MLB Ohtani Interpreter Gambling Probe Led by Former Prosecutors

Major League Baseball has tapped three ex-prosecutors to look into an alleged $4.5 million wire transfer from Los Angels Dodger star Shohei Ohtani’s bank account to a Southern California bookmaker.

The evolving inquiry is being led by MLB’s investigations unit, according to a source familiar with the probe. It so far focuses on gathering facts about Ippei Mizuhara, an interpreter for Ohtani who said this week that he used money from the Japanese baseball star to pay his own gambling debts, the source said.

The trio—Bryan Seeley, Moira Weinberg, and Marquest Meeks—have been tasked with sorting through the conflicting narratives surrounding the situation.

Seeley, executive vice president of legal and operations, and Meeks, a vice president and deputy general counsel, collectively spent more than 15 years working at the Justice Department. Weinberg, senior vice president of investigations and a deputy general counsel with the league, started her career as a prosecutor in the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Weinberg and Seeley had lead roles handling MLB’s investigation of sign-stealing by the Houston Astros. The inquiry, which began in late 2019, led the league to levy suspensions and other punishments in early 2020. Seeley and Weinberg also teamed up to investigate former Atlanta Braves executives accused of circumventing MLB international player signing rules. That probe also ultimately led to league discipline.

Seeley was hired in 2014 to lead MLB’s investigations department and since then he’s often been included in decisions related to the New York-based league’s partnerships with gaming-related entities. The rapid legalization of sports betting by many US states has led professional sports leagues to embrace a growing number of gambling-focused companies as business partners.

Ohtani’s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December was the richest deal in North American professional sports history. The Dodgers fired Mizuhara, who has worked with Ohtani since he left Japan to join the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017, after ESPN broke the news this week that he was allegedly involved in orchestrating wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation under federal investigation.

Mizuhara initially claimed that Ohtani had agreed to pay down his gambling debts. Ohtani’s advisers then said their client was the victim of a “massive theft.” They referred the matter to unidentified law enforcement officials, according to another report by ESPN. Mizuhara told ESPN he began betting on sports, but not baseball, in 2021. Sports betting remains illegal in California.

Ohtani has retained criminal defense counsel from Berk Brettler, a boutique that was founded a little over a year ago by Hollywood litigators Blair Berk and Andrew Brettler. Neither returned requests for comment about how they came to advise Ohtani. Berk has also represented Julio Urías, a Dodgers pitcher who was put on administrative leave last year after being arrested for domestic violence. Urías, who avoided felony charges in January, is now a free agent.