Who's The Bad Guy? Shohei Ohtani And His Agent Accused Of Sabotaging a $240M Real Estate Deal In Hawaii

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Who exactly is Shohei Ohtani? A hitter and a pitcher, yes. He's a 3x MVP, about to become 4x most likely in a few months. He's a World Series champion. The first ever member of the 50/50 club. The recipient of the biggest sports contact in North American sports history. He's also the former best friend to a degenerate gambler who stole millions from him over years without Shohei realizing, despite the fact that they spent pretty much every waking minute together. He's a husband and proud dog owner. And now he's allegedly a real estate project villain.. 

Hmmm…..

(Japan News) A Hawaii real estate investor and broker are suing Shohei Ohtani, claiming the Los Angeles Dodgers star and his agent got them fired from a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast that they brought him in to endorse.

“Balelo and Otani, who were brought into the venture solely for Otani’s promotional and branding value, exploited their celebrity leverage to destabilize and ultimately dismantle Plaintiffs’ role in the project — for no reason other than their own financial self-interest,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit said Balelo “quickly became a disruptive force,” threatening to pull Ohtani from the deal if concessions weren’t made.

“Kingsbarn began capitulating to Balelo’s every whim,” the suit said. “Over time, it became increasingly obvious that Kingsbarn was more concerned about preserving its relationship with Otani than honoring its obligations to its business partners.”

Last month, in what the suit called “a coordinated ambush,” Kingsbarn fired Hayes and Matsumoto.

The long story short here is that there was a decade long plan to build a luxury housing development in Hawaii. Shohei was brought in by the business partners for his promotional and branding value to boost the intrigue in the project. He'd own a home there while allowing his name and likeness to be used to entice others to join him. According to the lawsuit, Ohtani and his lawyer repeatedly demanded concession after concession, taking advantage of his power, and eventually demanding that the developer and real estate broker be removed from the whole ordeal. The business partner sided with Ohtani and now we're here with this lawsuit. 

While this more likely a power play from his agent Nez Balelo, how awesome would it be if behind the curtain of this nice-guy, generational superstar image there was this legit supervillain in Ohtani. I'm sure MLB is loving this. They just got out of the Ippei debacle that pretty much got swept under the rug, absolving their golden boy of any wrong doing. Now he's back to being a pitching and hitting monster, but here comes this real estate kerfuffle. The story will probably once again be that he had no idea this was happening and he only agreed to own a place there and occasionally visit. Meanwhile Shohei does seem to be continuously running into these scummy situations. Merely a coincidence? Seems that way, but it's also possible we're witnessing the blockbuster Shohei documentary as it lives out in real time where he's secretly an evil mastermind. 

In all seriousness he does seem to be the worst judge of character in human history. Dude refuses to hire one guy who has good intentions. First Ippei, now his agent Nez, have we thought about looking into his dog Decoy? Seems Shohei might need to hire someone to be his hiring guy. Hire Barstool and we'll have Jersey Jerry run a thorough process to get you the best guys.