How the former interpreter of Shohei Ohtani was found guilty of fraud of several million dollars targeting the Japanese baseball star – Firstpost

The former interpreter of the Japanese baseball star, Shohei Ohtani, Ippei Mizuhara was found guilty of having committed a fraud of several million dollars targeting the Los Angeles Dodgers player. In addition to being her interpreter, Mizuhara was also the confidant of Ohtani and managed a variety of things, his finances in daily races, which led him to win the launcher and to designate the blind confidence of the striker.

An audio recording of almost four minutes would have captured Mizuhara imitating the star of Major League Baseball (MLB) on a call with a bank while he was trying to transfer $ 200,000 for what he describes as a car loan, have Announced Thursday the federal prosecutors.

The registration referenced in a judicial file and obtained by the Associated Press is used to safeguard the prosecutors’ push for an sentence of almost five years for Mizuhara, who previously pleaded guilty of bank and tax fraud to have stolen near $ 17 million at Los Angeles Star of Dodgers.

Prosecutors are also looking for the restitution of nearly $ 17 million in Ohtani, as well as a penalty of more than a million dollars at IRS.

Mizuhara should be sentenced on February 6 after pleading guilty to a banking chief and an subscription chief to a false declaration of income.

His lawyer, Michael G. Freedman, did not respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting comments.

In the recording, a man is heard identifying himself as Ohtani and saying that he had tried to connect to online banking services, but he was not available. He later confirmed that the amount of the transaction is $ 200,000.

When the bank’s woman asks him for the reason for the transaction, he says it is for a car loan.

“What is your relationship with the beneficiary?” she asked.

“Hmm, he’s my friend,” replied the man.

The registration was obtained from the bank, according to the deputy prosecutor of the United States Jeff Mitchell. We don’t know when it was done.

Towards the end of the call, the woman of the bank asks: “Will there be future sons to your friend?”

“Maybe,” said the man.

The recording was first obtained by Athletics.

https://twitter.com/BenVerlander/status/1882639954280624275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The legal file indicates that Mizuhara has accessed Ohtani’s account from November 2021 and changed its security protocols so that it can identify it to authorize wired transfers. By 2024, Mizuhara would have used this money to buy around $ 325,000 in baseball cards from EBAY online resellers and so on.

Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June for spending millions of the Arizona of Ohtani bank account to cover her betting bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker, as well as medical bills and $ 325,000 in baseball cards.

Mizuhara was there for many protruding facts of the career of the Japanese sensation: he was the receiver of Ohtani during the Home Run Derby during the 2021 stars match and was also present for his two MVP victories of the American League and 700 million Record dollars, 10 years old with dodgers. Outside the field, he became the friend and the confidant of Ohtani.

Mizuhara resigned from Los Angeles Angels during the 2021 MLB lockout so that he could continue to speak to Ohtani – he was concluded after the fact that an agreement was concluded – and their women have socialized .

But he played everything, betting tens of millions of dollars who were not betting on international football, the NBA, the NFL and university football – although the prosecutors declared that he was never betting on baseball .

With the AP entries