I hope you understand uh I do have a document in front of me that I will refer to uh that will detail what has [Music] happened so I never bet on baseball any other sports or never have asked somebody to do it on my behalf uh and I have never uh went through a bookmaker uh to bet on Sports up until a couple days ago I didn't know that this was happening um just to kind of just go over the result uh in conclusion uh epe has been stealing money from my account and has told lies [Music] uh last wee
kend in Korea um media has reached out to a representative in my Camp um inquiring about my my potential involvement in this sports betting so IE never revealed to me that there was this media media inquiry and uh to the representatives to in my Camp he told epe told uh to the media and to my Representatives that I you know on behalf of a friend uh paid off uh [Music] debt a upon further questioning it was revealed that it was actually in fact epe Who had who was in debt and told my Representati
ves that I was paying off those debt and this this all of this has been a complete lie [Music] so e um obviously lied about you know basically didn't tell me about the media inquiry so I has been telling everybody around that he that EP has been communicating with SH on all of this account to my representative you know to my representative to the team and that hasn't been true the first time I knew about this gambling uh E's gambling was during the uh after the first game when we had team meetin
g in the [Music] clubhouse so during the team meeting obvious viously eepe was speaking English and I didn't have a translator on my side but with but even with that I kind of understood what was going on and started to feel um that there was something a Miss just prior to the meeting I was told by eepe hey let's talk one to one in the hotel after the meeting so I waited until then so up until that team meeting I didn't know that e had a gambling addiction and was in debt and at that obviously a
t that point or I and obviously I did not never agreed to pay off the debt or you know make payments to the uh bookmaker and finally when we went back to the hotel and talked one to one that was when I was when I found out that he had a massive uh debt and it was revealed to me during that meeting that he e admitted that he was sending money uh using my account to the bookmaker and at that moment obviously I was it was an absurd thing that was happening and I've contacted my Representatives at t
hat point so when my when I was finally able to talk to my Representatives that's when my Representatives found out the EP has been lying the whole time and that's when I started contacting the Dodgers and my lawyers and the Dodgers and the lawyers at that moment found out also as well that they have been lied too and my lawyers uh recommended that you know since this is theft and fraud that that we have the proper authorities handle this matter so you know in conclusion I do want to make it cle
ar that I never beted on sports or have willfully uh sent money uh to the bookmaker you to summarize how I'm feeling right now I'm just beyond shocked it's really hard to uh verbalize how I am feeling at this [Music] point and the season's going to start so I'm going to obviously let my lawyers handle uh Matters from here on out and I am uh completely assisting uh in all investigations that are taking place right now you know I'm looking forward to focusing on the season I'm glad that we had thi
s opportunity to talk um and I'm sure there will be uh continuing investigations moving forward thank you very much all right you've been listening to a press conference there you heard of Dodger star Shi Otani pretty much acknowledging the fact that he is shocked he uh it's hard to verbalize how he's feeling at this moment about what has been going on saying that he never willfully gave money sent money to that uh that book book keeper that it was in fact IE who was getting money from his accou
nt and sending that money to that bookkeeper certainly didn't me words he said that epe has been stealing money from his account and there have been he's been telling lies outright so let's get to uh sports agent Lee Steinberg uh Mr Steinberg are you there with us yes you just heard the statement here we're heing this was otani's idea did he need to address this issue and what grade would you give him I'd give him an a I thought he was very transparent if you looked at how he held himself he did
n't seem defensive he seemed like mildly outraged and uh the one dangling question is how does the money get from otani's account to The Gambler and I'm assuming that there was power of attorney somehow that allowed The Interpreter to transfer funds without otani's knowledge so worst case he comes off as someone who shouldn't have signed power of attorney or somehow was duped or defrauded but he avoids all of the uh places in which major league baseball would have a concern that money went to an
offline better that he loan money gift Tac implications um this was a fairly thorough explanation of a timeline that clears up what had been a whole series of dangling questions you know and and Lee we want to say this appeared to be a prepared statement we clearly saw him hand using this document there not a traditional press conference with Q&A since he hasn't been charged with anything yet he came out with a pretty detailed account and timeline of what has apparently gone down are you surpri
sed at all by the length and content of his statement I thought that he was well prepared they knew and understood that there was a murkiness a complete lack of of facts uh in the situation so much of it just did not make any sense this is the player on his way to becoming the best known athlete in the world and he had a number of years down with the angels where there wasn't the slightest question as to his Integrity honesty uh any action he made so this is pretty consistent with the Otani that
we've known and there's factchecking that will go on with all of this but according to his assertion he knew nothing until after the first game he was surprised by it and um then you just have to question how the money got out of an account of his to The Gambler and I assume there's a concept called Power power of attorney where a person holding a bank account can grant another person direct access so they can write checks and everything else and I assume that's what happened here well before u
h this afternoon's information dump here from sh Otani the MLB initially said they wouldn't launch an investigation but a day later said it would what does that indicate to you overall well I think they'll be swayed by what we just saw and uh again his areas of liability were if he bet on baseball which he didn't um if money was transferred to a non-authorized better which which did happen but appears he had no knowledge of it so again the worry was that this would somehow taint his reputation p
ush advertisers away uh reveal a whole Dr Jackal M High side of him none of that after this statement should be a question you know Lee he made he made reference to the season it's about to start and now he just wants to allow his lawyers to take over that what do you think the season is going to look like for sh Otani and the Dodgers um having represented athletes for 50 years I can tell you that their refuge and escape from off the- field issues is playing and so he will throw himself compartm
entalize and throw himself into the season just as if this hadn't happened and I think he was credible to the point where um all the questions I've had for a week um he answered now they're going to have to be fact checked but if if what he said was true then as I said it only leaves one question how did the money get from A to B and there's no no way that a a bank would allow uh someone to take $4.5 million do out of someone else's money if he wasn't authorized now the representations that that
The Interpreter made to the better I highly doubt that the better would have extended $4.5 million to uh someone who makes $100,000 uh unless he was making representations to the better that uh he that uh sh knew about this and authorized this but if that's a lie then it makes no difference there's still so many questions out there Lee Lee Steinberg we appreciate your time here this afternoon thanks for being with us my pleasure all right and again we've been the NBC 4 News at 3 starts with bre
aking news again we've been following you following this press conference um following Shi otani's press conference in response to the illegal gambling investigation involving his former interpreter good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us at three I'm Annabelle Sedano and I'm Michael brownley if you're just joining us here's a portion of aon's prepared statement that he read just a little while ago we're going to get that as soon as we get to NBC fors Olivia Garvey Olivia are you wi
th us hi yes good afternoon to both of you Olivia can you tell us uh yeah it was it was upsetting it was shocking there were two stories coming into today and of course as I said yesterday there are only a few people that really know what happened and that's Otani he wanted to come out here and talk to the media today and that's exactly what he did he did say that eepe was stealing money from him and lying and that was one of the stories and he just confirmed that It's upsetting I I'm going to r
ead a couple of the things that he said on a personal note I am sadden and shocked that someone has done this to me this has been the guy that has been by his side for years on the baseball field off the baseball field it's his best friend and it is so sad at the fact that he had no idea that this guy his best friend his right-hand man was stealing money and lying to him um I I like I said there have been two stories coming into this that Otani gave him the money but obviously that is not what h
appened you can tell that Otani was shocked and saddened you don't see him like that very often this is a guy that has the mentality to just be happy to play baseball to love what he does and we've seen that as he has become a Dodger and we did not see that today we saw a guy that is in distress he's sad about what happened he lost his best friend and he only found out about this in Korea when epe told the players and himself that this was going on and he said it he said I didn't understand what
he was saying in the clubhouse he was saying it in English and then uh they both spoke oneon-one in Korea at the hotel and that is where he found out that his best friend was lying and stealing money from him to cover up his gambling debts and he also and I want to make this clear Otani said that he does not gamble on Sports he has never asked anyone to gamble on Sports and that has been a big thing too that has been circulating on social media of course you can't believe it until it comes out
of otani's mouth but he said he does not gamble on Sports he has never asked anybody to and that's big for people to understand I think he really wanted people to know that he does not do that he has never done that and he's just playing baseball that's what he wants to focus on right now and hopefully he can do so I like what Lee said you know off the field issues with the Dodgers they're able to push that aside when they start playing baseball on the field and they'll do that tonight they'll d
o that tomorrow and then they'll start on Thursday at the home wi opener and get ready for 160 Game season they'll try to push this aside not just Otani but this entire team will look to not focus on eepe and what he's done to Otani but just play baseball have a great year and hopefully win a World Series in 2024 all right Olivia Garvey there live for us uh and again Otani mentioning that he has acknowledged this was a very tough week for fans and the organization yeah and it's and as Olivia men
tioned he did want to reiterate the fact that he has never bet on baseball or any other Sport and as we know it's illegal to do so here in California now let's toss things over to NBC fors Malla Medina with more on the MLB's investigation into the theft allegations well you can bet that wealth of information that Otani just shared with us will know out be the focus of the investigation for these Three Investigators that'll be leading the Major League Baseball investigation uh they will also be t
alking very closely to The Interpreter as well as the Dodgers and the angels to see if there are any red flags that were missed these are folks that are well versed in in a lot of these internal probes and uh stuff like this is going to be pretty much second nature to them Brian Baer with Bloomberg News has the Three Investigators Brian cely Moira Weinberg and Maris Meeks have a long history of unraveling some of the League's biggest scandals they've done work for uh the Astros stealing probe uh
another inquiry into the Atlanta Braves and former Executives about overpaying uh International Players now the focus will be on exactly what sh Otani knew and when about his reported $4.5 million wire transfer to Southern California bookmaker Matthew Boer otani's former interpreter epe mohara said last week he used the money from Otani to pay his own gambling debts boer's attorney confirmed mizuhara was his contact Mr Boer never met sh Otani never spoke with SH Otani the only person he dealt w
ith was e the trio of investigators will work to confirm what extent Otani was involved if at all we reached out to otani's agent and lawyers today for comment but have not heard back Baxter does believe that the MLB investigation will be asking some hard questions not just of Otani but the Dodgers and the angels you got the richest contract for a North American sports player in history uh there's going to be some questions as to you know what did the Dodgers know and when about all this stuff u
h or were they really just you know caught on awar until last week yeah and including uh with this emphatic denial from Otani that he had no knowledge of the betting whatsoever and he does feel like he was robbed by his uh former translator and friend uh the investigators will still be taking a very close look at all of those all that information coming for Otani and also a close look at exactly how the Dodgers and the angels U missed some red flags like the fact that there are some inconsistenc
ies in his interpreter uh resume before he was hired on by the angels and then the Dodgers that will be something they'll look closely at the time of length in this investigation could vary from a few weeks to a few months depending on exactly uh who's cooperating and who's not according to uh the Bloomberg reporter we talked to but certainly it'll some it'll be something a lot of folks including sh and of course all these Dodger fans will be waiting to hear exactly what they came up with live i
n Dodger stadi Med m for news all right Mac thank you and today as you know was the first time we heard from sh otan speaking uh on these allegations here we are continuing to work on responses from the team and of course fans to stick with us on air and online for the latest developments you can go to uh to download our nbcla app now to our other top story today a federal raid is happening right now at a home connected to Shan P Diddy Colmes news Chopper 4 is over one of his homes in the homy H
ills area a source familiar with the situation tells NBC this is in connection to a probe involving possible sex trafficking and sexual assault at the same time across the country federal agents were also raiding another one of his homes in Miami Beach it's in an exclusive area known as Star Island law enforcement is telling us the agents were authorized to search both of the properties by warrants issued in a Manhattan federal court and we have a photographer there on the ground outside of the
home right now as you can see a very active scene again this is a shot here from News chaper 4 we want to bring in NBC4 is Gordon SAS who just arrived on seeing Gordon what are you seeing well active scene is the way to describe it Michael for sure this has still been ongoing for a couple of hours here now and there's quite a scene both at the house itself from what you saw from the Aerials but also down the street there's a huge collection of people not just media but also uh fans stopping by t
ake a look at the police that are uh the police vehicles that are assembled right here along the road leading up to this mansion that is owned by Shan comes also known as P Diddy now this is what we're hearing from NBC investigations uh quoting four law enforcement sources familiar Now with uh NBC news federal agents they said that federal agents have executed search warrants at the LA and Miami properties belonging to sha comes the sources said the warrant is out of the southern district of New
York now we don't have any exact uh details about what this was all about it's not clear yet if it's been filed in federal court but uh as we
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