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.
According to the lawsuit filed in Hawaii Circuit Court on Friday, Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, increasingly demanded concessions from developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto before demanding that their business partner, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, drop them from the deal.
“Balelo and Ohtani, who were brought into the venture solely for Ohtani’s promotional and branding value, exploited their celebrity leverage to destabilize and ultimately dismantle plaintiffs’ role in the project — for no reason other than t