Japanese baseballer Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter has been accused of stealing more than $16m (£12.75m) from the Los Angeles Dodgers star to cover gambling debts.
Ippei Mizuhara is charged with bank fraud after allegedly stealing the funds from an account of Ohtani that he helped to set up.
According to the US Attorney for the Central District of California, E. Martin Estrada, those funds were sent to an illegal sports gambling operation.
The money was allegedly stolen over a two-year period from an account where Ohtani – who signed a record $700m contract to join the LA Dodgers this season – received his salary.
Investigators have not found any evidence to suggest Mizuhara placed bets on baseball games, according to Mr Estrada.
Ohtani, who is considered a victim and is not accused of any wrongdoing, said last month he felt “betrayed” by Mizuhara, who was a close friend.
Image: Shohei Ohtani. Pic: Reuters
“I’m very saddened and shocked that someone who I trusted has done this,” Ohtani said at a news conference in Los Angeles on 25 March.
“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.”
Mizuhara began gambling with an illegal sports book and losing substantial sums in late 2021, according to a legal document on Thursday.
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He repeatedly impersonated Ohtani to “trick and deceive” bank employees into authorising wire transfers, the papers state.
They add that on or about 20 March, while messaging a bookmaker about reports he had stolen from Ohtani, Mizuhara wrote “technically I did steal from him, it’s all over for me”.
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Mizuhara met Ohtani, who did not know English, in 2013 and helped him to set up a bank account shortly after he arrived in the US in 2018, Mr Estrada said.
He added Mizuhara had an “insatiable appetite for illegal sports gambling” and accessed Ohtani’s bank account online.
An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.
Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.
The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.
“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.
Image: The view from the cockpit of the fighter jet. Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
Image: Pic: Italian air force/Reuters
The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.
“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.
“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”
Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.
Image: The flight on the ground in Rome. Pic: AP
‘What’s going on here?’
Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.
Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.
“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”
Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.
More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.
American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.
At least three people have died and two are injured after a boat capsized off the coast of New York, police in the US have said.
The vessel sent out a distress call from the Ambrose Channel just after noon on Sunday.
One of the injured is in a critical condition and another is described as stable, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.
Five people were rescued from the water after the New York Fire Department (FDNY), the New York Police Department (NYPD), and the US Coast Guard responded to the call for help.
The boat capsized in an area known as Breezy Point, NBC said, quoting the NYPD.
Breezy Point is “a neighborhood at the tip of Queens’ Rockaway peninsula,” according to NBC New York, citing the Coast Guard.
Six people were said to be in the water after the boat capsized, the FDNY said.
Two of the victims were airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and three were taken to Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, where its emergency medical crews were waiting to treat them, the agency said.
Four of the five people rescued from the sinking boat were unresponsive, and some of them were given CPR, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said on Sunday night it is still searching for one person missing in the water roughly five miles (8km) southeast of Breezy Point.
Nothing else is known about the victims or what kind of boat was involved.
Police said it is not clear what happened but it did not appear the vessel collided with another boat. The Coast Guard said it was notified of a “vessel taking on water” and described the boat as “sinking”.
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