LOS ANGELES – The former interpreter for Major League Baseball star Shohei Ohtani turned himself in to authorities Friday morning, a day after he was Federally charged with stealing more than $16 million from Los Angeles Dodgers player to place illegal sports bets.
Ippei Mizuhara, 39, of Newport Beach, California, is charged with bank fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Mizuhara’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
During his first appearance in federal court Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, bail was set at $25,000 for Mizuhara, according to NBC Los Angeles.
He surrendered his passport and was ordered not to contact Ohtani. Travel has been restricted to the Central District of California and he will need approval for international travel. Mizuhara is also expected to begin treatment for his gambling addiction, the media outlet reported.
Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference Thursday that Mizuhara opened a bank account for Ohtani in 2018 and then served as his de facto manager, excluding Ohtani’s agent, accountant and financial advisor. of the account. .
Mizuhara committed “massive fraud” against Ohtani to satisfy an “insatiable appetite for illegal sports gambling,” Estrada said.
“I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case. There is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Ohtani authorized more than $16 million in transfers from his account to the bookmakers,” he said.
Ohtani, 29, came to the U.S. in 2018 to play for the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. In December, he went to the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million contract.
Ohtani “fully cooperated” in the investigation and provided access to his digital devices and personal information, Estrada said.
Mizuhara, who did not bet on baseball, is “connected to an illegal gambling operation,” Estrada said.
From November 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara transferred more than $16 million in unauthorized transfers from a checking account belonging to Ohtani, according to an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint. The bank account transfers were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Mizuhara, federal prosecutors said in a statement. declaration.
In September 2021, Mizuhara began gambling with illegal sportsbooks and, months later, began losing large sums of money, prosecutors said.
Mizuhara is accused of placing 19,000 bets with amounts ranging from $10 to $160,000 per bet from December 2021 to January 2024, the affidavit said.
Mizuhara’s winning bets totaled more than $142,256,000 and his losing bets totaled about $182,935,000. His total losses amounted to more than $40,679,000, the statement said.
During that time, Ohtani’s bank account contact information allegedly was changed to connect the account to Mizuhara’s phone number and an anonymous email address linked to Mizuhara, prosecutors said.
He also called the bank and identified himself as Ohtani to trick employees into authorizing wire transfers from the account to people linked to the illegal gambling operation, prosecutors said.
The allegations against Mizuhara centered specifically on wire transfers from Ohtani’s account – totaling at least $4.5 million, made in at least nine $500,000 payments – to a Southern California gambling operation that is under investigation federal, said a person familiar with Ohtani and Mizuhara’s interactions. told NBC News.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
