On the 4th US local time, Mizuhara Itpei, a former interpreter who was indicted for embezzling money from superstar MLB player Ohtani Shohei (LA Dodgers), admitted to the charges in court.
According to the AP news agency on the same day, Mizuhara confessed to all the charges brought by the prosecution during the criminal trial held at the Santa Ana Federal Court in California.
He stated in court, “I worked for victim A (Ohtani) and had access to his bank account. I ran into significant gambling debts and transferred money from his bank account.” He did not make any other statements in court, and his lawyer also refused to comment outside the courtroom.
Mizuhara was charged in April for withdrawing around $17 million (approximately 23.38 billion Korean won) from Ohtani’s bank account to transfer to a gambling business account to repay his sports betting debts. He also faces charges for omitting around $4.1 million (approximately 5.609 billion Korean won) of additional income when filing his 2022 taxes with the IRS.
As part of a sentencing agreement with the prosecution last month, Mizuhara agreed to return around $17 million to Ohtani and pay $1.1494 million (approximately 1.58 billion Korean won) in taxes, interest, and fines to the IRS.
According to the prosecution’s indictment submitted to the court, Mizuhara made a net loss of around $41 million (approximately 56.09 billion Korean won) from hundreds of gambling bets, winning $142 million but losing $183 million.
The prosecution concluded that there is no evidence indicating that Ohtani was aware of or involved in Mizuhara’s illegal gambling and debt repayment based on Ohtani’s testimony and cellphone records.
After Mizuhara’s trial concluded on that day, Ohtani released a statement saying, “Now that the investigation is over, this full admission of guilt brings closure to me and my family. It’s time to close this chapter and focus on baseball games and winning in the future.”
Mizuhara’s sentencing trial is scheduled for October 25th.