Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for , was sentenced to 57 months in prison today. Per , there will be three years of supervised release and Mizuhara has been ordered Chris Paul Jersey to pay Ohtani nearly $17MM in restitution. In March of 2024, that millions of dollars had been wired from an account in Ohtanis name to an illegal gambling ring. Mizuhara initially said that Ohtani agreed to the transfer in order to help him with gambling debts. Ohtanis attorneys provided an alternative narrative, stating that the player had been the victim of a ma sive theft and Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers. MLB into the matter shortly thereafter. Ohtani then to the media, interpreted by Dodgers employee Will Ireton, who had replaced Mizuhara. Ohtani stated that he had never bet on baseball, nor any other sport. He also claimed to have had no knowledge of Mizuharas behavior until just before the recent reporting. Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies, Ohtani said. In April of 2024, Mizuhara was , alleged to have transferred more than $16MM from Ohtanis account to the betting ring. Prosecutors identified Ohtani as a victim in the case. Mizuhara allegedly set up the account with Ohtani in 2018, when the player was first making the move from Japan to North America. The two had met while both were employed by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Ohtanis Nippon Profe sional Baseball club. Per the allegations, Mizuhara repeatedly contacted the bank and pretended to be Ohtani in order to acce s the account and get money to fuel his gambling habit. Ohtanis agent repeatedly asked about the account but Mizuhara told him it was private and that Ohtani didnt want anyone else to monitor it. Ohtani, meanwhile, believed that his accountants and financial advisors were monitoring the accounts. Since Mizuhara handled all the language interpretation between Ohtani and his team, each side remained unaware of what was going on. Investigators had also seen text me sages from Mizuhara admitting to the theft. Technically I did steal from him, one me sage read. Its all over for me. Investigators viewed the text me sages between Ohtani and Mizuhara, finding no evidence that the player had made any bets on sports, nor that he knew anything about Mizuharas betting. Though Mizuhara made hundreds of bets on sports, there is no evidence of him betting on baseball. In May of 2024, Mizuhara , including bank fraud and subscribing to a false tax return. It was suggested at that time that Mizuhara would likely be deported to Japan once the legal proce s had played out. Major League Baseball , citing the thorough investigation which had pointed to the player being a victim, with no charges against him. Per , Mizuharas attorneys expect him to be deported, as Mizuhara is a permanent resident of the United States but not a citizen. Charles Barkley Jersey