RAFU STAFF AND WIRE SERVICE REPORTS
Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, surrendered to federal authorities and appeared in a downtown courtroom Friday — one day after being charged with federal bank fraud for allegedly bilking more than $16 million from the Dodger slugger’s bank account to cover what prosecutors called the interpreter’s “insatiable appetite” for illegal sports betting.
Ippei Mizuhara was led into a federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles Friday afternoon, wearing a suit but shackled at the ankles. U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria A. Audero agreed in court to allow the shackles to be removed.
Audero approved Mizuhara’s release on an unsecured $25,000 appearance bond, and scheduled arraignment for May 9. Audero noted that Mizuhara has no prior criminal record and has ties to the area.
The judge ordered Mizuhara not to travel out of the area and not to have any contact with Ohtani. He was also barred from engaging in any form of gambling or associating with bookmakers of any kind.
Audero also ordered Mizuhara to attend treatment sessions for gambling addiction, something his attorney, Michael Freedman, said he “fully intends’’ to do.
The 39-year-old could face up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted of the felony charge. According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, from November 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara wired more than $16 million in unauthorized transfers from a checking account belong to an MLB player identified in the affidavit as “Victim A,” who in fact is Ohtani. The transfers from this bank account allegedly were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Mizuhara, who served as Ohtani’s translator and de facto manager.
In a Thursday press conference, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Mizuhara had unique access to Ohtani and his personal affairs due to his relationship with the slugger, for whom he worked as an interpreter since Ohtani joined the Angels organization six years ago. In that capacity, he helped Ohtani set up his bank accounts, so he knew how to access them without Ohtani’s knowledge, Estrada said.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announces charges against Ippei Mizuhara, the former longtime interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, during a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Estrada stressed that Ohtani “is considered a victim in this case.”
“There is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Ohtani authorized the over $16 million in transfers from his account to the bookmakers,” Estrada said, adding that Ohtani has been fully cooperating with investigators.
“Our investigation has revealed that due to the position of trust (Mizuhara) occupied with Mr. Ohtani, Mr. Mizuhara had unique access to Mr. Ohtani’s finances,” Estrada said, adding that he “used and abused that trust to take advantage of Mr. Ohtani.”
Ohtani came to the U.S. from Japan to play for the Angels in the 2018 season. As a close confidant, Mizuhara helped Ohtani open an account at a bank in Arizona that year as the player did not speak English, the department said. Ohtani’s salary from playing professional baseball was deposited into the account.
The affidavit states that Mizuhara began gambling with an illegal sports bookie in September 2021 and, several months later, started losing substantial sums of money. During this time, the contact information on Ohtani’s account allegedly was changed to link the account to Mizuhara’s phone number and to an anonymous email address connected to Mizuhara.
Mizuhara allegedly told Ohtani’s accountant and others that the ball player had denied them access.
According to Estrada, Mizuhara also allegedly lied to bank officials, and he was captured on tape-recorded calls impersonating Ohtani to “convince the bank to approve large wire transfers of large amounts of money to the bookmakers.”
Estrada said Mizuhara acted “to plunder” Ohtani’s bank account to satisfy his “insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting,” and he “committed fraud on a massive scale.”
Mizuhara initially said last month that Ohtani agreed to provide the money to cover the interpreter’s gambling debts, but he later retracted that statement.
At a news conference last month, Ohtani denied any knowledge of Mizuhara’s activities. He also vehemently denied that he was involved in any gambling activity.
“I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to bet on my behalf,” he insisted.
Ohtani said Mizuhara “has been stealing money from my account and has told lies.” Ohtani’s attorneys issued a statement last month saying he had been the victim of a “massive theft.”
Ohtani, who moved to the Dodgers in December on a 10-year, $700 million contract, spoke to law enforcement last week and denied authorizing Mizuhara’s wire transfers, the department said, adding that he gave investigators access to his cellphone.
Estrada said none of the illegal bets allegedly placed by Mizuhara were on baseball games.
According to various reports, wire transfers were made from Ohtani’s bank account to an illegal bookmaking operation allegedly run Orange County resident Mathew Bowyer, who is under federal investigation.
Bowyer’s San Juan Capistrano home was searched by federal agents last year.
The Associated Press cited federal officials who explained that Mizuhara made around 19,000 wagers – an average of nearly 25 per day – between December 2021 and January 2024. The wagers averaged more than $12,000 each.
While his winnings were north of $142 million, that was nearly $41 million short of his losses, which totaled around $183 million. The bookmaker even threatened to reach out directly to Ohtani about the debt when his messages to Mizuhara went unanswered.
From January to March 2024, Mizuhara also allegedly used the same bank account to purchase via eBay and Whatnot approximately 1,000 baseball cards – at a cost of approximately $325,000 – and had them mailed to Mizuhara under an alias, “Jay Min,” and mailed to the Dodgers clubhouse for Ohtani.
During an ESPN interview last month that was later disavowed by an Ohtani spokesman, Mizuhara said he asked Ohtani last year to pay off his gambling debts, and Ohtani, while unhappy about it, agreed to do so. Mizuhara told the network that Ohtani had no involvement in any betting, and the interpreter insisted that he didn’t realize his betting activities were illegal in California.
The next day, however, Mizuhara recanted his comments, telling ESPN that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and denying that Ohtani had transferred any money to the bookmaking operation.
At his subsequent news conference at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani – speaking through a new interpreter – said he knew nothing of Mizuhara’s gambling addiction or the debts until Mizuhara spoke to the team last month in the clubhouse while the Dodgers were playing their season opener in Korea. Ohtani noted that since Mizuhara was speaking English during the meeting, he didn’t have a translator, “but I kind of understood what was going on and started to realize something was amiss.”
“Up until that team meeting, I didn’t know that Ippei had a gambling addiction and was in debt,” Ohtani said. But he stressed, “I never agreed to pay off the debt or make payments to the bookmaker.”
Ohtani said he spoke privately to Mizuhara at the team hotel that night.
“And it was revealed to me during that meeting that Ippei admitted that he was sending money using my account to a bookmaker,” he said.
He said he immediately informed his representatives and the team. The Dodgers quickly fired Mizuhara while he was with the team in Seoul.
“To summarize how I’m feeling right now, I’m just beyond shocked,” Ohtani said. “It’s really hard to verbalize how I’m feeling at this point.”
He again stressed, “I do want to make it clear that I never bet on sports or willfully sent money to the bookmaker.”
Major League Baseball said in a statement posted on its official website, “Given the information disclosed today, and other information we have already collected, we will wait until resolution of the criminal proceeding to determine whether further investigation is warranted.”
The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security are involved in the investigation of the fraud allegation.
Mizuhara has made no public comments about the allegation since it emerged last month while the team was in Seoul.