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.
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Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Image: Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Image: Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
Image: People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
Image: A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
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“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
Image: A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
Image: A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Protesters refuse to take Donald Trump’s policies lying down
It was built to honour George Washington, a founding father of the United States.
And in the shadow of the 555ft Washington Monument, protestors were refusing to accept Donald Trump’s policies lying down.
“Stand tall,” they chanted, again and again.
“In every city, stand tall. In every state, stand tall. In truth, stand tall. In justice, stand tall.”
Those words, shouted by thousands on the city’s iconic mall, were reinforced by the words on their placards and t-shirts.
A minister, wearing a t-shirt with ‘Troublesome Priest’ printed on it, told me she found what was happening in the US government “appalling and immortal”.
One man said he had won the long-distance award, having travelled 2,750 miles from Hawaii for the protest.
“I finally reached a breaking point,” he added. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Another woman said: “We have to speak up, we have to act, we have to do something, because this is not America.”
I asked her what she would say to those who argue the people did speak when they elected Donald Trump as president.
She replied: “Some people have spoken and then some people have not and those of us that have not, we need to speak now.”
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Image: People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Image: Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.