Shohei Ohtani found himself at the center of another off-the-field scandal last month when he and agent Nez Balelo were sued by a pair of Hawaii-based real estate developers.
The plaintiffs, Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and Tomoko Matsumoto, claimed they were fired from a $240 million luxury housing development project that Ohtani was going to be a spokesperson for.
This type of lawsuit is commonly seen in the real estate world and considered by some to be nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, Ohtani was included as a defendant due to his association with Balelo.
Lawyers representing the Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star have now moved to dismiss the lawsuit after alleging that Ohtani’s name, image and likeness were used without his permission, via the Associated Press:
In papers filed Sunday, lawyers for Ohtani and Balelo said Hayes and Matsumoto in 2023 acquired rights for a joint venture in which they owned a minority percentage to use Ohtani’s name, image and likeness under an endorsement agreement to market the venture’s real estate development at the Mauna Kea Resort. The lawyers said Ohtani was a “victim of NIL violations.”
“Unbeknownst to Ohtani and his agent Nez Balelo, plaintiffs exploited Ohtani’s name and photograph to drum up traffic to a website that marketed plaintiffs’ own side project development,” the lawyers wrote. “They engaged in this self-dealing without authorization, and without paying Ohtani for that use, in a selfish and wrongful effort to take advantage of their proximity to the most famous baseball player in the world.”
In addition to serving as a spokesperson for the project, Ohtani was expected to purchase one of the residences to utilize as an offseason home in the Mauna Kea Resort.
However, all of that changed after Balelo allegedly went to the real estate developers’ business parter and threatened litigation if they weren’t removed from the project.
Shohei Ohtani breaks Dodgers record
Shohei Ohtani set a new L.A. Dodgers franchise record with 135 runs scored this season. Ohtani broke his own L.A. franchise mark from last year.
Ohtani achieved the feat Sunday by scoring on Tommy Edman’s base hit in the ninth inning for his 135th run of the season, which is also most in the Majors. He already had become the only player in Dodgers franchise history to twice score 120 or more runs in a single season.
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