Shohei Ohtani's ex-interpreter charged with bank fraud involving theft of over $16M US

The former longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is being charged with federal bank fraud for crimes involving gambling debts and theft of millions of dollars from the Japanese sensation, federal authorities said Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges Thursday.

Ippei Mizuhara served as Ohtani's interpreter after Ohtani came to the U.S. to play baseball. Estrada says Mizhuara "acted as Mr. Ohtani's de facto manager."

Estrada says Mizuhara helped Ohtani set up a bank account for Ohtani's baseball salary. Estrada says Mizuhara stole more than $16 million US from Ohtani's bank accounts to pay for his own sports betting and lied to the bank to access the account.

"Due to the position of trust he occupied with Mr. Ohtanti" he was able to "use and abuse" that trust "in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani's bank account," Estrada said, also confirming that when Ippei would win on sports bets, he did not deposit the money into Ohtani's account.

"Mr. Mizuhara did all this to feed his insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting," Estrada said, adding the complaint alleges he committed fraud "on a massive scale."

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Estrada says there is no evidence that Ohtani was aware of his interpreter's actions, adding that Ohtani has cooperated fully and completely with investigators.

"I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case," he said.

Mizuhara is expected to appear in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles for his initial appearance in the near future, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office press release.

An email seeking comment on the allegations against Mizuhara was sent to