Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has been closely tied into a federal investigation into former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who is accused of stealing a significant amount of money from him. On Thursday, details emerged regarding just how much money was transferred from Ohtani’s bank account. And it happens to be a pretty jarring amount.
According to the affidavit filed by federal authorities Thursday, Mizuhara was found to have transferred more than $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account in order to pay off gambling debts from an illegal bookmaker.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada issued a press conference on the matter on Thursday morning, saying that Ohtani has definitely been identified as a “victim” in this case, with no involvement whatsoever.
“I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” said Estrada. “Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account to the tune of over $16 million.”
Text messages between Mizuhara and the illegal bookmaker also emerged, which show just how much Mizuhara was involved in gambling.
Mizuhara allegedly began to lose “substantial sums of money” late in 2021, averaging 25 bets per day which ranged from $10 to $160,000 per bet between December of 2021 to this January. The total number of bets is reportedly 19,000 in that timeframe.
News of this scandal first emerged while the Dodgers were in South Korea to play in the Seoul Series to begin the 2024 season. Mizuhara was promptly fired by both Ohtani and the Dodgers organization.
The sheer amount of money that Mizuhara has been found to have taken from Ohtani is obviously quite startling. One has to wonder how something like this could happen for years without this information coming out sooner.
Regardless, hopefully, Ohtani can move forward from this nasty situation without any troubles in his personal life.
[ESPN]
