In March last year, the Seoul Series in the Major League received tremendous attention as a regular season game of the Major League that will be held in Korea for the first time. The San Diego Padres' Kim Ha-sung's return to gold and Shohei Ohtani's debut game at the LA Dodgers, which signed a 10-year, 700 million-dollar contract, were held simultaneously.
However, there was an incident that caused a huge stir outside of the game. It was because of a shocking embezzlement case involving Mizuhara Itpay, who was called a "soul mate" as well as an interpreter beside Ohtani. He was notified that the Dodgers had fired him during the Seoul Series. He gambled illegally by stealing money from Ohtani's account.안전놀이터
While the U.S. federal government was investigating Matthew Boyer, a bookmaker who runs an illegal sports gambling company, Ohtani's name was mentioned, and it was revealed that Mizuhara actually owed a large amount of money for illegal gambling.
"ESPN," which was tracking the fact at the time, had an exclusive interview with Mizuhara, who said, "I explained my situation to Otani. Ohtani wasn't in a good mood, but he said he would help me to prevent this problem from happening again. I said I had to make a remittance to pay off my debt, and Ohtani didn't even ask me if it was illegal or not."
However, Ohtani's lawyers immediately protested and refuted that Ohtani was a victim of massive theft. Mizuhara also reversed his claim, saying, "Ohtani was not aware of his gambling debts and did not transfer his money." Mizuhara said Ohtani was never involved in gambling, drawing a line on the rumor that Ohtani was involved in illegal gambling.
In the end, Mizuhara was indicted by federal prosecutors in April. Initially, it was known that $4.5 million (KRW 6.4 billion) was illegally transferred from Ohtani's bank account, but according to the federal prosecutors' indictment, Mizuhara illegally stole as much as $17 million (KRW 24.3 billion) from Ohtani's account. I thought it was a petty thief, but it was a petty thief.
In addition, between December 2021 and January 2024, Mizuhara fell into about 19,000 illegal online gambling cases, resulting in a hefty loss of $40.7 million (W58.3 billion).
On the 24th (Korea Standard Time), the U.S. federal prosecution demanded Mizuhara be sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and three years of probation. However, Mizuhara said, "I owe 40.7 million dollars due to serious gambling addiction and deeply regret my crime," and demanded that the sentence be commuted to one and a half ㅑ months.
On the 25th, North American sports media "The Athletic" exclusively released a recording of evidence from the prosecution that Mizuhara requested the bank to transfer money through security procedures by linking Ohtani's online account notification with his email and phone number.
In the transcript, Mizuhara calmly impersonated herself as " Shohei Otani" to a bank counselor. Then, a six-digit security number was sent to Mizuhara's personal phone for the authentication process for the Otani account. This is proof that Mizuhara has set all notifications to be directed to him while managing Otani's account.
When a bank counselor asked, "We are closely monitoring online transactions because fraudulent attempts are increasing recently. What is the purpose of the transaction?" Mizuhara replied, "It's because of the car loan." Later, regarding his relationship with the recipient, he said, "He's my friend." The recipient was Mizuhara himself. When asked if he had met several times, he answered calmly that he had plans to send money in the future. In this way, he stole Ohtani's money.
Referring to his childhood, Mizuhara emphasizes the injustice of the sentence for four years and nine months. The media said, 'Mizuhara argues that she and her wife are currently unable to work and are dependent on their parents. He once said he tried to work as a delivery man, but he was fired because the photo was released.'
Mizuhara said, "My mother was working as a nurse, and she was working with many Asians, so she had to quit her job. My wife and I were constantly being followed and bullied. I had to be careful when I went out," and added, "Of course, I know that everything is because of my crimes, but it's never easy. I never thought I would bring such a shame to my family," and confessed the current situation to a psychologist.
Mizuhara, who began her gambling addiction when she was 18, explained, "I felt like I was moving habitually. I always vowed myself to get everything back, but when it became clear that it wasn't possible, I just seemed to close my mind. But I nevertheless couldn't stop gambling. If I didn't gamble, I became anxious and nervous, and I felt pressure to keep on being on the gambling board."
However, the prosecution said, "Even if the defendant (Mizuhara) is addicted to gambling, it is not possible to explain all of the defendant's actions. This is because the defendant used the stolen money even for personal expenses that were not related to gambling. Ultimately, the defendant's criminal motive was not gambling addiction, but greed," he said. "The long-term theft of funds from Otani and countless lies he told to his agents and financial advisors to conceal the fact were acts of reassessment that the defendant was hired to help Otani." As such, Otani had a relationship with Mizuhara more than an interpreter while entrusting her with many tasks. He thought he was a friend and mentor.
However, as well as paying off gambling debts, he also took examples of purchasing a baseball card worth $325,000 (470 million won) with Ohtani's credit card, depositing a $60,000 check issued by Ohtani for dental treatment into his personal account, and paying with Ohtani's debit card.
Mizuhara was supposed to receive an annual salary of $500,000 (W700 million) from the Dodgers, but Mizuhara claimed that the amount was "severely undervalued." He said, "He said he was on standby 24 hours a day and sacrificed his sleep by working late into the night.