U.S. federal prosecutors said Thursday that Shohei Ohtani had been the victim of a "fraud on a massive scale,” releasing a detailed complaint that claimed Ippei Mizuhara, the baseball star’s former interpreter, exploited his access and the fact that Ohtani did not speak English to steal $16 million from him to feed his gambling addiction.
The account provided by authorities largely confirms what Ohtani told the public in late March, shortly after reports first surfaced that $4.5 million had been transferred from Ohtani’s account to Mizuhara. At that time, Ohtani explained how he believed Mizuhara had stolen money from him and that he did not bet on sports himself.
And authorities acknowledged that the speed at which the investigation proceeded — the allegations against Mizuhara surfaced only three weeks ago — was partly because of the desire to avoid having American sports tarred by the implication of a possible gambling scandal involving one of its biggest stars.