Ippei Mizuhara made a desperate attempt to bring Shohei Ohtani down with him

More information has continued to roll out about Ippei Mizuhara's misdeeds and alleged crimes that involved a $16 million gambling debt with an illegal bookmaker for Shohei Ohtani's former translator and friend. The scandal sent shockwaves through the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB alike when it broke and every new detail is somehow wilder than the last.

And Sunday is no different with a report emerging about the waning moments before the scandal with Mizuhara at the center broke. Once again, it's also not kind to Ohtani's former translator.

After Mizuhara admitted to the Dodgers, while the team was in Seoul for the international series, in the clubhouse of his transgressions and gambling debts, Ohtani didn't fully understand according to a report from the New York Times ($). When Ohtani pulled Ippei aside to talk privately, Mizuhara explained he'd stolen the reigning AL MVP's money to pay off his debts. But it got worse than that, per Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt's report:

"In coming clean, though, Mizuhara made one last effort to protect himself from the law, according to two people familiar with the conversation, who asked for anonymity to discuss a private matter. He asked his patron to go along with the story that he had just told Ohtani’s teammates, his advisers and a reporter for ESPN who had made inquiries about $4.5 million in wire transfers from Ohtani’s account to an illegal bookmaker in California."

The skinny of that: Mizuhara tried to get Ohtani to go along with his lies in order to protect the then-translator.

Ippei Mizuhara tried to get Shohei Ohtani to go along with his lie

There have been several details about the scandal that have made Mizuhara seem nefarious by way of the allegations, which makes sense given the amount of money stolen along with the size of the gambling debt.

However, this might be the worst yet. It's one thing to lie to a friend and patron about everything that had gone on. It's another thing, a much worse thing, to then ask that same friend who you've spent countless time with to go along with that lie in the interest of self-preservation after already stealing $5 million from Ohtani.

Mizuhara reportedly turned himself into authorities on Saturday and is expected to eventually be released on bail before any type of trial or plea deal begins. And between now and then, there will surely be more crazy details about the scandal.