As Shohei Ohtani begins his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers amid a fog of gambling allegations involving his interpreter, perhaps the most important question surrounding Ohtani is whether he faces any legal exposure in the case.

Ohtani said he never placed bets and denied having any knowledge of his interpreter’s wagering activity. But the interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has given conflicting statements, raising questions about whether Ohtani might have committed a crime.

Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani had knowingly given him millions of dollars to pay off debt with an illegal bookmaker, but then retracted those comments a day later. Ohtani has vehemently denied being involved in any way with Mizuhara’s gambling.

Ohtani has not been accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement or Major League Baseball. He accused Mizuhara of theft. But several legal experts told The Athletic that if one version of Mizuhara’s account is true – the first version that he shared with ESPN – Ohtani could face his own legal challenges.

“Question No. 1: Was this a theft?” said Daniel Richman, a Columbia law professor and former federal prosecutor. “But we don’t know all the facts.”

Gambling is illegal in California. Although Ohtani said he did not place any bets, Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani knowingly paid off his debts. That could be a violation of a California law that stipulates it is illegal for someone to “forward” money related to sports gambling. That crime is called a wobbler because it can be charged as a felony or misdemeanor, depending on other circumstances, according to Evan J. Davis, an attorney with Hochman Salkin Toscher Perez, who formerly worked for the Department of Justice’s tax division and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division’s Major Frauds Section.

The penalty for the misdemeanor, which applies to first-time offenders, is up to one year in prison or a fine, or both.

There is disagreement among legal experts about whether the account Mizuhara shared with ESPN raises the possibility of federal crimes. Some said that if Ohtani knew that Mizuhara placed bets and then paid off his wagering debts, he might have opened himself up to federal charges related to money laundering by furthering an unlawful act.

Transferring money is not a criminal act. But if Ohtani sent it to a bookmaker with the knowledge it was to pay an illicit debt, it could create exposure for him, said Rocco Cipparone Jr. a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in New Jersey as a defense attorney. The government, if it were to proceed with a case, would have to prove that Ohtani knew what he was doing and why he made the wire transfer. It could open Ohtani to charges of aiding and abetting money laundering, Cipparone said. Money laundering carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

“There’s potential exposure,” Cipparone Jr. said. “It wouldn’t be the strongest. It would be somewhat attenuated in terms of the proof. It all comes down to intent.”

But this is not a universal view. Richman, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Southern District of New York, said that any potential federal charges related to money laundering would not apply. The money involved in the underlying specified illegal activity, he said, must come from a felony state gambling offense. Placing an illegal bet with an illegal bookmaker, as is the case of betting in California, does not fit that description because it is a misdemeanor.

“It’s hard to see a federal money laundering violation given there’s no underlying federal crime covered in the statute,” Richman said.

With little information currently available, and somewhat murky theories of legal liability, much would hang on prosecutor discretion, the legal experts said.

Then there’s the IRS.

An IRS spokesperson confirmed that the IRS Criminal Investigation unit and Homeland Security are running a joint investigation into Mizuhara and a bookmaker named Matthew Bowyer from its Los Angeles field office. The Criminal Investigation unit is an arm of the IRS that looks into federal crimes like tax fraud, money laundering and identity theft. When asked if the two departments were also investigating Ohtani, the spokesman said he could not comment further.

If Ohtani sent money on Mizuhara’s behalf, regardless of whether he knew about the gambling, the IRS might be interested in knowing how Ohtani classified that money, as a gift or a loan.

If it is a gift, Ohtani would be responsible for the taxes on it. The gifter is the one who must pay the gift tax. The IRS’s gift tax exclusion was $17,000 last year and went up to $18,000 this year. If it was a loan, then Ohtani does not need to pay taxes on the amount, the lawyers said.

If Mizuhara and Ohtani are interviewed by federal prosecutors, the legal experts said, it would behoove them to be truthful and consistent.

“If they make a false statement in that investigation, that opens up a new exposure of false statement under the federal false statement statute,” said Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor and now a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law. That offense carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The former MLB star Yasiel Puig pleaded guilty in 2022 for lying to federal agents during its investigation into a sports gambling operation run by Wayne Nix, before withdrawing that plea weeks later.

Whether prosecutors would pursue a case against Mizuhara or Ohtani is uncertain. Federal prosecutors rarely go after the bettors in an illegal bookmaking operation, the lawyers said. There are exceptions, like if they want to create leverage to turn a client on a bookie, or to send a message.

But the former federal prosecutors also noted that Ohtani’s fame and the public profile of this case could make prosecutors more interested in pursuing a case.

“The one thing we know is that when it comes to professional sports, federal prosecutors and agencies have somewhat the same taste as regular citizens for getting involved,” Richman said. “Which is more than usual. Because it’s fun and interesting.”

(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani this week: Michael Owens / Getty Images)