Agreed with prosecutors to plead guilty in court on the 14th Admitted reporting false income
Otani interpreter Ippei Mizuhara
Ippei Mizuhara, who was indicted for tampering with MLB superstar Shohei Otani (Los Angeles Dodgers)’s money to pay off illegal gambling debts, admitted to the charge.
The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed with prosecutors that Ohtani’s former interpreter, Mizuhara, will plead guilty in court to charges that he illegally transferred nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off gambling debts. It was announced on the 8th (local time) that it was done.
Mizuhara decided to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of false income reporting. The maximum penalty for bank fraud is 30 years in prison, and for false income reporting, the maximum penalty is three years in prison.
Mizuhara is expected to plead guilty to these two charges in court on the 14th, the Ministry of Justice said.
According to the U.S. Federal Prosecutor’s Office in California, Mizuhara used Otani’s password to access Otani’s account from November 2021 to March of this year, then changed the email address and phone number registered with the bank so that Otani could use it when the bank approved account transfers. He made me call myself instead of him.
Mizuhara used Ohtani’s personal information to impersonate Ohtani on 24 occasions in phone calls with bank employees, and through this method, he stole $16,975,010 from Ohtani’s account.
He also failed to report his entire income, including omitting $4.1 million worth of additional income when reporting his 2022 income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), resulting in an additional $1,149,400 in taxes, interest and penalties. It was acknowledged that there was an obligation to pay.
Based on Ohtani’s statement and cell phone records, the prosecution concluded that there was no evidence that Ohtani knew of or was involved in Mizuhara’s illegal gambling and debt repayment, and concluded that Ohtani was the victim of this case.
“The scale of the defendant’s deception and theft was staggering,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “He took advantage of his position of trust with Ohtani to pursue his dangerous gambling habits.” 토토사이트