Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani‘s former interpreter, has been sentenced to five years in prison for siphoning millions of dollars from the superstar baseball player, NBC News reported on Thursday.
Mizuhara pled guilty last year on fraud charges in one of the biggest gambling scandals in sports history, stealing millions from Ohtani to cover losses from a large gambling debt he’d amassed. Along with the five-year sentence, Mizuhara has also been ordered to pay $18 million in restitution, per NBC. Mizuhara placed as many as 19,000 wagers over a three year period from 2021 to 2024, according to the official court complaint.
“I want to say I am truly sorry to Mr. Ohtani for what I have done,” Mizuhara said in court…
