It’s 100% him just covering for the interpreter, who he was good friends with. He paid off the debts and now Ohtani’s PR folks are trying to fix it all by throwing the interpreter under the bus. They probably told Ohtani he has to go along with it to protect his career
Or he was using the dude as a gambling proxy. He’s in this situation because the bookie outed him. If all he wanted to do is bail out his bro, there’s a hundred ways to do that while keeping his hands clean.
Face it, the dude got blackmailed, the feds caught wind of it, and the bookie talked.
While there’s a good chance the truth is Ohtani has a gambling problem, it’s entirely possible he just paid off the debt and didn’t know doing so was illegal. Couple that with translation issues and you can see why they’d backpedal, then wait.
It’s 100% him just covering for the interpreter, who he was good friends with. He paid off the debts and now Ohtani’s PR folks are trying to fix it all by throwing the interpreter under the bus. They probably told Ohtani he has to go along with it to protect his career
Or he was using the dude as a gambling proxy. He’s in this situation because the bookie outed him. If all he wanted to do is bail out his bro, there’s a hundred ways to do that while keeping his hands clean.
Face it, the dude got blackmailed, the feds caught wind of it, and the bookie talked.
While there’s a good chance the truth is Ohtani has a gambling problem, it’s entirely possible he just paid off the debt and didn’t know doing so was illegal. Couple that with translation issues and you can see why they’d backpedal, then wait.
Fucking wild