Tuning in to TOR vs LAD just now and boy Ohtani getting booed pretty good, maybe not Altuve level but pretty strong…..the story just faded away…..
He’s getting booed in Toronto because they were in the running to sign him… at one point they thought his plane was heading there… and all along they were used as leverage. They’re not booing him because of this scandal…
I think this is a similar situation that David Stern negotiated with the Donaghy referee scandals. The issues is bigger than they make it appear the fall guy was Donaghy, and they helped the feds go after mobsters essentially. You have to give the feds something bigger and they will negotiate with you if they like you enough. In this case Ohatani is worth a ton to the league, and they will do anything to protect him, in exchange there are a few things that will happen that helps everyone involved. 1.) Find a bigger fish, in this case you are going after two parties, the casinos and their bookmakers who avoided the "know your customer" laws, they need to do this to prevent money laundering, Ohtani was not the only person they allowed to do this, his interpreter had taken $17M, but had placed over $100M in bets, there are dozens of other bettors involved that are associated with far more severe crimes that they are going to get as a result of this. Now you kind of own the casino bookmakers and make deals with them, and you simultaneously go after the guys that have been laundering money through their sportsbooks. They will be able to get a ton of valuable info on other criminals, fine the casinos, and fine a bunch of banks and get their money that way. 2.) If Ohtani really didn't know anything about the bets, then he will likely sue the casinos, because they ignored where the money was coming from, and when the amounts are that large, just like a bank needs to know their customer, casinos do too when dealing with tens of millions or hundreds of millions. If Ohtani, the MLB, and his interpreter admit to everything to the feds, they flip that info to the bookmakers, and they are pressured to provide info on the others involved. This should go away eventually for Ohtani. Japan is an ally of the US, but Ohtani is likely going to be owned by the US federal government as an asset for life if he was actually involved.
