By
AMY TAXIN
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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The previous interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani was sentenced Thursday to just about 5 years in jail for financial institution and tax fraud after he stole practically $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers participant’s checking account.
Ippei Mizuhara, who was purported to bridge the hole between the Japanese athlete and his English-speaking teammates and followers, was sentenced in federal court docket in Santa Ana to 4 years and 9 months after pleading responsible final yr.
He was ordered Thursday to pay $18 million in restitution, with practically $17 million going to Ohtani and the rest to the IRS. He was additionally sentenced to a few years’ supervised launch on prime of the jail sentence and ordered to give up to authorities by March 24.
“The magnitude of the theft — $17 million — in my opinion, is shockingly excessive,” U.S. District Choose John W. Holcomb stated upon issuing the sentence.
Holcomb stated most individuals don’t make that a lot cash of their lifetime.
“I hope that Mr. Mizuhara will have the ability to repay that sum,” Holcomb stated. “That continues to be to be seen.”
Mizuhara addressed the court docket and apologized to Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the federal government and his household.
“I’m actually, deeply sorry for what I’ve achieved,” Mizuhara stated. “I’m ready to be punished for it.”
Mizuhara has acknowledged utilizing the cash to cowl his rising playing bets and money owed with an unlawful bookmaker, along with $325,000 value of baseball cards and his personal dental payments.
His legal professional declined to remark after the listening to.
Performing U.S. Legal professional Joseph T. McNally advised reporters exterior court docket that Mizuhara took benefit of Ohtani’s vulnerability as a non-English speaker attempting to navigate the world of movie star baseball — a high-profile instance of one thing that’s all too frequent. He emphasised that Ohtani was a sufferer.
“Mr. Mizuhara lied, he cheated and he stole,” McNally stated. “His conduct was shameless.”
Mizuhara’s legal professional, Michael Freedman, had requested for a sentence of 1 and a half years. In the course of the sentencing listening to, he requested that the choose think about his shopper’s playing dependancy was challenged by his connection to a bookie keen to credit score him massive sums of cash due to who he labored for.
“He was uncovered to a world by which he was given a singular and limitless credit score to run up these sorts of numbers,” Freedman stated.
Federal prosecutor Jeff Mitchell stated the quantity stolen by Mizuhara amounted to about half of what Ohtani earned from the Los Angeles Angels when he pitched for them, and the harm went even additional.
“Probably the most vital hurt to Mr. Ohtani is the reputational harm, which can by no means be absolutely repaired,” Mitchell stated.
The case affected arguably the world’s most famous baseball player and stoked an international media frenzy. It stemmed from a broader probe into unlawful sports activities bookmaking organizations in Southern California and the laundering of proceeds by casinos in Las Vegas.
Mizuhara accessed Ohtani’s account starting in 2021 and adjusted its safety protocols so he might impersonate him to authorize wire transfers. By 2024, Mizuhara had used the cash to purchase about $325,000 value of baseball playing cards at on-line resellers and had wager tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} that weren’t his to wager on worldwide soccer, the NBA, the NFL and faculty soccer. Prosecutors stated Mizuhara by no means wager on baseball.
Mizuhara was born in Japan and moved to California together with his dad and mom when he was 6. He struggled to study English however ultimately did, and he returned to Japan in 2013 to change into an interpreter for a Japanese baseball workforce and later for Ohtani, in keeping with court docket filings.
The 2 shaped a tight-knit bond, and Mizuhara moved with Ohtani in 2018 to the U.S., the place he took on quite a few errands for the participant reminiscent of grocery purchasing, Mizuhara’s legal professional wrote.
Inside baseball, Mizuhara stood by Ohtani’s aspect for a lot of of the athlete’s career highlights, from serving as his catcher in the course of the Dwelling Run Derby on the 2021 All-Star Recreation, to being there for his two American League MVP wins and his record-shattering $700 million, 10-year cope with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Off the sphere, Mizuhara was Ohtani’s buddy and confidant. He famously resigned from the Los Angeles Angels in the course of the 2021 MLB lockout so he might maintain chatting with Ohtani, and he was rehired after a deal was struck.
Final yr, Ohtani and the Dodgers received the World Sequence, and the baseball star received his third Most Valuable Player award.
