Shohei Ohtani's interpreter charged with stealing $16M from star

Federal prosecutors have officially charged Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of worldwide baseball megastar Shohei Ohtani, with stealing more than $16,000,000 from the player.

The stolen money was allegedly used to pay debts with an alleged illegal bookmaker.

The charges are said to be a result of a "sprawling scheme that stretched over two years and involved illicit wagers of more than 10 times that amount."

The 36-page criminal complaint alleges that Mizuhara arranged wire transfers from Ohtani's bank account without Shohei's knowledge or permission and repeatedly impersonated Shohei on phone calls with bank employees.

This complicated scheme was all because Mizuhara had to feed a worsening gambling addiction that accumulated $40,000,000 in losses across thousands of bets.

I don't know how much interpreter's are paid, but $40,000,000 is a lot for anyone.

The report alleges that Mizuhara received approximately $142,000,000 in winnings against around $183,000,000 in losses.

"Our investigation has revealed that due to the position of trust he occupied with Mr. Ohtani, Mr. Mizuhara had unique access to Mr. Ohtani’s finances," said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada. "Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account … to feed his insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting."