Baseball star Ohtani’s ex-interpreter agrees to plead guilty to bank fraud | U.S. & World [Video]

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Japanese baseball great Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges he illegally transferred nearly $17 million from the athlete’s bank account, without Ohtani’s knowledge, to pay off his own gambling debts.

The plea agreement reached between federal prosecutors and Ohtani’s onetime confidante, Ippei Mizuhara, 39, was announced on Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where the interpreter was charged in a criminal complaint last month.

A 33-page record of the deal, in which Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

He is expected to formally enter the plea at an arraignment set for May 14, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A federal bank fraud conviction carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 …