Two Hawaii-based real estate developers are suing Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, claiming Balelo got them fired from a $240 million luxury housing project that was a decade-plus in the making.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims that Balelo, employed by the Creative Arts Agency, conducted \u201ca calculated and unlawful scheme\u201d to interfere with the development, of which Ohtani was a public-facing sponsor. Ohtani purchased a $17 million home in the development, part of the Mauna Kea Resort.<\/p>\n
Balelo and Ohtani allegedly violated the developer\u2019s contractual rights by demanding concessions and with the subsequent firing of Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and Tomoko Matsumoto, according to the lawsuit. The claim was filed in Hawaii Circuit Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a very standard business dispute,\u201d a person familiar with the defendant\u2019s side of the case told The Athletic. They were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, citing the litigation. \u201cIt\u2019s sad that someone would unfairly attack innocent parties as a way of distracting from their own bad behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Balelo issued an ultimatum to Kingsbarn Realty Capital LLC, the plaintiff\u2019s business partner, demanding Hayes\u2019 and Matsumoto\u2019s removal from the project, or they\u2019d face potential retaliatory litigation centered around a violation of Ohtani\u2019s Name Image and Likeness rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe allegations against Shohei Ohtani and Nez Balelo are completely frivolous and without merit,\u201d a Kingsbarn Realty Capital spokesperson said. \u201cKingsbarn takes full responsibility for its actions regarding Kevin Hayes and for removing Tomoko Matsumoto as the project\u2019s broker. The Mauna Kea project is world class, and we look forward to welcoming our final group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Schiller, head of sports and gaming at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, which represents Hayes and Matsumoto, said they tried to negotiate a resolution privately with the defendants, but were unable to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs claim that Balelo and Ohtani \u201cexploited their celebrity leverage to destabilize and ultimately dismantle Plaintiff\u2019s role in the project \u2014 for no other reason than their financial self-interest.\u201d They\u2019d been brought onto the project, according to the filing \u201csolely for Ohtani\u2019s promotional and branding value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balelo, Schiller said, was the only person that his clients dealt with. Schiller said he did not know if Ohtani himself was aware of Balelo\u2019s alleged actions, though he said they intend to investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agent was doing business on his behalf, so he\u2019s responsible for the agent ultimately,\u201d Schiller told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December 2023, and went on to win his third MVP and first World Series in Los Angeles last season.<\/p>\n
According to Sportico, he will earn $100 million in endorsements in 2025 alone, tops among MLB players, with the next highest \u2014 Aaron Judge and Juan Soto \u2014 each earning $7 million.<\/p>\n
The filing states that Hayes and Matsumoto conceived of the project in 2013, and that they were responsible for securing Ohtani\u2019s endorsement deal in 2023. They made this investment \u201cin hopes that Ohtani\u2019s star power would attract other high-net-worth individuals to purchase properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs allege that Balelo became \u201ca destructive force\u201d by inserting himself \u201cinto every aspect of the relationship.\u201d They alleged that he responded to business matters with \u201cstonewalling and hostility,\u201d while threatening default if he didn\u2019t get his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cKingsbarn began capitulating to Balelo\u2019s every whim,\u201d the plaintiff\u2019s lawyers wrote in the filing, noting that Hayes was essentially shut out of the project. On July 17, Hayes was removed as Managing Member and Matsumoto was fired as the listing broker, with Kingsbarn allegedly stating Balelo had demanded it.<\/p>\n
Large portions of the lawsuit are redacted. The plaintiffs filed a subsequent request to lift the redactions from the initial complaint, stating they \u201cpertain to information about the terms and conditions of certain contractual agreements\u201d between Ohtani and the developers.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Schiller believes that Balelo\u2019s alleged threats to counter-sue or default on the aforementioned contractual agreement were empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they have a basis for that,\u201d Schiller said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they have a basis to do that. There is no NIL breach here; they can allege one occurred, but evidence will show that was manufactured.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photo of Ohtani and Balelo: Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Hawaii-based real estate developers are suing Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, claiming Balelo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2323,363,99,1794],"class_list":{"0":"post-78368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-sports-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}