The ongoing drama involving Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, accused of stealing millions from the star, took a dramatic turn on Wednesday.

Not only does it appear that Mizuhara is preparing to plead guilty to federal crimes, but authorities believe they’ve uncovered how he pulled off the heist.

In short, Mizuhara took advantage of Ohtani’s trust, using his access to steal millions from under his nose.

“In particular, the authorities think they have evidence that Mizuhara was able to change the settings on Ohtani’s bank account so Ohtani would not receive alerts and confirmations about transactions,” a source told Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times.

In March, allegations surfaced that Mizuhara had purportedly stolen $4.5M from Ohtani to pay off a gambling debt with an illegal bookmaker.

Now, due to the latest revelation, that number is believed to be much higher.

If true, it helps make sense of how the story initially unfolded.

With the Dodgers in Seoul, Korea, for the start of the season, news began to spread about Ohtani and Mizuhara’s possible ties to illegal gambling. Shortly thereafter, conflicting reports emerged.

First, in an unpublished interview with ESPN, Mizuhara claimed that the Dodgers star had loaned him the money and was fully aware of the situation.

Then, Ohtani became suspicious after becoming aware of inconsistencies in Mizuhara’s story, later alleging he had been misled and was the victim of “massive theft.”

A few days after things began to surface, Ohtani made a statement through a new interpreter, emphatically denying he ever bet on baseball while flatly calling out his ex-friend, saying, “Ippei stole money and told lies.”

The wheels of justice still need to turn, but after weeks of conjecture and rumor, it appears that arguably the league’s biggest star is off the hook, as is MLB, which dodges a messy potential blow to its integrity.

Source :
yardbarker