A former interpreter was sentenced on Thursday to almost 5 years in jail for stealing $17m from Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani to repay playing money owed, based on native media stories.
Ippei Mizuhara, the one-time translator and de facto supervisor of Ohtani, was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in jail, the punishment prosecutors had sought, and likewise ordered by US district choose John Holcomb to pay restitution of over $18m, the Metropolis Information Service reported.
Mizuhara, 39, pleaded responsible to felony financial institution fraud and subscribing to a false tax return final 12 months, based on his plea deal beforehand filed in US district courtroom in Los Angeles.
Mizuhara was accused of embezzling practically $17mfrom a checking account of Ohtani’s that Mizuhara had helped open in Phoenix in 2018, and transferring the funds with out Ohtani’s data to an unlawful bookmaking operation to cowl Mizuhara’s playing money owed.
Asserting the unique financial institution fraud cost final 12 months, former US lawyer E Martin Estrada burdened there was nothing to counsel wrongdoing by Ohtani, who has mentioned he was an unwitting sufferer of theft and has by no means wager on baseball or knowingly paid a bookmaker.
In keeping with prosecutors, Mizuhara started playing with an unlawful sports activities e-book in late 2021 and misplaced substantial sums.
To cowl his money owed, Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani over the telephone on greater than two dozen events to deceive financial institution workers into authorizing wire transfers from Ohtani’s account, prosecutors mentioned. Ohtani signed a file $700m, 10-year contract to affix the Dodgers final season, changing into the highest-paid participant in Main League Baseball.
The 30-year-old’s skills as a slugger and a pitcher have earned him comparisons to Babe Ruth.
Supply hyperlink
