Ohanti to former interpreter - have you seen my baseball…….cards?

[BigJay]

Ohtani seeks baseball cards from ex-interpreter

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani wants his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baseball cards he says were fraudulently bought using his money, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

www.espn.com

 

[BigJay]

 

[BMR Genie]

This should be the first thing he did when he fired him. But you have millions of $$$$, why now?

 

[MinnesotaFats]

Unfortunately, the IRS gonna get the cards if anyone.

 

[Tanko]

I bet the guy had some choice cards. I mean after stealing millions, he had to be buying the best.

 

[quantumleap]

Ohtani PSA10s with autograph are going for up to $100k each.

 

[djefferis]

The ESPN article makes no sense as I read it.

It mentions the cards as being signed cards that but also references them as being gained as a result of the theft from Ohtani’s bank accounts.

Ippei DID invest some of his stolen funds in vintage cards - but not aware of him buying any parallel/chase cards - and makes zero sense why he would buy for example cards of Ohtani (who doesn’t save that stuff himself) given he could simply get an autograph for free.

I’m taking it as far more likely these were cards given to Ohtani to sign via Ippei and Ippei never returned them to the manufacturer. If that’s the case - they “belong” to the manufacturer (unless they were replaced by the manufacturer and Ohtani re-signed the new ones). So potentially those “rare” parallel cards could have duplicates floating around.

 

[Tanko]

The ESPN article makes no sense as I read it.

It mentions the cards as being signed cards that but also references them as being gained as a result of the theft from Ohtani’s bank accounts.

Ippei DID invest some of his stolen funds in vintage cards - but not aware of him buying any parallel/chase cards - and makes zero sense why he would buy for example cards of Ohtani (who doesn’t save that stuff himself) given he could simply get an autograph for free.

I’m taking it as far more likely these were cards given to Ohtani to sign via Ippei and Ippei never returned them to the manufacturer. If that’s the case - they “belong” to the manufacturer (unless they were replaced by the manufacturer and Ohtani re-signed the new ones). So potentially those “rare” parallel cards could have duplicates floating around.

I just read it was only like $400k worth of cards. Not peanuts but I thought it would be much much more.

Is that amount correct?

 

[djefferis]

Again - hard to tell if the math is correct until we know WHAT is missing.

If I steal money from my employer - and then use that money to make illegal bets and win - then take those winnings to buy something - how is the EMPLOYER entitled to collect back what I bought ? That just doesn’t make sense - at least not in a direct linear way.

My employer WOULD be entitled to collect from any assets in my possession after they are sold - up to the monetary amount of what I stole. So I steal a million dollars and stashed it in BTC before the recent run up - the crypto would be sold and the proceeds used to satisfy the employer - but max they are entitled to is what I took - they don’t get to share in the profits (the profits can be used to pay that state for the cost of prosecution - but that’s a different matter).

These alleged cards - if they were parallel inserts - it’s hard to say what value they hold. Look at what’s being offered for the Skenes 1/1 card for example. But at the same time - let’s assume they were replaced in a 2nd run with the first never being inserted. Value could be a tricky thing - yes, you doubled the population out there - and there are only so many people who will pay a hundred grand for a “limited” card. But you also have a great story behind it with the whole Ippei theft - that ADDS value I would think. But only if Ohtani signed them BEFORE and they were sold at auction. If he never had a chance to sign them and they were just given to Ippei who failed to return them - then I’d say there just novelties and not worth much.

If they are vintage cards - then I’d say the value of them again increased significantly with attaching this story to them. Again - likely not to the amount Ohtani lost - but I guarantee having his name/the story attached adds value like most celebrity owned stories do to a valuable item.