safetotosite1

Major League Baseball (MLB) superstar Shohei Ohtani (30-LA Dodgers) may be cleared of charges related to the gambling controversy surrounding him. Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani's former interpreter, who has been accused of illegal gambling and theft, recently admitted all charges to U.S. law enforcement and is reportedly negotiating a plea deal. Since a plea bargain is only possible when a person has admitted to virtually all of the charges against them, it appears that Ohtani's earlier testimony that "I had no knowledge of Mizuhara's gambling and that he stole my money" is becoming a reality.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on Nov. 11 that "according to three people briefed on the case involving Otani and his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, for illegal gambling and money transfers, Mizuhara is negotiating a pretrial plea deal in which he would admit to all crimes against him, including theft, in exchange for a reduced sentence."

Mizuhara's plea deal is effectively an admission that he committed all of the crimes in the case, thus confirming the truth of Otani's earlier statement at the press conference that "I had no knowledge of Mizuhara's gambling and that Mizuhara stole my money," according to the NYT.

The controversy erupted on March 21, during the Korea Series, a series of MLB games played by the Los Angeles Dodgers in South Korea last month. At the time, ESPN reported that Mizuhara had been fired by the Dodgers for stealing money from Ohtani's account, and that Mizuhara had initially told ESPN that "I gambled and got into a huge debt, and that Ohtani sent money to an illegal gambling operator in the process of paying off my debt first," but after Ohtani's camp claimed that "Mizuhara lied," Mizuhara later changed his statement to "I retract everything I said earlier, and that Ohtani knows nothing about my gambling and paying off my gambling debt."

As the story unfolded, the Dodgers organization realized that Mizuhara had stolen money from Otani and lied to him, and fired him from the team in the early morning hours of the 21st.

"Mizuhara lied to Ohtani and secretly stole money from Ohtani's account and transferred it to a bookie," Ohtani and the Dodgers claimed. Ohtani's position was that he had no knowledge of Mizuhara's illegal gambling, let alone that Mizuhara had secretly taken money from Ohtani's account and sent it to an illegal bookie.

However, some observers said, "Ohtani's claim is not plausible," and suggested that Ohtani was involved in illegal gambling, or that he paid off Mizuhara's gambling debts and then changed his story after realizing the problem during the media interview. Otani's defense was that he "never engaged in or was involved in illegal gambling."

In response, the New York Times reported that "prosecutors investigating the case have evidence that Mizuhara stole more than $4.5 million from Otani's account," citing three people familiar with the matter. According to the article, law enforcement has evidence that Mizuhara was able to manipulate the settings on Ohtani's bank account so that transactions such as wire transfers would not trigger any alerts or notifications to Ohtani. This makes it more likely that Ohtani's claim that Mizuhara "secretly accessed his account and stole money" is true.

Mizuhara, who was fired during the Korean series, has not been seen since, leading some to wonder if he is still hiding in South Korea. But according to sources the NYT spoke to, Mizuhara traveled to California from South Korea after being fired by the Dodgers and was detained by law enforcement officers at the airport upon arrival. "It is unclear what Mizuhara said, but he was not immediately arrested by law enforcement," the NYT said.

Mizuhara has now hired lawyer Michael Friedman, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who is known for his expertise in white-collar crime defense, to negotiate a plea deal with law enforcement. "In the past few weeks, law enforcement officials working on the case have interviewed Otani several times to learn more about his relationship with Mizuhara," the NYT reported.

"The report will effectively end the controversy surrounding Ohtani's illegal gambling, which has surrounded him for weeks," observers say. Now that law enforcement has the evidence, and Mizuhara has admitted that he made all of the allegations, it is much less likely that Ohtani gambled illegally or was involved in illegal money transfers.

www.sportstoto365.com/