Adrianna McKinney '26
“He took advantage of his position of trust to take advantage of Mr. Ohtani and fuel his dangerous gambling habit.” These statements were said by U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada referring to Ippei Mizuhara, the Japanese interpreter of the famous Dodgers’ pitcher and designated hitter, Shohei Ohtani.
The partnership of Ippei Mizuhara and Shohei Ohtani roughly started seven years ago when Ohtani was still playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters of NPB, where he had met Mizuhara, and from that day, the two were rarely seen apart. If Ohtani was playing then Mizuhara was close behind him.
In fact, in 2022 when there was a baseball lockdown, and the staff couldn’t interact with the players Mizuhara decided to quit so he could still be able to work with Ohtani.
Seven years ago, when the two first met, Mizuhara had been Ohtani’s interpreter for the Dodgers. During that time, the interpreter had set up a bank account in Arizona for the baseball player, according to Estrada, that same bank account would be later used to wire transfers for Mizuhara’s illegal gambling.
Ippei Mizuhara was found pleading guilty for stealing almost 17 million dollars from the baseball player’s bank account trying to pay his gambling debt. Earlier in April, Mizuhara was found guilty of bank fraud but was then released with a $25,000 bond. According to Estrada, Mizuhara had an “insatiable appetite” for illegal sports betting.
Mizuhara would be found impersonating Ohtani on tape-recorded phone calls to the bank, trying to “convince the bank to approve wire transfers of large amounts of money to the bookmakers.”
Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation special agent, Chris Seymour, found out that this gambling operation had started in 2021. However, the operation might have started earlier since the bank records show that the contact information of the account was changed to Mizuhara in 2018.
From December 2021 to January 2024, there were 19,000 illegal wages made. Ranging from $10 to $160,000. During that period Mizuhara is shown to have a 40.7 million deficit. The Dodgers had fired Mizuhara, once they heard about the criminal investigation that was surrounding the interpreter.
After hearing of such news, Ohtani stated multiple times that he had no idea of Mizuhara’s illegal gambling. Stating how he “never bet on baseball or any other sport, or never have asked for somebody on my behalf” and that Mizuhara “has been stealing from my account and has told lies.”
The wired transfers from Mizuhara had been traced to an illegal bookmaking operation allegedly led by Orange County resident Matthew Bowyer who is currently still under investigation. According to the prosecution of the ongoing case, Mizuhara not only used Ohtani’s money for illegal gambling but also used it for other purchases such as his dental work and baseball cards with a total of $385,000.
The additional charge of the false tax return was found to be from 2022. As Mizuhara had falsified his tax income by only claiming $136,865, in actuality, the total amount was more than $4.1 million which comes from his bank fraud according to the prosecution. Mizuhara had agreed to the plea agreement of $1.1 million in taxes.
The once-beloved interpreter of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ippei Mizuhara, has agreed to plead guilty to two federal charges, one count of false tax return and the second one being bank fraud as he stole from Shohei Ohtani’s bank account. These two charges could result in up to more than 30 years of imprisonment.
However, since this is a first-time offense and he has pleaded guilty he’ll probably only receive 7 to 9 years imprisonment, forfeiting all assets derived from the illegal activity, and paying restitution to Ohtani and the IRS.
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