LOS ANGELES — The tip arrived two weeks ago, and it threatened to engulf Major League Baseball’s biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, in scandal. The name of the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger and pitcher had surfaced in a federal investigation of illegal sports gambling — millions of dollars in payments were allegedly made from his bank account to an illicit bookmaker.

As The Los Angeles Times investigated the tip and began to assemble a story, Ohtani’s representatives scrambled behind the scenes to head it off. The result was a series of shifting accounts of how Ohtani’s name was raised as part of the investigation, with each version presenting him as not being involved in any wrongdoing.

And that effort continued after The Times broke the story of the probe. It culminated Monday in a news conference by Ohtani at Dodger Stadium, and what the ballplayer, the Dodgers and Major League Baseball had hoped would put the matter to rest.

It didn’t.

That’s because Ohtani’s claims — that his interpreter stole millions of dollars from him to pay a bookmaker and the ballplayer knew nothing about it — have produced more mystery than clarity, beginning with the unanswered question of how such a large theft could go unnoticed for so long.

If the allegation against interpreter Ippei Mizuhara is true, and if Ohtani and his money were protected by the usual roster of business managers and financial institutions, the translator would have had to evade all the safeguards typically in place to shield a wealthy celebrity from thievery, fraud and other forms of financial exploitation, experts have told The Times.

Those lines of defense would include human and digital protocols for verifying the legitimacy of large withdrawals of money from a bank, in addition to assurances that financial professionals who handle expenses, investments and taxes are performing regular reviews of significant transactions.

Ohtani’s camp has accused Mizuhara, who has not been charged with a crime, of stealing at least $4.5 million from the ballplayer through nine bank wire transfers last year. The money allegedly covered Mizuhara’s gambling losses with suspected bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, a target of the federal investigation.

As of this writing, Mizuhara’s whereabouts could not be determined. He did not respond to numerous requests from The Times to comment, and it was not known if he had an attorney. The Dodgers fired him on March 20. Mizuhara had worked with Ohtani since the ballplayer joined the Los Angeles Angels in 2018.

Multiple sources, who requested anonymity to share sensitive information, confirmed to The Times that the alleged payments under investigation were made via wire transfers. Such transfers should involve a multi-step verification process and leave a clear electronic trail, experts say.

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