Baseball Boy

- Tisha, good morning.

“I know it's been a very busy morning for you.”

Thank you so much for the time. Tisha, how did this start? - Well, we had been looking into what you were talking. - In the days after our story broke in March 2024, I spent a lot of time retelling what had happened.

First, EPA had told me in great detail

about show hay helping him wire money to any legal bookie. Then show he as people said that story was a lie. EPA had stolen the money, so I called EPA. - And he took back nearly everything he said in that first interview.

He told me he had stolen from show hay. - A developing story in baseball, the Dodgers, announced on Wednesday they have fired show hailed Tony's longtime interpreter, EPA miss a horror. - The interpreter is accused of using the ball player's money

to cover millions of dollars in allegedly illegal bets. ESPN investigative reporter Tisha Thompson is here with us to tell us more about this. Good morning. - Good morning.

So I want to be clear at no charges. - But there were still a lot of questions about what exactly had happened.

“- How does your interpreter have access to your bank account?”

- So a lot more questions still to be answered. - Most of the answers I had were based on what EPA and what Tony's people had told me. And I still wasn't sure who to believe or what really happened. No one was answering our questions.

- I tried to reach out to EPA again, but he never responded. - It was a perfect story for sports fans and talk radio. A classic he said he said, which version of the story do you believe?

- What's been strange here is how many versions of the story have come from Otoni's camp itself. So initially, Otoni's camp said, Otoni was kind of generously paying off the debts for his interpreter.

Let Otoni's lawyers came in.

They said, actually no, he never knew anything about this.

Meiju Hara had been stealing money from him for years. - In those early days after the story broke, what you believed often came down to whether or not you rooted for show hey and the Dodgers. - Dodgers fans so far are standing by Otoni.

I 100% don't believe that Otoni's involved in the gambling at all.

“- Yeah, I think he might have not known.”

But it's also like, you know, how are you not gonna know what's going on? - I think that they're all doing it just the fact that you got caught because of the large numbers. - Now, you wonder if there's a level of distrust

with baseball fans who are asking, are you for real? And he's the face of baseball, and that's a problem for Major League Baseball right now. - The pressure was building for someone to speak out and address the scandal.

Finally, five days after the story broke,

word went out that there would be a news conference. Show hey, himself was going to speak. - Thanks, sir, we could come in. Who doesn't need not filming us right now. I'm your self-hunter, that's possible.

- Dozens and dozens of reporters squeeze into the room at Dodger Stadium. - And after show is done, do a lot of things questions. - Before the news conference even starts, the Dodgers announced that show hey will not be taking questions.

So whatever he says in his statement will be all reporters have to work with. Then show hey walks in. And trailing just steps behind him where EPA would normally be, is will, IRTEN.

IRTEN is a long time Dodger's employee who once worked as a Japanese interpreter. And now he's interpreting for show hey. This is the first time many people are seeing show he speak without EPA beside him.

- And again, the thing that I'm going to show is I'm going to say that I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something, but I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something, I'm going to say something. - Obviously today there's things that I am limited

and being able to talk about. I hope you understand. I do have a document in front of me that I will refer to. - Show hey is new interpreter.

Each have a black folder in front of them with what looks like a written statement. But when show hey speaks, he looks directly into the camera. (speaking in foreign language)

- In conclusion, EPA has been stealing money from my account and has told lies. A six-year relationship that had touched nearly every part of show hey's life was over. And show hey was breaking up with EPA

in the most public way possible at a live news conference in front of the media and fans. (speaking in foreign language) - Upon further questioning it was revealed that it was actually in fact EPA who was in debt

and told my representatives that I was paying off those debt. (speaking in foreign language) And all of this has been a complete lie. - Show he said EPA had been stealing from him

He wanted to make it clear

“that he had never bet on baseball or any sports”

that he had never asked someone to bet on his behalf

and he says he never used a book maker. (speaking in foreign language) - To summarize how I'm feeling right now, I'm just beyond shocked. It's really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point.

- This was the longest show hey had ever spoken publicly about his private life. (speaking in foreign language) - Show he and his new interpreter speak for 12 minutes. - You know, I'm looking forward to focusing on the season.

I'm glad that we had this opportunity to talk. And I'm sure there'll be continuing investigations moving forward. - Show this. - That's interesting. - Thank you very much.

- Show he gets up and walks out of the room.

This news conference was the first and last time

“show hey ever spoke publicly about what happened.”

But in that news conference, show he placed the blame squarely on E.P. and effectively severed E.P. from himself, from baseball and from the millions of fans who love show hey.

Show his version of events was obviously very different from what E.P. had told me in that first 90 minute phone call. I had suspected E.P. might be lying to me at certain points. Some of what he said during that call conflicted with what other sources had told me.

But at the same time, a lot of it was so detailed, so complex that it seems believable. And there were moments when he sounded genuinely ashamed about his gambling and how show hey agreed to pay off his debts. But then E.P. told me he lied.

And now show he was saying he didn't know anything about the bets and was accusing E.P. of massive fraud, fraud with shocking implications to get hired by one of the biggest franchises in MLB to steal millions with no one noticing. Not just from one of the most famous athletes on the planet,

but from someone he called his best friend, a friend who he seemed to be with almost 24 hours a day. What would have led him to do this? What kind of guy is he really? Who is E.P.?

I'm ESPN investigative reporter, Tisha Thompson. And this is the portrayal of Shohei O'Tani, episode three, baseball boy. Good job. That's all about the gauge.

But he's got wire transfer score and a half million dollars

to a 33-dollar poker book maker. And he has no idea of it. (upbeat music) In 2010, a family of four in California goes missing. In the clues left behind, seven investigators

are in a years-long search.

“Is this a family on the run or is the truth far more sinister?”

From ABC Audio in 2020, this is what happens to the mixed staves. Coming August 11th, wherever you get your podcasts. Or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes, early access to new episodes, and so much more.

(upbeat music) All we really knew about E.P. in early 2024 came from a media guide that had been put out by Shohei's previous team, the Los Angeles Angels. Media guides give reporters biographic information

about players and staff. And it is super rare for an interpreter to get his own entry. But the Angels Media Guide outlined he pays background in resume, where he grew up,

where he went to college, and where he worked before he began interpreting for Shohei. It offered a window into the life of Shohei Otani's constant companion. But a few days after our story broke,

we learned that there was a big problem with this media guide. We learned more details about Shohei Otani's translator and if you look back at his past, it is checkered because he is lying.

- It turned out much of what was in E.P. his official team bio wasn't true. My ESP and colleague Tim Q and I went through it to see what did and did and hold up once reporters started asking questions.

- Okay, I wanna go line by line since we're sitting here. It's a six season with the Angels as an interpreter. Is that true or false? - True. - Born in Japan.

- True. - grew up in Diamond Bar, California. - True. - Attended Diamond Bar High School.

- Graduating from the University of California Riverside in 2007. - Ack. - False. - Do we know where he went to college?

- We don't think he went to college. - So the information the Angels had about his education was wrong. Miza Harris served as an interpreter for Ocajima. - Hadaki Ocajima is a Japanese player

who pitched for the Boston Red Sox. Epe's bio says he interpreted for Ocajima at one point.

- The Boston Red Sox said they never employed him

and he would have had to be an employee of the team in order to interpret for Ocajima. - So the details about Epe's experience were wrong too. It says Ocajima during Yankee Spring Training in 2012. - And if you look at that Ocajima was injured

at the end of the 11th season and never reported to Spring Training with the Yankees in 2012. So there was no fact checking going on here. - Hadaki Ocajima even addressed this himself, writing on his Instagram that Epe was supposed to interpret

for him at Yankee Spring Training in 2012. But because Ocajima failed a physical, they didn't end up working together. - How did this all end up in the media guide? Is it possible there was no background check on Epe

when he came with Show Hay to the Angels? - Looking at this knowing what we know now, what does this say about the Angels

“and baseball's responsibility to protect its players?”

- Yeah, it's a massive hole, right? - We reached out to the Angels for comment, they declined to answer questions about Epe. - There's a culture in a lot of clubhouses of not messing with anything in a player's routine

when they're playing well. - The Angels are thrilled to have him. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make his life as easy as possible. - No one was questioning Show Hay

or his interpreter. And Epe's past was a big black hole. - Good learning about where Epe came from get us any closer to the truth of what happened between these two men.

And if he did do it, what could have led him to steal millions of dollars from his best friend? - Our team started digging into Epe's background. After he stopped responding to me, I reached out to Epe's wife and parents,

but through Epe's attorney, they declined our request for interviews. At the same time, Tim got in touch with Epe's high school soccer coach. - He was a soccer player,

but in talking to his high school soccer coach,

“he can't even remember if he got into a game.”

He just knows that he went to every practice, he was a good teammate, he loved it, but wasn't particularly good at it.

He was like a third string goalie.

And this soccer coach also taught him in class in high school and his line was, I remember the really good students and the really bad students and he was neither. - So Epe played soccer in high school.

I figured that's a good place to start. Maybe one of his old teammates would talk to me. I drive into Diamond Bar High School's parking lot, just as school is letting out. As kids pour out of the building,

I walk into the front office and ask one of the school secretaries if I could see the year books from 1999 to 2003. I don't see Epe in any sports team photos, not even soccer.

His name isn't listed on the JV or Vercity team rosters and it doesn't look like he was in any clubs. - There he is. But I do find his class portrait in a couple of year books. - Okay, Epe is in his senior and junior year books,

his sophomore year, he doesn't exist in the year book anywhere. In his freshman year, he's in the year book, but there's no picture of 'em, there's just this quote about technology

and how it makes it super easy to do what he needs to do. - It's weird to me that his photo is completely missing from his freshman and sophomore year books.

“Was he sick on picture day or did something else happen?”

- I take photos of every student in his 2003 graduating class and every player on the Diamond Bar high school soccer team who he might have played with. I start reaching out asking if any of them remember a kid named Epe, Misa Harra.

And I track down someone I've been told was a close friend of Epe's.

- When did you first meet Epe?

Like, how far back do you guys go? - We go back in middle school.

- Steven Akamoto went to middle school

and high school with Epe. - Since our school was predominantly, it was like Asians, but then it was like Koreans and Chinese. There was a lot of Japanese.

And so we were a rare breed, and so we clicked instantly. - Both Steven and Epe were born in Japan, but were raised in Southern California. - I think for any immigrant,

growing up in America, like, you don't know what your identity really is. Did you look a certain way? So you look like an Asian. So people assume you're Japanese.

But then when you go to Japan, they're like, oh, you're from America, you're America. So it's like, what am I really in?

And so you kind of have like this identity crisis a little bit.

And so maybe he picked a fight for Japanese during that time when we were kids. - Where does his knowledge of the Japanese language come from? - It was majority from television and also from comic books like manga.

Like, we would be reading manga. Like, oh, do you know this word? No. Or do you know this word? Like, I think it would mean to this.

And then we'll go ask one of our parents, like what it says. And then we're like, yeah, we are right or you're right.

“You're very committed to sky, remember that.”

- Steven says Epe's parents worked late. Epe's dad was a chef and his mom was a nurse. Epe was on his own a lot. - We would hang on almost every day at his house. Usually at his house there's just a plain sports basketballer,

a little bit of baseball. - Steven remembers Epe being the most devoted sports fan in their friend group. And as much as Epe liked to play sports, he seemed to be even more interested in the players themselves.

- I remember his knowledge was very expensive. As far as sports goes, he knew a lot of certain things about sports and all sports pretty much. So when we would look at cards, I'm like, who's that player, I have no idea.

He's like, oh yeah, this is Bubba Blah. And then he would tell me like, you know, small bits of the player. - I also spoke to another friend of Epe's from high school, but he didn't want to be recorded.

This friend remembers how Epe loved, like truly loved baseball. This was back in the day when you had to use a VCR to tape a game you wanted to keep. And Epe would tape all of the Dodgers games

whenever Hadeo Nomma was the starting pitcher. Lookin' out, that is a new mark for Nomma all 17. A magnificent performance for Hadeo Nomma. - But Epe's loyalty switched to the Seattle Mariners when Echeros Suzuki began playing in the United States.

- And Echero goes back in the track to the wall and makes the leap and makes the catch unbelievable. - Epe played Little League, and a friend said he even made the all-star team.

He tried out for the baseball team, his freshman year of high school, but didn't make the cut. So he and Stephen tried basketball. - And did you make the team? - No, no, people did.

- Okay, and then when you didn't make the team, you're like, forget this, we're moving on. - Yeah, we're moving on, yeah, I don't think we're actually there. Epe did eventually make the soccer team

as a goalie his senior year, but he never got off the bench.

So Epe just walked away.

“Epe's friend said that's why he isn't in the team photo.”

He had already quit. - It didn't seem like he had much more success in the classroom either. His friend said Epe was smart, but slacked off in class, and looked down at kids he called tri-harts.

- He wasn't really into like the norm. I would say like, what's in? - He also, he always did it on thing, and like for one good example would be his hairstyle. It hasn't changed since like middle school.

- It's always been that. - Really? - Yeah, I think he died in a couple of times, but other than that, he doesn't really play with his hair. - So that asymmetrical part with the rhythm on bangs

that goes side down the way it's been since middle school? - Yeah, it hasn't changed. (upbeat music) - Stephen says Epe loves this Japanese rock band called Glee. (upbeat music)

- He also listened to a lot of two Poc. You have to remember this was the era when L.A. hip hop dominated the airways. It was edgy, it was cool, especially for the kids from Diamond Bar, who weren't far from Compton,

but were firmly in the suburbs. - Yeah, exactly what it is. We were trying to be harder than you actually were, trying to impress others, I guess. Like, well, we know gang members.

- And both friends remember Epe really loved to hustle.

“- He would sell, I believe, those cards like baseball cards.”

And we would go to this convention, think they had it a week, and then they sell like sports in the delia, or like, anime stuff.

So would he really into that?

- He was into that. I went attacking the long within couple of times, and he would look at baseball cards, look at prices and stuff like that, yeah. - Did he buy stuff?

“- He did, and I was like, what are you gonna do with that?”

- I don't know what you're gonna do with that. It would be the expense to find, and then he would also like haggle a little bit too. I remember he said he wanted an electric guitar. He's the same that forever,

and then next time I go to his house, he has an electric guitar. He doesn't have an amp, and then, you know, a month later, he has an amp. And I'm like, I don't have ever really a question

where you got the money from. - Epe's other friend told me that Epe seemed to just get excited by the process of buying things, and then reselling them. Video games, team jerseys, and those baseball cards,

and he says Epe would try to place bets with him, about small things, like who'd win in a video game, or the outcome of a Dodgers game.

But the friend never worried about Epe having a gambling problem,

he always thought it was just for fun. Both friends told the same story about why Epe's picture was missing from his sophomore year book. He did an attend diamond bar that year. He was at an alternative school

for students with attendance or discipline issues. Epe was back at Diamond Bar High School, his junior year, and his friends say Epe was going to nearby tribal casinos by the time they graduated. - I think it was like from Epe,

and you can start gambling there.

“And yeah, I went much later, like senior year, I believe.”

- Was that like the hot thing to do in those days? - Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah. 'Cause it was only like at a 30 or 40 minute drive, or an hour driving, so you just come back real quick in the back of your parents' knowing.

- Steven lost track of Epe after graduation, but says his mother and father remember seeing Epe soon afterwards. - My parents went to the soccer expo and phone working a booth at a convention.

And they were like, yeah, I work here. And my dad is specifically members in giving my parents free soccer at the event. - The other high school friend, the one who didn't want to be recorded,

told me that he ran into Epe only once after high school. Epe told him he'd been taking classes at a community college the next town over from Diamond Bar. I was able to confirm this

and confirm that he never graduated,

and that his major was accounting. Epe's paper trail basically vanishes after this. And when we ran a background check, we couldn't find any employers, any addresses, any friends that could give us a hint

about what he was doing for eight years between 2004 and 2012. But then he pops back up with a whole new sense of direction. The Neepon Ham Fighters baseball team interviewed Epe in 2012 for a role they needed to fill,

an interpreter for American players on the team. The team was impressed with Epe's Japanese, his personality, and offered him the job. So Epe heads to Hakido Japan to begin a new career as an interpreter.

(upbeat music) I got a phone call from my agent, and he goes, hey, I got some interest in Japan. Do you wanna go? And I go, yeah.

- This is Mitch Lively. He's a former minor league pitcher for organizations like the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Nationals, and after that phone call from his agent,

the Neepon Ham Fighters. - Calls me the next morning, pack your stuff, you got sold. Mitch didn't speak a word of Japanese, and he says he almost immediately realized

he was going to have to rely on an interpreter, a lot more than he anticipated. - In international sports, when you play, your translator is your lifeline. Without it, you won't get by, you won't understand,

anything that's going on. So you'd use them as your voice, and they help a lot. - When Mitch landed in Japan, he was introduced to his interpreter. A guy named Epe meets Ahara.

And I really got along, especially him living in the state, so he understood my culture a little bit more. - By the time Mitch met Epe in 2015, Mitch says Epe was an expert at his job. Epe made sure Mitch got to the field, okay?

Helped him understand the schedule and coordinated media interviews. And Mitch says Epe had a special talent for the actual interpreting part of the job. - He would be really loose with me,

rather than being like so serious, and I'm like, what are you doing? He would translate it with the tone in which I was trying

“to deliver it, and that's the most important thing.”

So he's a very reliable guy, very hardworking

And in my life, it was two in the morning,

“three in the morning, he always answered his phone.”

- And Mitch says Epe was vital off the field as well. - He showed me how to use the train system. If I had paperwork or wife stuff,

they would always handle those, like,

hey, I need pieces. All right, they're gonna take you to go do your visa work. If I was out on a bar or whatever, I'm like, hey, I can't get a taxi, call him, taxi shows up. - Mitch says Epe became more than just an interpreter

to him. - You know, it's a friendship, it's a co-workership, but it also, like, you become friends to a certain point 'cause it's just been eight hours a day, minimum with each other, you know?

Hey, I need a nice restaurant, where's the place to go? No, don't tell me, show me, like, come with me, you know? We go to a lot of Yakiniku and sushi. We did karaoke a lot, but I would always

sing back street boys with them. But Mitch could tell Epe had ambitions

beyond the Neapon Ham fighters.

- He loved baseball, he loved sports. And I just think that translating was a way to get him into the door to something he loved, you know? And to learn about, and you get to be around professional athletes

“and if you're not an athlete, that's the best way to do it, you know?”

I think his goal was to go to the states with a major league or you wanted that one on one not to be that owned by a team if that makes sense in wanting to come back to the states. - Mitch thought Epe would be great at a job like that. He saw how attentive Epe was with his family.

- The biggest thing in my life got really sick one time and he literally dropped the hat and got her the hospital and taken care of. I was in a game, so he literally left the game to go take care of my wife.

- Epe was sitting in on appointments, helping them with visas and other documents

and Mitch says he never thought twice about it.

- I never felt a situation where he was in taking advantage of me or anything like that. I've never felt that with him, but I never had to access to any of my account stuff or anything like that. - Money was something that we never touched, we never saw.

And didn't have to be part of it. - That's Kota, Ishigima. She worked as an interpreter for teams like the New York Yankees and the Mets and has worked with some of the Japanese grades.

When she heard about Epe stealing from Shohei, she says it felt like a betrayal to the interpreter profession. - I was pissed. How in the world did something like this happen? Kota has a theory about what might have happened.

Shohei has already said it. All he knew was baseball. All these kids, you're in Japan. When they play up into high school, that's all they did. And then on anything about what goes on in the world.

- There's a Japanese saying, Yaku Shonin. It translates to baseball boy. A boy who lives and breathes baseball. Shohei is the epitome of the baseball boy. He was his focused in high school

as Epe was unfocused. - He went from eighth grade to essentially a baseball boarding school. He went away from his family. He lived in the dorms.

He played baseball. He was under a very different social structure than the average American player. - A couple of years ago, my ESPN colleague, Tim Qin, went to Japan and spoke with the coach from Shohei's high school.

- You know, the coach there famously made his pitchers clean the toilets because they are the center of the diamond and they're all the attention is on them in the baseball sense. So they need to do the worst job, which would be clean the toilets in the dorms.

- For a baseball obsessed kid like Shohei, the goal is to play inclusion, a legendary annual high school baseball tournament. He caught nationwide attention when during a qualifying game at just 18 years old, Shohei threw a 100 mile an hour fastball.

- That was like front page. That's the one that people point to. That was like a tangible number that they could put on his budding greatness. There's videos of that pitch online

and watching it, Shohei looks so young. He's beaming in the moments after the throw. Like he knows, he just did something historic. - He was a brand in high school in Japan. - Shohei was catching the eyes of American scouts even before he graduated.

But he wanted to be a two-way player, to pitch and to hit. And Tim says Shohei knew he might not get the chance to develop those skills if he went straight to MLB. So he opted to begin his professional career in Japan.

“- I remember he was pitching, and I go, "Who is this guy, man?"”

- Shohei started playing with the Neopon Hamfighters in 2013. Two years later, Mitch joined the team and got to watch him play up close. - Like he would pitch, and you'd see 30 guns go up in the air. I'm like, "Who is this kid? He's doing a hundred.

They're flashing a 160 on the thing. Kins up, pull him out of the game, and they're 18.

And he comes up and hits a walk on a farm run in the night, like, "Who is this guy?"

And hands down, I tell people the best baseball player ever seen play in my life. - Shohei's locker was next to the American players, and gave Mitch a chance to get to know the young phenom. - He was funny, real funny. Like, you joke with me, come up, try to talk to me, and we joke,

and I have a picture of him with his arm around me.

“And I remember that I was in the Tokyo dome.”

We had just won, and we were really poking fun. Because I'm like, "Hey, you're like my little baby bird. Like, you're smaller than me." So, I'm gonna be shit like, "Yeah, you have to reach up on you." So, just fun things, they just poke fun.

- By 2017, Shohei felt like he'd proven himself enough to be a two-way player in MLB. And by the end of that year, he signed with the Angels. So he needed an interpreter. E-Pay had a good reputation.

Reporters, players, and the teams seemed like working with him. And although E-Pay and Shohei weren't particularly close at the time, Mitch says he wasn't surprised when Shohei picked E-Pay. - They're gonna see who, who do we use the most? Who are we taking to our interviews?

I think that played a huge part in things. And to see that he was with the team for so long. - So Shohei and E-Pay made the move to Anaheim. For E-Pay, who was raised in California, it was something of a homecoming.

But for Shohei, it was a whole new adventure.

“- So, I think that's what I'm going to do.”

- So, I think that's what I'm going to do. - Once I put on my new jersey, the Angels jersey. I felt like this is gonna be a new year. I don't know how to perform well and help the team win. - And not long after his MLB debut, Shohei began his meteoric rise.

Well, she's an ML20. - The better he played, the more airtime in the bigger the spotlight was for E-Pay. - Here in Miami, Shohei, Otani, E-Pay is a purpose right there with us as well. Guys, how do you wrap your mind? - Everyone wanted a piece of Shohei,

but because he didn't share much about himself, people turned to the next closest thing. E-Pay. - He was becoming a household name in the baseball world. - You're very popular around everyone's digging your hair cut over there.

How many people now say they want to have the E-Pay haircut work, man? - Zero. - Pretty much every time you pulled up the game to watch Shohei, you'd see E-Pay.

“- I turned on the TV on the news, and then they were talking about Shohei's interpreter.”

And then they said, "Me too hot out." And I'm like, "Oh, like E-Pay." - This is Steven Nakamoto again, E-Pay's high school friend. And then they're like, "E-Pay, me too hot out." And like, "Oh, like E-Pay." And then they were talking about like how the dad is a chef.

And I'm like, "Oh, just like E-Pay." And I'm like, "Is that E-Pay?" And then I look it up, and it actually happened. I was just like, "Damn, like the fuck."

- That guy from high school who basically vanished for eight years,

re-emerged with the coolest job ever. - I couldn't believe it out first, and it was like, "Really E-Pay?" - Maybe I was like jealous, but I was just like taking back. - E-Pay's other high school friend, the one who didn't want to be recorded, was also shocked to see where E-Pay had landed.

Here was E-Pay literally on the ball field, speaking Japanese, which depends biggest baseball star. He went from being in Little League, to being Shohei's catcher at the MLB All-Star game. - What a fun moment, that's going to be for him.

- When hopefully he's not having to catch too much, there's hopefully no Tani's hitting everything that's supposed to be. - E-Pay wasn't just collecting the baseball cards of the biggest names in MLB. He was now rolling with them.

- This is a great look. Is this your favorite red carpet outfit? - Yeah, what a nice. So that's the next idea. - I'm not really sure about a whole bit of it.

- His friends say it was everything E-Pay had ever wanted when they were in high school. And Shohei was also living his childhood dream, becoming a rare two-way player in the major leagues. - When he comes here, they're happy this two-way player

who, if we just leave him alone, he'll do things that nobody thought possible. - Tim says that meant the Angel's gave Shohei a lot of leeway in terms of how he managed his time, which E-Pay seemed to be a big part of,

both on and off the field. - His manager told me one time, I don't know what he's doing when he's at the ballpark.

That to me was amazing because everybody follows

a schedule, there's a meeting with the pitching coach, there's a hitters meeting, there's time in the cage. He was subject to none of it from what I could tell.

With whoever he wants to do it with,

“which was always E-Pay and get out of his way.”

Just get out of his way, let him do his thing. That was the sort of prodigy treatment he received when he came to the big leagues. - That kind of special treatment extended to what was expected of Shohei when it came

to talking to the media. - There's a window of roughly 50 minutes before every game where the clubhouse is open. And you can walk up to anybody that's at their locker and talk to them.

- A lot of players will hang around

and give reporters a couple minutes of their time here and there.

It's just what's expected, even from some of the really big name guys. But not Shohei. Shohei would hang out with E-Pay, walled off in the player's lounge, off limits to the media.

“- They would sit at the table in the player's lounge”

and hold each other's phones up to each other and laugh. And I obviously couldn't understand what they were saying and wasn't allowed to be close enough to hear it anyway. But there were signs that they liked each other. You know that they were friends beyond the job.

It got to the point where, you know, I wondered, like, how could you spend that much time with one person? - Tim says when he asked other players about Shohei, something remarkable happened.

- In 2021, I was reporting a story on Otani and players were telling me, "Oh, he's got this great sense of humor, you guys don't see it, but he's got a great, so I was like pressing for, okay, tell me, give me an example, you know,

when is he funny, what is he done? Tell me a prank he's pulled or even, you know, dumb baseball thing, I don't care how dumb it is. And I asked Joe Adele, "Can you give me like an example of this so I can understand it?"

And he said, "Not off the top of my head and then he kind of laughed to himself," and he said, "I don't know, man, I don't know if E-Pay would want me to throw something out there. I should stay quiet, E-Pay is the boss." And I thought that was like, that he was even in their minds

when they were talking to reporters, was to me a sign of just how deeply ingrained he was in this whole life of Shoe Otani. By 2024, E-Pay and Shoe had worked closely together for six years. E-Pay told me in our interview, they were like brothers. He was not just Shoe, he's interpreter,

but essentially his personal assistant, his driver, his warm-up partner, sometimes his dog walker. E-Pay was entwined in so many aspects of Shoe his life and he had so much access. During his time with the angels, E-Pay told me he felt pressure to keep

up with Shoe his lifestyle and he says he was having money problems. His official team bio doesn't check out. His friends say he was a hustler and began gambling in casinos in high school. But then there are people who have worked closely with E-Pay and speak really highly of him who were surprised when this happened.

As an interpreter, E-Pay had a great reputation. He impressed coaches, fans, and especially the players he worked for.

When I first saw it, I was just like, what? No way, like, what's going on?

Mitch Lively, who worked closely with E-Pay in Japan, says when it came to money, he and E-Pay had a typical ball player interpreter relationship. In my relationship with E-Pay didn't access to any my money, without me giving him money. We're asked for it.

But we would later learn that E-Pay had a very different relationship with Shoe. E-Pay has been stealing money from my account and has told lies. When Shoe hey told his side of the story at the news conference. My colleague, Alan Gonzalez, was standing close enough to see the words in the statement Shoe hey had prepared.

Going into it, there was obviously a lot of skepticism, a lot of cynicism. But if you were to believe what he was saying, you felt bad for him. So E-Pay has been telling everybody around that he, that E-Pay has been communicating with Shoe hey on all of this account to my representative to the team and that hasn't been true.

“Alden says he will never forget Shoe, he's demeanor that day.”

He looked directly at the camera for almost the entirety of it. And there were even times where I would venture to say that. It seemed as if he was on the verge of breaking down, of getting emotional. It was as engaged as I have ever seen and still have ever seen.

But ultimately Shoe hey didn't take any questions.

“He faced down such a large scandal with a single statement.”

Why is this guy allowed to not be asked questions?

Tell me another athlete that would never have to make a press conference where he's asked

question after question. Alex Rodriguez was asked question after question. Pete Rose was asked question after question. This guy's never had his feet held to the fire ever. People were wondering why not take questions.

That choice left lots of room for people to speculate about how E.P. could have pulled this off and how all of this added up. Emily Betsy made none of them on baseball by the way. Is that amazing now one of them on baseball? Doesn't that send up a kind of red flag for you?

For a guy that was so desperate losing so much money he never bet on the sport

that he was the closest to? Even afterwards, after Shoe Yotani gave a statement, there were a lot of players were like, "We don't know, we don't know, it's true, we don't know idea.

“I think prominent members of the judges were still like,”

"We'll see what the feds say, you know?" We'll see what the feds say. Because when Shoe Yotani accused his interpreter of stealing millions, he elevated a betting scandal to a massive crime. The feds had already been investigating the illegal bookmaking,

but now they were turning their attention to E.P. and central to that investigation would be one man.

I gambled bigger than most, right? And I've never seen anything like it.

I've seen some wild stuff, but never like this. Map Boyer, who took E.P.'s bets and Shoe Yotani,

“who was going around telling everyone, he'd hooked the biggest star in baseball.”

The greed side of me is like, this is great. You know, this guy could lose $50 million dollars enough for it. That's next on the betrayal of Shoe Yotani. (upbeat music) The betrayal of Shoe Yotani is based on reporting by me, Tisha Thompson,

was support from Tim Kuhun in the ESPN investigative unit. Our producer is Carrie Ann Thomas. Our senior producer is Max Green. Our senior editorial producer is Prithi Barathon, our associate producer is Gus Navarro.

Story editing by Audrey Quinn, Elaine Tang, Eric Neal, and Mike Drago. Additional editing by Rebecca Hudson. Our archival producer is Jennifer Welock, our line producer is Katherine Sanky. Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams.

Fact checking by John Nesterbaradino with David Sabino. Additional editorial review from Masa Nila, original music by Allison Layton Brown and John DeLore. Sound design by John DeLore. Chris Buckel is vice president of the ESPN investigative enterprise

and digital journalism. Marcia Cook, Brian Lockhart, Heather Anderson, and Burke Magnus are Executive producers for 30 for 30. David Roberts, Mike Foss, and Roxanna Scott are Executive producers for ESPN.