More than 2 1/2 years after being at the center of the biggest scandal in sports, Ippei Mizuhara’s voice is finally being heard.ESPN’s new six-episode podcast series, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” debuts this week and includes the audio of the only extensive on-record interview that Mizuhara has ever given. Listeners can hear the March 2024 interview that took place hours before Ohtani became embroiled in a potential scandal that resulted in the firing of his longtime interpreter.The first two episodes, to be released Tuesday at 5 a.m. ET, recount some of the events that led to Mizuhara’s dismissal and eventual arrest while revealing some of the original audio from ESPN’s first interview with Mizuhara.Tisha Thompson, who hosts the new podcast, handled that interview. Hours after that conversation in 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Mizuhara, with Ohtani accusing him of a “massive theft” for using Ohtani’s bank account to wire money to an illegal bookmaking operation run by Matthew Bowyer.The Athletic reviewed advance copies of the first two episodes. The details are not all that new and essentially track the same timeline ESPN released in 2024. Some of the quotes from Mizuhara were included in ESPN’s initial reporting.But Mizuhara’s voice, so often associated with Ohtani’s, is the podcast series’ big draw.“My heart’s ripping apart every minute,” an emotional Mizuhara was heard saying when talking to Thompson hours before Ohtani’s debut with the Dodgers in Seoul, South Korea, in March 2024.The series’ first 29-minute episode largely charts the reporting process leading up to Thompson’s first phone call with Mizuhara, where sources alert her to wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to Bowyer’s illegal bookmaking operation. In Episode 2, after contacting Ohtani’s representation, Mizuhara agrees to an interview, which sets the stage for how this scandal has been discussed ever since.Shohei Ohtani and his then-interpreter Ippei Mizuhara stand in a dugout during a spring training game on March 1, 2024, just before things unraveled. (Kyodo via Associated Press Images)Major League Baseball and federal law enforcement have cleared Ohtani of any wrongdoing. Mizuhara was sentenced last February to 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding Ohtani. Bowyer was sentenced last August to one year and one day in federal prison for running an illegal gambling business.Mizuhara’s account with Bowyer wound up placing more than 19,000 wagers, according to a federal affidavit, and compiling tens of millions in debts. None of the wagers were ever placed on baseball, and Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani himself never placed a wager.“Never,” Mizuhara said in the recorded interview. “I can guarantee – I’ll put my life on the line – that he’s never placed any sports bets ever in his life.”