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Ippei Mizuhara, fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in March and accused of stealing millions of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s money for gambling, is expected to plead guilty to federal charges issued later this week.
The New York Times reported today that Mizuhara is negotiating his guilty plea to a raft of charges. He is accused of siphoning at least $4.5 million from Ohtani’s accounts to cover his gambling debts.
The investigation is being run by the Los Angeles offices of the IRS’ criminal division, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California, the Times reported.
Their probe is nearly over and the Times reported that Mizuhara may have changed the settings on bank accounts so that Ohtani did not notice the transactions. That is a key sticking point that would absolve the baseball star from any involvement.
The case turned murky when Mizuhara gave conflicting accounts of what happened, contending at first that his friend paid his debts to alleged illegal California bookmaker Mathew Bowyer. He then changed that story when Ohtani’s attorneys became involved. The plea deal will require Mizuhara to attest to certain facts surrounding how he obtained the money.
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