The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s Japanese interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, amid accusations from Ohtani’s lawyers that Mizuhara engaged in “massive theft,” The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Ohtani’s lawyers believe Mizuhara placed bets using millions of dollars in Ohtani’s funds with an allegedly illegal bookmaker. The lawyers learned that Ohtani had come up in the federal investigation into Mathew Bowyer, a Southern California bookmaker, and then looked into Mizuhara’s actions.
“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” Berk Brettler LLP, a law firm in West Hollywood, told The Los Angeles Times in a statement.
