The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team announced Thursday the termination of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter after the Japanese superstar’s legal representatives said he had been the victim of a “massive robbery.”
“The team can confirm that performer Ippei Mizuhara has been fired. The team has no further comment at this time,” a spokesperson said in an email to AFP.
The case came to light after the Los Angeles Times discovered that Ohtani’s name appeared in a federal investigation against an alleged illegal bookmaker.
The newspaper consulted Shohei’s law firm, Berk Brettler LLP, which began analyzing the interpreter’s actions.
“In the process of responding to recent media requests, we have discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are taking the case to the authorities,” the law firm said Wednesday.
Citing two anonymous sources, the LA Times assures that the theft involves “millions of dollars” used by Mizuhara to bet through the network of the investigated broker Mathew Bowyer.
According to ESPN, there are questions surrounding “at least $4.5 million in transfers sent from Ohtani’s bank account” to a partner of this bookmaker.
This television explains that multiple sources, including the same interpreter, assured them that Ohtani does not bet and that the funds covered the translator’s losses.
Major League Baseball guidelines prohibit “any player, umpire, or representative or employee of a club or the League” from betting on baseball or engaging in illegal betting on any other sport.
Although most states in the United States have legalized sports betting, it is still illegal in California.
Two-time MLB MVP, Ohtani signed with the Dodgers in December for a record contract of $700 million over the next ten years.
Mizuhara, born in Japan but raised in Southern California, became his personal interpreter when he signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017 and followed him to the Dodgers, having become a close teammate of the player.
© Agence France-Presse
2024-03-21 04:04:19
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