Contrast this with Roger Goodell going HAM on Tom Brady for possibly deflating footballs (that he probably didn't even deflate).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47523280)

Who gives a shit?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47523298)

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1772382434417369291

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47525535)

Allah Akbar!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47526449)

and it wouldn't have been enough for ippei just to get ohtani to "sign something" to approve random-ass massive wires. if he has financial advisors i'm sure they are also japanese speakers and they could tell him that there were discrepancies / something was up with what ippei was having him sign.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47529416)

the change of story as sanctioned by shohei's legal team doesn't make sense. he's fucked.

i wonder if ippei was the one gambling on shohei's behalf and with his blessing but shohei didn't know the counterparty was an illegal bookmaker, or maybe ippei ended up placing bets on baseball without shohei knowing, and now he needs to distance himself. either way it's his name on the checks.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531676)

the people making this argument either aren't fully aware of the timeline or are willfully ignorant ohtani simps who don't want to believe the worst.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531716)

you only hire a crisis pr team when you know there's a crisis, and if there's a perceived crisis there's no way shohei wasn't part of the conversation.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531740)

if shohei was truly involved, he is putting himself at great risk by directly accusing ippei of stealing from him, making police reports, cooperating with investigators, etc. the truth will come out in due course and i dont see how his lawyers would sign off on his response unless he was supremely confident he did nothing wrong here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531760)

https://twitter.com/bobknowsball69/status/1772630363061309592?t=0IFIIt7quQos8edw5Q88zg&s=19

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531590)

ippei told his bookie that he was good for $$$ because shohei was behind it (and maybe shohei's name was on the checks at this point, but maybe not). and the bookie liked that he could say that shohei was a client. so the amounts were allowed to get out of hand. somewhere along the way shohei realizes that ippei is getting in way over his head and bails him out, and maybe the betting ends there. but by now shohei's name is for sure on checks to the bookie.

then the reporter comes along and shohei realizes that all the payments he was greenlighting were going to an illegal operation, with his name on some of the checks. at first he thinks he can get off easily enough by saying that it was ippei and not him doing the gambling, and that he was just bailing his bro out, which is kind of close to the truth in a real-world sense, but not in a legal sense. he thinks that he's in the clear as long as he says that it was ippei doing the gambling, not him.

then the lawyers step in and tell shohei that he's fucked since it was in his name (and maybe they came to realize that there was betting on baseball going on that hasn't come out yet), and they need a new story asap. they concoct a "theft" theory that says that shohei was being stolen from because ippei was not forthright about the counterparty and nature and magnitude of the gambling.

i don't necessarily think shohei was willfully or consciously up to anything nefarious but his name was on the checks so he'll be a victim of his own naivete and good nature and unfamiliarity with the law.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47531882)

Instead, regardless of the truth, Ippei will blame Ohtani nonstop (avoiding jail, being pissed, getting $$$ for his story)

Or get Ippei back to Japan and have the Yakuza handle it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47532067)

or in the alternative, can't they just say that ippei managed everything, just put checks in front of shohei, and shohei just signed them all without asking questions

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47532432)

Conversely if he's not secretly getting taken care of, he has every incentive to say it's all Ohtani's fault and burn it all down.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47532584)

however, i maintain that the most likely case is shohei is telling the truth and had nothing to do with this

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47532598)

ippei doesn't want to win a defamation case. presumably he wants to help keep the golden goose alive and prosperous...his whole career is being valet/roommate/interpreter/shabbos goy so shohei can focus on 100% baseball

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5508449&forum_id=2#47532813)