Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is looking to recover a collection of baseball cards he says former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara fraudulently purchased with money stolen from Ohtani’s bank account.
Documents filed Tuesday allege the signed cards, purchased from online resellers and worth about $325,000, were in Mizuhara’s ‘unauthorized and wrongful possession’ as a result of the nearly $17 million he pleaded guilty in June to stealing from the three-time MVP.
Mizuhara was charged with illegally accessing Ohtani’s bank accounts in an effort to cover his own gambling bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
Ohtani asked a federal judge in California for a hearing to regain ownership of the collectible cards, which Mizuhara allegedly purchased between January and March 2024 with the intent to resell them.
The Dodgers star also asked for the return of “a quantity of personally signed collectible baseball cards” with his image that were in Mizuhara’s possession when they were seized by authorities.
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Mizuhara pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, crimes that carry a potential sentence of more than 30 years in federal prison.
