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Business English Power, Episode 66 Aloha

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and welcome to Business English Power,

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the show for ambitious English students

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who want to level up their

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business English skills, become global communicators

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and international business leaders. My

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name is Al, also known as Al

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Sensei here on the show, all

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on the internet, social media, and during

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my 18 years spent in

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Japan as an English teacher, university

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instructor, and corporate

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trainer. Thanks so much

0:35

for joining me today. We've got a lot

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packed in this episode today. We're going to

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do another current events episode. We've

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got a great one here for you today. And

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this one is circling back to one

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we did before in a

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way, not the same story, but the

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same subject of the

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story, which is Shohei Otani. And

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so we'll get into that in just a moment.

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So before we do that, please make

1:02

sure you are subscribed to Business English

1:05

Power. You do that in

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it also helps other people find

1:34

business English power. Well

1:36

thank you for doing that and let's get into it

1:38

today. So we're going to go

1:40

to an article today from cnbc.com. As

1:46

always, I will post a link to the article

1:48

in the show notes that you can follow along.

1:51

And that is my strong advice to

1:53

follow along as I read it with you

1:55

so that you can match up the sounds

1:57

of my voice to the words that you're

1:59

using. reading on the page, and that'll

2:01

help you with your listening skills also

2:04

in the future with your own speaking

2:06

skills in the way of pace and

2:08

pronunciation. Things like that, right? And

2:10

you can also use this for shadowing practice if

2:13

you desire. Alright, so

2:15

the title of today's article is

2:18

called, Shohei Otaniu's

2:20

Former Interpreter Pleads Guilty

2:22

to Gambling-Related Theft Charges.

2:27

Alright, this article is from June 4th, and

2:29

this is, of course,

2:32

yeah, in the sports category, but

2:34

it does have to do with, well,

2:36

money. And also we

2:38

did an article about Otani

2:42

back in, was

2:45

that April? It

2:47

was right when this

2:49

scandal started to break,

2:52

as we say in the news business. When

2:54

a news story is released to

2:56

the public, we call it breaking news, right?

3:00

So, yeah, so I had done

3:02

that episode, recorded that episode, and

3:04

just the next day I think the gambling

3:07

news had come out. So

3:10

that's why I did want to go back and check

3:13

this story out. Now

3:16

we have learned that Otaniu's

3:19

former interpreter pleads guilty. So

3:23

this article, again, check

3:25

it out on your own. If you are not able

3:27

to look at it now, go back later

3:30

and check it out along with me. Alright,

3:34

so let's go ahead with the first

3:36

paragraph. And again, we will stop business

3:39

English power style after each paragraph,

3:41

or every two paragraphs to kind

3:43

of go over vocabulary and

3:46

tease out definitions and

3:48

meanings that you might have missed along the way. Alright,

3:52

so let's begin. The

3:55

former translator for Los Angeles

3:57

Dodgers superstar Shohei Otani pleaded

4:00

guilty on Tuesday to federal

4:03

charges stemming from his multi-million

4:05

dollar thefts from

4:07

the baseball icon. Alright,

4:10

let's pause there for

4:12

a moment. So Shohei

4:14

Yotan, if you are not familiar, is a major

4:18

league baseball superstar on

4:21

the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was on the

4:24

California Angels for many years and

4:27

now became a free agent, now

4:29

on the Dodgers, signed

4:31

a huge contract, and go

4:33

back and check out the episode that we did a little

4:36

over a month ago about his merchandise

4:38

selling out. This

4:40

story is unfortunately more on the

4:43

negative side for Otani. And

4:46

as you see here,

4:48

his former translator pleaded

4:51

guilty to federal charges stemming from

4:53

his multi-million dollar thefts.

4:56

So they're saying that he stole the

4:58

money from Otani and that

5:00

he gambled with them.

5:04

So a good phrase here, stemming from, to

5:07

stem from, if you can imagine a

5:09

plant has a stem which

5:11

is the middle, and then you have the little

5:13

leaves or branches that come out from the tree

5:15

or the plant. And so that's

5:17

what we say, stem from, so it

5:19

comes from, and that is the origin.

5:22

Okay, baseball icon. So

5:25

of course, you know, icon meaning the little

5:28

symbols on your computer screen or your

5:30

phone screen. But icon

5:32

also means something that

5:34

represents a

5:36

famous person or place or

5:39

thing. And so because

5:41

Otani is now,

5:43

probably he's considered one of the best baseball

5:46

players of all time, we can

5:48

now call him a baseball icon. Let's

5:51

continue. Ipe Mizuhara,

5:53

39, appeared in

5:56

a Santa Ana courtroom and admitted his

5:58

guilt to single counts of the day.

6:00

bank fraud and subscribing to

6:02

a false tax return. U.S.

6:05

District Court Judge John Holcomb

6:08

scheduled Mizuhara's sentencing for October

6:10

25th. All

6:13

right, so Santa Ana, of course,

6:15

is in California courtroom

6:19

and admitted his guilt to

6:22

single counts of bank fraud. Okay, so

6:24

when we talk about a charge, a

6:26

criminal charge, they always have counts. And

6:29

because there's different layers or different types of

6:32

crimes, things

6:34

like that. Now, this crime, we're talking

6:36

about bank fraud. So

6:38

I guess we'll get

6:40

into the details here in just a moment,

6:42

but I'm guessing that means that refers to

6:45

the theft that they're talking about. Subscribing

6:48

to a false tax return, okay, so

6:50

that's also an issue. So

6:52

when you, I don't know

6:55

what they mean by subscribe here, but if

6:57

you submit a false tax return,

6:59

that is not good as well. So

7:03

he admitted his guilt, pleaded

7:05

guilty, as we said in the last paragraph.

7:07

And again, I'm sorry, we should explain

7:10

that one too. When you

7:12

are accused of a crime, then

7:15

when you face the judge or face

7:17

the court, you can either plead innocent,

7:20

which is a not guilty, or you can plead

7:22

guilty. And again, of

7:24

course, the benefits of pleading guilty, if

7:26

you know that you're guilty, means

7:30

usually you're going to get a less of

7:32

a sentence. The sentence, of

7:34

course, means the penalty that

7:36

he will face. So

7:39

if he knows that he is

7:41

guilty, if he pleads guilty, the

7:43

judge will likely give him

7:45

the standard sentencing. However,

7:47

if he had pleaded not guilty,

7:50

but the jury found him guilty,

7:52

that means the sentencing is going to be more

7:54

harsh, typically. Alright,

7:57

so sentencing will be October 25th. which

8:00

is quite a few months from now, but

8:03

I'm sure they will broadcast that

8:05

news once that comes out in

8:08

October. So let's

8:10

continue with the details. Mizuhara

8:13

began making bets with an illegal bookmaker

8:15

in September 2021, running up a massive

8:19

bill, prosecutors have said. When

8:24

word of the federal probe first leaked

8:26

in March, there were concerns

8:28

about Otani possibly having connections to

8:30

betting on baseball, a

8:32

strictly verboten act under

8:35

MLB guidelines. So

8:39

we did two paragraphs there, let's go back. So

8:42

Mizuhara began making bets with an

8:45

illegal bookmaker. So what is a

8:47

bookmaker? Sometimes people call them a

8:49

bookie. So bookmaker

8:52

just means that you collect

8:54

bets and also pay

8:56

out bets. If people win

8:58

the bets, that person pays out. But

9:00

as we know, of course, most people tend to

9:02

lose. And so that

9:05

bookmaker always collects a little bit regardless

9:07

of whether you win or lose. So

9:11

they're just in charge of collecting all the

9:13

money, organizing

9:15

the gambling system,

9:18

so to speak. Now

9:22

this is an illegal bookmaker. So you know,

9:24

gambling, of course, is heavily regulated. Now

9:27

in the US, it's becoming

9:29

a little bit more open

9:31

in terms of which states

9:34

allow sports gambling. It used

9:36

to be very strict, you know, just even a few

9:38

years ago. But now more states

9:40

allow it. However, you have to

9:42

still gamble at a legal bookmaker,

9:45

which is typically at a casino

9:47

or online. But

9:49

again, there are many illegal

9:51

bookmakers, which is what Mizuhara

9:54

did according to this. Now

9:56

he ran up, so ran up a

9:58

massive bill. run up to run up

10:01

means of course to keep adding and then

10:04

a massive big bill so basically

10:07

he lost a lot of bets so

10:09

the bookmaker said that he owed

10:12

them a lot of money so

10:14

word of the federal probe okay so

10:16

probe in this case means investigation in

10:21

leaked in March so I guess they didn't want

10:23

the public to know about it so it leaked

10:25

to the public they were concerned

10:27

about Otani possibly having connections to

10:29

betting on baseball with

10:31

a strictly verboten act so forbidden

10:34

act under MLB guidelines

10:36

MLB of course means Major League Baseball

10:39

now if you are a fan of Major

10:41

League Baseball well you know of course about

10:43

Pete Rose one of the

10:45

most famous players and

10:48

he was charged with

10:50

gambling as well and I believe

10:52

gambling on his own team which

10:55

is again strictly forbidden I think they had discovered that

10:57

pretty much at the end of his career even I'm

11:02

sure after his playing career I think he was a coach for

11:04

a little bit but then of course

11:06

the biggest honor in baseball

11:09

and many sports is

11:11

to be voted into the Hall of

11:13

Fame and

11:15

they strictly banned him from baseball

11:18

meaning that he could not even

11:20

be admitted or even

11:22

voted upon for the Hall of Fame

11:25

and so that was one of the big controversies back

11:27

in they want to say the late 80s

11:29

maybe I'm not sure if it went into

11:32

the 90s but so we know why

11:34

precedent because it happened to Pete

11:37

Rose that if you bet on

11:39

baseball while you are a player it is

11:42

very very bad and the

11:44

league can likely ban you so

11:46

that's why Otani had to really

11:48

try to separate himself from this

11:51

story from this

11:53

activity if he was not involved if

11:56

he is involved well that's that's quite remarkable

11:58

but hold it let's hope that he's not involved.

12:02

All right, so let's continue. But

12:05

federal prosecutors have made it clear that

12:07

they purely view Otani as a victim

12:10

of Mizuhara, who took advantage of

12:12

the trust the player had in him. So

12:15

that clears it up right there in terms of how federal

12:18

prosecutors, again, federal prosecutors means

12:20

the federal, this

12:22

means national, or the national

12:26

US government. Prosecutors

12:28

means the people, the attorneys

12:30

that bring the charge, the

12:32

federal crime charge against the

12:34

person. And they

12:37

purely view Otani, again, Shohei Otani, the

12:39

player, as a victim of

12:41

Mizuhara. So they're saying Otani knew nothing

12:44

about this. So Otani

12:46

is innocent. He was just a victim of Mizuhara's

12:48

theft and fraud. OK,

12:52

took advantage of the trust. So

12:54

Otani trusted his translator. Well,

12:57

I don't know why he trusted him with

12:59

his banking information, but I guess he did.

13:03

All right, let's continue. Mizuhara used

13:05

Otani's password to get to his

13:08

bank account without his

13:10

knowledge or permission to pay off gambling

13:12

debts, prosecutors have said. All

13:16

right, so that kind of answers it

13:18

there. So I guess he knew Otani's

13:20

password for his bank account and

13:24

without Otani's knowledge or permission, went

13:27

in to pay off gambling debts.

13:29

But I guess Otani is so

13:32

rich, he has so much money,

13:34

he didn't even notice this going on.

13:38

OK, let's move on. Otani

13:47

is arguably the world's best-known baseball

13:49

player now in his seventh MLB

13:51

season. He signed

13:54

a heavily back-loaded team-friendly $700

13:56

million contract

13:59

this past August. offseason with the Dodgers. His

14:02

first six seasons in North America

14:04

were spent with the nearby Los

14:06

Angeles Angels. Okay,

14:08

let's pause there. So now we're

14:11

just talking about his baseball

14:13

career and his

14:15

contract heavily backloaded. So

14:18

I guess that means in terms of the payment,

14:21

most of his money, that

14:23

$700 million will be more toward the

14:25

end of the contract. They

14:28

didn't say how many years it is here,

14:31

but team friendly. So when

14:33

they say team friendly, it means in terms of

14:35

they have to manage the salaries because they have

14:38

to pay all the players on the team. And

14:40

so maybe he's taking a little bit of a, we'll

14:42

call it a discount, the first few

14:45

years. And then the last years are when

14:47

they're going to pay him a lot of money. So the

14:51

Dodgers are taking a little bit

14:53

of a risk in that sense. He could

14:55

get injured, you never know. But

14:59

yeah, he's staying in Los Angeles. I never really thought of that.

15:01

So he was on the Angels. And

15:04

now just moving to the other Los Angeles team, the

15:06

Dodgers. So let's

15:08

continue. Otani

15:11

is one of the baseball's most valuable players

15:13

for his ability to both hit and pitch

15:15

at a high level. A

15:17

feat not seen since the early 20th

15:19

century when Babe Ruth was still with

15:21

the Boston Red Sox. The

15:27

two way star Otani is still

15:29

recovering from an elbow injury that's

15:31

keeping him off the mound in

15:33

2024 and limiting his

15:35

action to the batter's box.

15:39

Alright, so yes,

15:43

Otani definitely is considered

15:46

one of the baseball's best players today, but also

15:48

of all time because of this ability

15:51

to both hit and pitch a

15:53

feat not seen. So in this case,

15:56

feat, S-E-A-T means

15:58

like an achievement. something

16:00

that has not been done

16:02

since Babe Ruth. I'm sure

16:05

you guys know Babe Ruth. He's one of the most famous and

16:08

iconic baseball players of all time. Still

16:11

recovering from an elbow injury, keeping him off

16:13

the mound. So the mound is that

16:16

kind of load of dirt in the

16:18

middle of the infield where the pitcher stands. We

16:20

call the pitcher's mound. So

16:23

it means he's just not able to pitch and

16:25

limiting his action to the batter's

16:27

box. So that means he can only, right

16:30

now, bat because of his injury. He

16:32

isn't pitching at the

16:34

moment. Okay, last paragraph here. Otani

16:37

is still one of baseball's most valuable

16:39

players, even as a mere one-way performer

16:41

this season. On Tuesday,

16:43

Otani was in the top 10 of base

16:46

hits, doubles, home runs, slugging percentage, and on

16:49

base percent. All

16:52

right, so a little bit of this kind of baseball talk there

16:54

at the end. I'm not going to

16:56

go into those. You can look those terms up

16:58

if you are into sports and baseball. But

17:01

we just want to get into

17:03

more of the story here in

17:05

terms of Otani's translator and

17:07

what happened in that sense. And

17:10

Otani is still playing baseball. He's not wrapped

17:12

up in this crime, so

17:14

he's so far innocent. So

17:17

we'll see what is uncovered, but it was

17:19

a little bit iffy there for a little

17:22

bit. But Liszt looks somewhat

17:24

like Otani is clear himself,

17:27

and we will see the sentencing for Mizuhara's

17:31

crime in October. All

17:35

right, so that's going to wrap up this episode. A

17:37

lot of good terms today. Again, check out

17:39

the show notes for Liszt of

17:41

useful vocabulary. Some of the ones that I went over

17:44

here and maybe a couple that I didn't go over.

17:47

And you can work on those yourselves. But

17:50

as I always say, when you go

17:52

over a vocabulary list with me, there

17:55

are always going to be common

17:57

words that are still used today. I

18:00

never use words or put words on the

18:02

list that I wouldn't use myself and

18:05

that, you know, words that are outdated and

18:07

that nobody uses anymore. So you can

18:09

always trust the lists that I put

18:11

together and this will be no exception. So

18:14

thanks for listening today, guys. Again,

18:17

remember to subscribe to Business English

18:19

Power. And I will see you

18:21

next time on the next episode,

18:23

which will be coming out very shortly. Until

18:25

next time, a hui hou. I'll see you

18:27

then. And remember to always level

18:30

up your learning and level

18:32

up your life.