The baseball world was shook in late-March when it was revealed that Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime friend and interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, reportedly performed massive theft with Ohtani’s money to fund illegal gambling activities.
For weeks, some people thought he potentially had placed some bets on Ohtani’s behalf, but that was proven false and the global star is now universally seen as a victim.
The US government ended up charging Mizuhara for bank and tax fraud.
Dodgers insider Alden Gonzalez has some news to share regarding those charges.
“NEWS: Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former and longtime interpreter, pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges during a change-of-plea hearing in federal court this morning. Total maximum sentence: 33 years. Sentencing is set for Oct. 25 at 2 pm PT,” he tweeted.
Mizuhara probably faced a much tougher sentence if he didn’t plead guilty, so he and his legal team decided to accept his fate.
There is no word on the minimum sentence, but it’s looking like he is going behind bars for quite some time for breaking Ohtani’s trust and systematically stealing over $16 million from him.
He had impersonated Ohtani in conversations with his bank, which allowed him to gain access to his account and money.
Ohtani has had to play this year knowing that a person who was very close to him did this to him.
It has been a tough situation for him, but it hasn’t looked that way on the field where he is hitting .322/.392/.596 with 14 home runs and a .988 OPS.
Mizuhara will know his specific fate in October, but he already knows he will pay for what he did.
