Baseball – Ohtani’s ex -interpreter has to go to prison

After the theft of almost $ 17 million, the former interpreter of baseball professional Shohei Ohtani has to go to prison for almost five years. Ippei Mibuhara was convicted of banking and tax fraud after stealing the total of almost 16.4 million euros from the Bank account of the 30-year-old Japanese from the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I am really and deeply sorry for what I did,” said Mibuhara, according to the US news agency AP: “I am ready to be punished for it.”

MiZehara admitted that he had used the money, among other things, to finance his gambling addiction and to pay debts with an illegal bookmaker. In addition, he bought baseball collection cards worth around $ 325,000 and paid for his dentistry bills. In the Federal Supreme Court in Santa Ana, California, Mibuhara was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison. He had guilty in the past year. In addition, he has to pay around $ 18 million compensation, almost 17 million go to professional Ohtani from the Major League Baseball (MLB), the rest to the tax authorities of the United States. It is unclear whether the former translator can apply this sum at all.

Prosecutor Joseph T. McNally reported that Mibuhara used ice cold that Ohtani did not cope with without any knowledge of English. Actually, he should have helped him, but ohtani became a victim. Both had worked together for years. Ohtani had signed a contract with the Dodgers at the end of 2023 with a term of ten years and an estimated $ 700 million income.