The court also ordered Mizuhara to pay Ohtani $17 million in restitution, the applicable amount listed when Mizuhara struck a May 2024 plea deal with prosecutors, and a fine of more than $1 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani, has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for a fraud and gambling scheme. He was ordered to pay nearly $17m (£13.

Instead, Mizuhara exploited the language barrier to isolate Ohtani and profit from his proximity to the two-way player ’s power. Mizuhara pleaded guilty last year to federal charges after he was accused of siphoning money out of Ohtani's bank account to cover sports gambling bets and debts in a case that has stoked an international media frenzy.

The former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani was sentenced Thursday to four years and nine months in prison and three years’ supervised release for bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player’s bank account.