By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Japanese baseball great Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges he illegally transferred nearly $17 million from the athlete’s bank account, without Ohtani’s knowledge, to pay off his own gambling debts.
The plea agreement reached between federal prosecutors and Ohtani’s onetime confidante, Ippei Mizuhara, 39, was announced on Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where the interpreter was charged in a criminal complaint last month.
A 33-page record of the deal, in which Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
He is expected to formally enter the plea at an arraignment set for May 14, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A federal bank fraud conviction carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, with the tax offense punishable by up to three years behind bars.
Mizuhara was accused of embezzling nearly $17 million from an account of Ohtani’s that Mizuhara had helped set up, and wiring the funds without the player’s knowledge to an illegal bookmaking operation to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debts.
Announcing the charges on April 11, U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada stressed there was nothing to suggest any wrongdoing by Ohtani, a power-hitting pitcher who signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract to join the Los Angeles Dodgers this season. He became the highest paid player in Major League Baseball.
The allegations of theft leveled against Mizuhara surfaced during the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Seoul, South Korea.
The outcome of the investigation spared the Dodgers and the league a potential scandal of epic proportions, recalling the controversy stirred 35 years ago when Pete Rose was accused of gambling on baseball games, including those of his own team, while he played for and managed the Cincinnati Reds.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los AngelesEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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