JAPANESE baseball great Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter pleaded guilty on Tuesday to stealing nearly $17 million from the athlete’s bank account to pay off his own gambling debts, according to US prosecutors.
Ippei Mizuhara, the onetime translator and de facto manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ power-hitting pitcher, pleaded guilty in a deal that had been announced last month, a US Attorney spokesperson said. Sentencing will be on Oct. 25.
Mr. Mizuhara’s lawyer declined to comment.
“The fraud was deep and the fraud was extensive,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference after Mizuhara’s plea.
A 33-page record of the deal, in which Mr. Mizuhara, 39, agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, was previously filed in US District Court in Los Angeles. — Reuters
