Federal prosecutors charged Ippei Mizuhara, longtime interpreter and close friend of Shohei Ohtani, with bank fraud Thursday, saying that he stole more than $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers to pay off gambling debts.
The indictment appeared to vindicate Ohtani in the scandal that has dominated sports headlines since the beginning of the baseball season, when thebroke the news that Ohtani’s name was on millions of dollars in wire transfers to a suspected illegal bookie, Matthew Bowyer.
In a press conference to announce the charges, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said that a thorough investigation had left no doubt that Ohtani was a victim of his interpreter Mizuhara, 39, who used his position of trust “to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account.”Estrada added that there was no evidence that Mizuhara gambled on baseball. Mizuhara faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors alleged that Mizuhara began gambling with an illegal sports betting network in September 2021, and lost “substantial sums of money.” Prosecutors suggested that at the same time, contact information on Ohtani’s bank account was changed to link it to Mizuhara’s phone number, and to an anonymous email address connected to Mizuhara.
The complaint states that in an interview with law enforcement last week, Ohtani denied authorizing the wire transfers. Ohtani provided his cellphone to investigators who sifted through “thousands of communications” between the two men, Estrada said, and found “no discussion of betting wagers" or authorization of transfers to bookies.
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