account and makes withdrawals from ATMs believe that? This one doesn't.

I can't really understand why anyone would believe banking regulations and security measures are so lax that simply turning off a notification will give you unrestricted access to someone's account. I access my account from new and multiple devices when necessary. I receive a security verification code each and every time. This code goes to both my phone and e-mail address. I highly doubt Ohtani has one single device he uses for his banking and that he would not receive personal notifications each and every time his account was accessed from a new device. He'd have to notice the notifications were turned off every time he expected to receive that code and couldn't access his own account.

[G1911]

Perhaps a stupid question, but

If Ippei made something like $300K-$500K from the ball team and Ohtani per year, it is realistic that he would even be able to rack up $16M of gambling debt? Obviously an illegal bookie is not really regulated, but I would think that, you know, after the first million of debt they would stop taking your bets and that for such large scale clients they would make sure you have some ability to actually pay. It does not make sense to me that they would allow such massively impossible debt without a guarantee or some contact with Ohtani. Surely the bookie knows the translator doesn't have that kind of cash himself.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by G1911

Perhaps a stupid question, but

If Ippei made something like $300K-$500K from the ball team and Ohtani per year, it is realistic that he would even be able to rack up $16M of gambling debt? Obviously an illegal bookie is not really regulated, but I would think that, you know, after the first million of debt they would stop taking your bets and that for such large scale clients they would make sure you have some ability to actually pay. It does not make sense to me that they would allow such massively impossible debt without a guarantee or some contact with Ohtani. Surely the bookie knows the translator doesn't have that kind of cash himself.

Is this not how it was discovered?

My recollection is that the bookie was bragging about Ohtani being a client to drum up more business as the wires were coming from Othani's account and he could show the sender to clients. A client was the initial whistleblower after the name was dropped to him.

If he was gaining more business and the debts were paid by the stolen money, then why on earth would he limit his betting? There was no debt owed to the bookie, he was paid in stolen money by Mizuhara. He obviously also had to leave a giant paper trail in his panic by sending wires as it was the only access. If he personally walked into a branch for cash he would have been found out immediately.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Is this not how it was discovered?

My recollection is that the bookie was bragging about Ohtani being a client to drum up more business as the wires were coming from Othani's account and he could show the sender to clients. A client was the initial whistleblower after the name was dropped to him.

If he was gaining more business and the debts were paid by the stolen money, then why on earth would he limit his betting? There was no debt owed to the bookie, he was paid in stolen money by Mizuhara. He obviously also had to leave a giant paper trail in his panic by sending wires as it was the only access. If he personally walked into a branch for cash he would have been found out immediately.

Was it not the case that originally it was stated by Ippei speaking for Ohtani's team, now allegedly without Ohtani understanding for a day or two even though Ohtani actually knows English and it was front page news, that Ippei's debt was paid by Ohtani via a series of $500,000 wire transfers over an period of time? It's seemed to me that there was a debt at some point here. There was never a debt?

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by G1911

Was it not the case that originally it was stated by Ippei speaking for Ohtani's team, now allegedly without Ohtani understanding for a day or two even though Ohtani actually knows English and it was front page news, that Ippei's debt was paid by Ohtani via a series of $500,000 wire transfers over an period of time? It's seemed to me that there was a debt at some point here. There was never a debt?

Your speaking from the same point of information. Money was coming in obviously or we wouldn't be here. I am not personally a whale bookie in the state of California so I don't know how that works. Perhaps there was interest? If the Bookie thinks Ippei's debt is financed by Ohtani, what on earth would make him think he's not getting paid? Ohtani makes 16m in a week with deals and contracts.

I just don't get the conspiracy angle going on. This all seems clear as day but i'll just step out. I just put some news out there and everyone quickly donned their tin foil hats.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Your speaking from the same point of information. Money was coming in obviously or we wouldn't be here. I am not personally a whale bookie in the state of California so I don't know how that works. Perhaps there was interest? If the Bookie thinks Ippei's debt is financed by Ohtani, what on earth would make him think he's not getting paid? Ohtani makes 16m in a week with deals and contracts.

I just don't get the conspiracy angle going on. This all seems clear as day but i'll just step out. I just put some news out there and everyone quickly donned their tin foil hats.

.... I am so lost with what you think my question had to do with a tin foil hat conspiracy. My post also was before your news post and in no way whatsoever a reply to your later post? I think you are conflating what was actually said with something else...

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by G1911

.... I am so lost with what you think my question had to do with a tin foil hat conspiracy. My post also was before your news post and in no way whatsoever a reply to your later post? I think you are conflating what was actually said with something else...

I apologize if I have something confused.

I was only getting frustrated on my favorite spot to not get frustrated, lol. I don't like getting in confrontational tete-a-tetes, so I just called it so I don't say more. I also, genuinely like you Greg so I don't want to argue in any way.

I will just wait for things to play out.

However, still tapping out on this thread.

[FromVAtoLA]

The Athletic and LA Times have good coverage on this. The federal prosecutors outline in detail how Ohtani was a victim in this. For those of you that are paywalled at those sites here’s a tweet from The Athletic’s editor-in-chief which includes an image from a a key part of the complaint. Tons of evidence on the interpreter’s phone.

[philo98]

Originally Posted by packs

The story I read also claims that the interpreter was able to steal this insane amount of money by simply turning off the notifications that would have alerted Ohtani to the transactions.

I don't know who is expected to believe that. I guess maybe if you're a person who's never had a personal bank account you might believe it's that easy to steal millions of dollars from someone undetected.

But does a person who has a personal bank account and makes withdrawals from ATMs believe that? This one doesn't.

I can't really understand why anyone would believe banking regulations and security measures are so lax that simply turning off a notification will give you unrestricted access to someone's account. I access my account from new and multiple devices when necessary. I receive a security verification code each and every time. This code goes to both my phone and e-mail address. I highly doubt Ohtani has one single device he uses for his banking and that he would not receive personal notifications each and every time his account was accessed from a new device. He'd have to notice the notifications were turned off every time he expected to receive that code and couldn't access his own account.

I had the opportunity to live this kind of lifestyle through the girlfriend I had at the time in Thailand. If you ever saw the movie, Crazy Rich Asians, that was the life I lived for about 7 years. I can tell you during that 7 years, the people I was around would never have any clue if $1 million, $5 million, even $50 million disappeared. These people were drowning in money and had no idea what they had. Every top business person in the country were friends with each other, the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter was my girlfriends BFF, etc etc. My gf would routinely spend $300K, $500K each week at the mall. $500 bowls of shark fin shop, Ms Louis Vuitton and Mr Gucci as close pals and on and on. Her sister went to England for university, so the family just gave me the Porsche to drive. This despite me not having a Thai drivers license, but it didnt matter. If anything happened, I was "outside" the law. Even when renewing my visa, I never had to leave the country on a visa run, they just gave my passport to the Head of Immigration, a friend of a friend, and gave me an extension automatically.

So many more examples, but the point is, none of these people or their friends had any clue how much money they had, where it was going, how it was spent. There was just an ungodly amount of money that never ran out. From that experience, I can easily see how Ohtani may not know where his money is going. It would be a full time job just for him to manage it. I ended the relationship through boredom, but my main takeaway on that experience is these people in the Top 1% of 1% of 1%, are clueless how the everyday people live. They live in their own world, and missing many millions was nothing of concern. Without a doubt, if my girlfriend was missing $16 million, she would have never known.

[packs]

I don't doubt that people with a lot of money don't know the exact balance of their accounts. My point was that you can't manipulate someone's account by simply turning off a notification. Because like I said. practical banking security would force you to use only an approved device to access your accounts.

If you wanted to send a Venmo payment, for example, using any other device but your own personal device would mean a security notification and required code. It would be possible for you to divert those codes to your own contacts, but how would that be explained when the actual account holder attempts to access their account and can't?

Banking is secure. It isn't easy to steal money from someone unless they allow you to have unrestricted access to their accounts. But if that were the case, why would he need to impersonate Ohtani? A person with authorized access is treated the same as the account holder. These explanations do not add up.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by packs

I don't doubt that people with a lot of money don't know the exact balance of their accounts. My point was that you can't manipulate someone's account by simply turning off a notification. Because like I said. practical banking security would force you to use only an approved device to access your accounts.

If you wanted to send a Venmo payment, for example, using any other device but your own personal device would mean a security notification and required code. It would be possible for you to divert those codes to your own contacts, but how would that be explained when the actual account holder attempts to access their account and can't?

Maybe you should go join Mizuhara's defense team then, because if you were right then they would have used that argument. You can't even mildly compare your banking experiences to what this situation is. It is also insanely unlikely that Othani has all this in his personal account. It is assuredly in an business account possibly under an llc for tax purposes and interest. His personal account was likely not even part of this.

Mizuhara is not going to serve 3 decades to cover up gambling for not even his boss, but the guy the Dodgers hired him to translate for. So much stretching on this.

[packs]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Maybe you should go join Mizuhara's defense team then, because if you were right then they would have used that argument. You can't even mildly compare your banking experiences to what this situation is. It is also insanely unlikely that Othani has all this in his personal account. It is assuredly in an business account possibly under an llc for tax purposes and interest. His personal account was likely not even part of this.

Mizuhara is not going to serve 3 decades to cover up gambling for not even his boss, but the guy the Dodgers hired him to translate for. So much stretching on this.

He has not been charged with a crime so I don't know that he needs a defense team.

My experience in wires comes from authorized access to business accounts. I can authorize the transfer of any amount of money on behalf of my employer without anyone else's authorization. But my employer gave me that authority and it's not something I can impersonate my way through otherwise.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by packs

He has not been charged with a crime so I don't know that he needs a defense team.

My experience in wires comes from authorized access to business accounts. I can authorize the transfer of any amount of money on behalf of my employer without anyone else's authorization. But my employer gave me that authority and it's not something I can impersonate my way through otherwise.

He was charged with bank fraud.

[packs]

Looks like that just happened. Interested to see how this plays out. My guess is there's a plea deal to further avoid having to actually prove or disprove what happened.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by packs

He has not been charged with a crime so I don't know that he needs a defense team.

My experience in wires comes from authorized access to business accounts. I can authorize the transfer of any amount of money on behalf of my employer without anyone else's authorization. But my employer gave me that authority and it's not something I can impersonate my way through otherwise.

From something else I read about the investigation-

Text messages showed that after Mizuhara began losing large sums of money via gambling with an illegal sports book, the contact information on Ohtani’s bank account allegedly was changed and linked to an account with Mizuhara's phone number and to an anonymous email address connected to Mizuhara.

[packs]

That’s what it would take to do what is alleged but as I said what complicates that is Ohtani actually wanting to access his account. He would not receive the requisite security verification codes and I would think at that point you’d notice you’ve lost access to your account.

I’m not saying Ohtani did something wrong by the way. I don’t know what happened. I’m only suggesting there is something missing from the explanation of access like Ohtani giving him the kind of authorization I was talking about or the interpreter gaining control of Ohtani’s devices as well. Typically this kind of theft occurs when someone is authorized and takes advantage of that privilege.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by philo98

I had the opportunity to live this kind of lifestyle through the girlfriend I had at the time in Thailand. If you ever saw the movie, Crazy Rich Asians, that was the life I lived for about 7 years. I can tell you during that 7 years, the people I was around would never have any clue if $1 million, $5 million, even $50 million disappeared. These people were drowning in money and had no idea what they had. Every top business person in the country were friends with each other, the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter was my girlfriends BFF, etc etc. My gf would routinely spend $300K, $500K each week at the mall. $500 bowls of shark fin shop, Ms Louis Vuitton and Mr Gucci as close pals and on and on. Her sister went to England for university, so the family just gave me the Porsche to drive. This despite me not having a Thai drivers license, but it didnt matter. If anything happened, I was "outside" the law. Even when renewing my visa, I never had to leave the country on a visa run, they just gave my passport to the Head of Immigration, a friend of a friend, and gave me an extension automatically.

So many more examples, but the point is, none of these people or their friends had any clue how much money they had, where it was going, how it was spent. There was just an ungodly amount of money that never ran out. From that experience, I can easily see how Ohtani may not know where his money is going. It would be a full time job just for him to manage it. I ended the relationship through boredom, but my main takeaway on that experience is these people in the Top 1% of 1% of 1%, are clueless how the everyday people live. They live in their own world, and missing many millions was nothing of concern. Without a doubt, if my girlfriend was missing $16 million, she would have never known.

Fascinating !

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by packs

The story I read also claims that the interpreter was able to steal this insane amount of money by simply turning off the notifications that would have alerted Ohtani to the transactions.

I don't know who is expected to believe that. I guess maybe if you're a person who's never had a personal bank account you might believe it's that easy to steal millions of dollars from someone undetected.

But does a person who has a personal bank account and makes withdrawals from ATMs believe that? This one doesn't.

I can't really understand why anyone would believe banking regulations and security measures are so lax that simply turning off a notification will give you unrestricted access to someone's account. I access my account from new and multiple devices when necessary. I receive a security verification code each and every time. This code goes to both my phone and e-mail address. I highly doubt Ohtani has one single device he uses for his banking and that he would not receive personal notifications each and every time his account was accessed from a new device. He'd have to notice the notifications were turned off every time he expected to receive that code and couldn't access his own account.

If you're handling your own account, then what you say is correct. However, if you've given someone else that you trust access to your account, either the notifications are going to that person or if they are going to you, you would probably ignore them. If what is now being reported is true, Ohtani gave complete access to his accounts to the interpreter who prevented anyone else from accessing them. His interpreter also impersonated Ohtani on the phone when talking to the bank about account activity.

It sounds like Ohtani had complete trust in his interpreter who used that to take advantage of him and steal a lot of money. The part that is hard to understand (as someone else pointed out) is how would a bookie allow so much debt to be built up by someone who clearly didn't make that much. Unless the interpreter was telling the bookie he was making bets for Ohtani (which I have not seen reported), it's hard to understand how he could be given that much credit to keep losing money. Also, if winnings were being deposited to a different account (owned by the interpreter) than where payments were coming from (Ohtani's), how would he explain that to the bookie? A way to cover the connection to Ohtani?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by packs

The story I read also claims that the interpreter was able to steal this insane amount of money by simply turning off the notifications that would have alerted Ohtani to the transactions.

I don't know who is expected to believe that. I guess maybe if you're a person who's never had a personal bank account you might believe it's that easy to steal millions of dollars from someone undetected.

But does a person who has a personal bank account and makes withdrawals from ATMs believe that? This one doesn't.

I can't really understand why anyone would believe banking regulations and security measures are so lax that simply turning off a notification will give you unrestricted access to someone's account. I access my account from new and multiple devices when necessary. I receive a security verification code each and every time. This code goes to both my phone and e-mail address. I highly doubt Ohtani has one single device he uses for his banking and that he would not receive personal notifications each and every time his account was accessed from a new device. He'd have to notice the notifications were turned off every time he expected to receive that code and couldn't access his own account.

Ever have your paypal accessed from your hacked email?
It's totally plausible.
Hack email,
Change email on paypal
Send yourself a few payments to namibia or wherever.

Bank wouldn't stop it, they had to let it go through so it was actually fraud???
Paypal said "oh we investigated and despite you never sending money to anywhere even close there, it's totally legit so forget it. "

Reset with all new passwords etc.
Set up 2 factor authentication....
2AM email "is this actually you sending money to namibia again?"
4AM "Well you didn't say no so say good bye to that money again."
Wake up and check emails at a reasonable time .... WTF Paypal!

If he's not keeping close watch on things, he might not even realize he's getting no notifications because the emails went somewhere else.

[packs]

PayPal is not a bank. I don't see why their security measures would be equal.

After reading the updates it seems as though the interpreter did everything I thought they'd have to do, I'm just extremely surprised he was able to do it. I'm "interpreting" the explanation of him switching the contact details to him actually providing his own details upon opening the account with Ohtani. The details for the transfers are all correct. As I said, he would have to submit his request from an authorized e-mail address and would only be able to confirm the transfer on an authorized line. Both of which he had for his own devices, which also bypasses the need to obtain Ohtani's devices. These are the missing explanations from the original story that I've been wondering about.

I also just logged into my own bank account just to see if it were possible for me to change my own personal contact details that I provided when I opened my account. I can't change my phone number/e-mail address or add a phone number/e-mail address just by logging into my account. I have to call a security number and I'm unsure what the process is from there.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by steve B

Ever have your paypal accessed from your hacked email?
It's totally plausible.
Hack email,
Change email on paypal
Send yourself a few payments to namibia or wherever.

Bank wouldn't stop it, they had to let it go through so it was actually fraud???
Paypal said "oh we investigated and despite you never sending money to anywhere even close there, it's totally legit so forget it. "

Reset with all new passwords etc.
Set up 2 factor authentication....
2AM email "is this actually you sending money to namibia again?"
4AM "Well you didn't say no so say good bye to that money again."
Wake up and check emails at a reasonable time .... WTF Paypal!

If he's not keeping close watch on things, he might not even realize he's getting no notifications because the emails went somewhere else.

Yep have had PP hacked. Neither they or the bank seemed like they cared. Neither would give any information about what actually happened or who got my money.

For those that don't know there is a school that actually teaches you how to hack into most accounts in seconds. A friends nephew went through it and he can hack into pretty much any account in seconds. The school is legit as large companies hire the graduates to help improve their security.

Since Ohtani hasn't retired and picked up basketball I still say he is completely innocent.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Yep have had PP hacked. Neither they or the bank seemed like they cared. Neither would give any information about what actually happened or who got my money.

For those that don't know there is a school that actually teaches you how to hack into most accounts in seconds. A friends nephew went through it and he can hack into pretty much any account in seconds. The school is legit as large companies hire the graduates to help improve their security.

Since Ohtani hasn't retired and picked up basketball I still say he is completely innocent.

A good reminder to use secure passwords of significant length and random characters and marks, and to enable 2 factor authentication.