The full story of a shocking scandal has finally been revealed. Ippei Mizuhara was a “gambler” who literally couldn’t get out of the game.
U.S. federal prosecutors announced today that they have charged Shohei Otani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, with bank fraud. “A federal investigation revealed that Mizuhara illegally transferred $16 million from Otani’s bank account to pay off his sports gambling debts,” said Martin Estrada of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, explaining Mizuhara’s crimes.
According to an affidavit filed in federal prosecutors’ 36-page complaint, Mizuhara transferred more than $16 million from Otani’s account without his authorization between November 2021 and January 2024 through “devices and IP addresses associated with Mizuhara” to pay off gambling debts to illegal bookmakers. In doing so, he repeatedly impersonated Mr. Ohtani in phone calls with bank employees. The Ohtani account that Mizuhara used to make the illegal transfers was opened with Mizuhara’s assistance in 2018.
Mizuhara also placed more than 19,000 bets and won $142.56 million (approximately $19.5 billion) in gambling and lost $182.93 million (approximately $25.2 billion), 카지노사이트 the complaint states.
The losses totaled more than $40 million. Our money amounted to 55.2 billion won.
“We understood that there was significant public interest in this case,” Estrada said. We wanted to get to the bottom of it, and I want to emphasize that it was a fast but very thorough investigation,” Estrada said, adding, “I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case. There is no evidence that he authorized the transfer of more than $16 million from his account to the illegal bookmaker.”
“Mizuhara acted as Ohtani’s de facto manager, helping him open bank accounts and using his position of trust with Ohtani to gain special access to Ohtani’s finances. Mizuhara abused his position of trust to undercut Ohtani’s bank accounts to satisfy his insatiable appetite for illegal sports gambling.” “We reiterate that Ohtani had nothing to do with this case and is a victim.
There is no evidence that Ohtani was aware of Mizuhara’s behavior, and he has fully cooperated with the investigation, including turning over his cell phone.
The LA Times reported, “Last month, Ohtani steadfastly denied that he paid or placed any bets with the illegal bookmaker or that he was solicited by anyone. His accounts backed up his statements. Investigators found no references to gambling or Mizuhara’s gambling debts in Ohtani’s text messages; his web browser history showed no evidence of visiting the bookie’s business website; and his cell phone did not appear to have been used to access the bank account in question.
Investigators also found no indication that Ohtani authorized Mizuhara to access the account.
‘Mizuhara kept the bank account into which Ohtani’s paychecks were deposited private and secret from Ohtani’s agents, financial managers, and bookkeepers,’ the media outlet added. Bank records reviewed by investigators showed that the contact information on the account was changed to be associated with Mizuhara’s phone number, and an email account was also linked to Mizuhara,” the outlet added.
The maximum sentence for Mizuhara’s alleged bank fraud offense is 30 years in prison, but the sentence could be shorter on a case-by-case basis under federal sentencing guidelines.
On March 21, Mizuhara’s alleged illegal gambling activities came to light during the official opening game of the Major League Baseball Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. While bookie Matthew Boyer was being investigated by the federal government for running an illegal sports betting operation, it was revealed that Mizuhara owed Boyer a large amount of money. ESPN’s coverage of the investigation revealed that Mizuhara had wired approximately $4.5 million from Otani’s account. ESPN then conducted an exclusive 90-minute interview with Mizuhara.
“I explained my situation to Mr. Ohtani,” Mizuhara said.
He was in a bad mood, but he said he would help me to prevent this from happening again. I told him that I needed to transfer money to pay off the debt, and he didn’t even ask me if it was illegal or not.” However, shortly before ESPN published the story, Otani’s defense attorney countered that Mizuhara had stolen Otani’s money and that Otani was the victim of a massive theft. Mizuhara also reversed himself, saying that “Ohtani was not aware of the gambling debt and did not transfer the money.”
However, Mizuhara’s changing of the guard has not escaped Otani’s suspicions. On March 26, Ohtani said, “I never bet on anything, put money on baseball or other sporting events, or asked for it. I never asked him to send money. I didn’t even know he was doing that until a few days ago. He was stealing money and lying to everyone,” he said, opening up about his alleged gambling involvement.
“He didn’t even tell me (ESPN’s) request for an interview, and he lied that he was communicating. I found out about it in a team meeting right after the opening game in South Korea. There was no interpreter, and they were speaking in English, 메이저 토토사이트 so I didn’t fully understand, and I was feeling a bit awkward. “It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel and waited for them to talk about it that I realized in detail that (Mizuhara) was lying to me. I soon informed my lawyer and the Dodgers organization. That’s the whole story of what happened.”
Nevertheless, there was still a lot of suspicion directed at Ohtani in the United States. However, Ohtani was diligent in his investigation and proved himself innocent, clearing his name of any involvement in illegal gambling with Mizuhara.