By Andy McCullough, Mike Vorkunov and Sam Blum
Three weeks after emerging as the central figure in a gambling scandal swirling around Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was accused of stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts, according to an affidavit filed by federal authorities on Thursday.
The complaint accuses Mizuhara, 39, of bank fraud, a crime that includes a maximum sentence of 30 years. Mizuhara is expected to appear in federal court, likely on Friday, for a bond hearing. He will not enter a plea, and an arraignment hearing is expected to be scheduled. The investigation unearthed evidence of the “massive theft” that Ohtani’s attorneys alleged after the Dodgers fired Mizuhara on March 20.
In the 37-page complaint, the government painted Mizuhara as a compulsive gambler who kept Ohtani in the dark during a three-year span in which he made approximately 19,000 bets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The investigation determined Mizuhara lost roughly $40 million to gambling. The money he used to pay those debts came from Ohtani’s bank account, which Mizuhara helped set up in 2018.
The scandal led to scrutiny of Ohtani’s character and culpability after the two-way star told reporters on March 25 he was completely unaware of Mizuhara’s gambling problems and alleged theft. Mizuhara had been his interpreter and closest companion for six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels and this past spring with the Dodgers. The duo drove to work together each day and rarely left each other’s sight at the ballpark. Ohtani declined to reveal how Mizuhara could have stolen the money. The federal investigation offered some answers.
“Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said during a news conference in Los Angeles.
The investigation unearthed no evidence that Ohtani teamed with Mizuhara to place bets. In reviewing text conversations between the two men, the government found no discussion of gambling and no authorization for Mizuhara to transfer money from Ohtani’s accounts. In a statement on Thursday, a spokesperson for Major League Baseball indicated the sport’s own investigation will be paused “until resolution of the criminal proceeding to determine whether further investigation is warranted.”
In the fall of 2021, after Mizuhara became acquainted with an alleged illegal bookmaker named Mathew Bowyer, the interpreter began to lose money gambling. His bets “do not appear to have been made on baseball,” Estrada said.
To pay the debts, the complaint alleged that Mizuhara began impersonating Ohtani as he talked to bank employees to gain access to his account. Once Mizuhara succeeded, he wired at least $15 million between Feb. 2022 and October 2023 to an account associated with alleged illegal bookmakers. Those bank calls were recorded and eventually shared with federal investigators.
Mizuhara used the money “largely to finance his voracious appetite for illegal sports gambling,” Estrada said.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Mizuhara was negotiating with federal authorities to plead guilty. The extent of Mizuhara’s proposed plea deal was not yet known.
Mizuhara, prosecutors allege, was vigilant in shielding any knowledge of his problems from Ohtani and denied access to his bank account to anyone else. He did not let Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, or any of Ohtani’s financial advisors monitor the bank account, according to interviews conducted by federal agents. The bank account contained the money Ohtani earned from the Los Angeles Angels; his earnings through endorsements and other endeavors were distributed elsewhere.
Federal agents were led to Mizuhara as a result of a previous investigation by the IRS and Department of Homeland Security that was looking into illegal bookmaking in Southern California and how it laundered money through Las Vegas casinos, according to an affidavit filed by IRS special agent Chris Seymour. That investigation has already led to charges or convictions for 12 people, in addition to a money service company. The government has also come to non-prosecution agreements with two Vegas casinos.
Mizuhara’s connection to the gambling world came to light on March 20. In separate interviews with ESPN, Mizuhara told the news outlet that Ohtani paid an estimated $4.5 million to help him with gambling debt. Mizuhara subsequently recanted that story and indicated Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling problem. The Dodgers fired Mizuhara after Ohtani learned Mizuhara had told team officials that Ohtani paid the debts.
Homeland Security agents stopped Mizuhara at Los Angeles International Airport on March 21 after he got off a flight from South Korea. Mizuhara surrendered his phone. By then, Mizuhara’s world was already unraveling, according to text messages and interviews documented in the complaint.
Mizuhara with the Angels. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
At one point, Mizuhara sent a message to one of three unidentified bookmakers referenced in the complaint asking if the bookmaker had seen the stories about his dismissal.
“Yes, but that’s all bulls—-hit,” the bookmaker wrote. “Obviously you didn’t steal from him. I understand it’s a cover job I totally get it.”
“Technically I did steal from him,” Mizuhara replied. “It’s all over for me.”
During interviews on April 2 and 3, on days when the Dodgers played the San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, Ohtani said he had first learned about Mizuhara’s gambling problems in South Korea, after Mizuhara addressed the Dodgers in the postgame locker room following their game in Seoul.
Balelo told investigators that he didn’t talk to Ohtani directly, either in person or text, and only through Mizuhara. When Balelo asked Mizuhara about the bank account, the agent told investigators that Mizuhara told him it was private and Ohtani didn’t want him monitoring it. Ohtani, however, told federal investigators that he had not given control of his accounts to Mizuhara.
Their relationship had lasted more than a decade. They met when Ohtani was still a rising star for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan, where Mizuhara acted an interpreter for English-speaking players. When Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2017, Mizuhara reached out to him and asked about working as his interpreter, Ohtani told investigators.
The Angels employed Mizuhara as Ohtani’s interpreter while Ohtani employed him as his assistant and to handle some day-to-day responsibilities. Mizuhara was with Ohtani when he opened his bank account in 2018 in Arizona and translated for him when he gave personal details to set it up.
But federal prosecutors allege that Mizuhara kept Ohtani insulated from his gambling exploits and in the dark about the use of his account. At one point, according to the complaint, an unidentified bookmaker seemed to imply he would go straight to Ohtani himself to sort out a growing dispute over unmade payments. In Nov. 2023, as Mizuhara kept running up losses with the bookmaker and asked for ever-increasing limits of debt, he received a text from the bookmaker, according to the federal complaint, which refers to Ohtani as “Victim A.”
“Hey Ippie [sic], it’s 2 o’clock on Friday,” the bookmaker wrote. “I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Victim A] walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding? Please call me back immediately.”
Mizuhara responded two days later to ask if he could negotiate a number he could repay. He told the bookie that he had lost too much money on cryptocurrency and through his sports betting, though he added, “of course I know it’s my fault.”
Mizuhara, the complaint said, made an average of 25 bets a day between Dec. 2021 through January 2024. His bets ranged from $10 to $160,000, and at an average of $12,800. Those records showed that Mizuhara’s account was credited with total winning bets equal to $142,256,769.74 and his losses to be $182,935,206.68. Any winnings went to Mizuhara’s personal account, rather than Ohtani’s.
“Our investigation has revealed that due to the position of trust he occupied with Mr. Ohtani, Mr. Mizuhara had unique access to Mr. Ohtani’s finances,” Estrada said. “Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to take advantage of Mr. Ohtani. Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account to the tune of over $16 million. And Mr. Mizuhara did all this to feed his insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting.”
Required reading
(Photo: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
