The bookie who ran the illegal gambling business used by Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara said he thinks the Dodgers star knew more about the operation than he has publicly let on.
In a round of interviews before his Friday sentencing, Mathew Bowyer said, “I do believe that Shohei Ohtani was aware of Ippei’s either gambling or borrowing money or using some of his funds.”
“To what extent and how long, that part is really up in the air. But my belief is that [Mizuhara] did get approval or ask for permission or even had [Ohtani] send money initially,” he said on an episode of A Numbers Game.
Bowyer received a sentence Friday of 12 months and one day, followed by two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1.6 million to the IRS, which his lawyer said he already paid, and attend gambling addiction counseling. “The bottom line is, I am remorseful. I have made many poor choices in my life,” Bowyer said in court before his sentence was announced.
Bowyer pleaded guilty to three charges last year and faced up to 15 months in prison for money laundering, running an illegal gambling business, and filing a false tax return. Federal prosecutors had said Bowyer would face a shorter sentence for his help in their investigation. Mizuhara was one of more than 700 bettors using his business over a period of at least five years, prosecutors said.
Mizuhara pleaded guilty last year to two charges, admitting he stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to participate in Bowyer’s gambling operation. He was sentenced in February to 57 months in federal prison, where he finally reported in June. It is expected that Mizuhara, a permanent resident of the U.S. originally from Japan, will be deported upon release from prison.
Bowyer has been clear that he doesn’t think the Dodgers ace was placing bets himself. He told the New York Post in February: “It was very obvious after some time [Mizuhara] was stealing money and not asking Ohtani for permission.”
But Bowyer has also been skeptical of Ohtani’s narrative. His camp has held that the pitcher had no idea Mizuhara was stealing money from him for gambling. Federal authorities have also repeatedly said Ohtani is a victim in this case. A representative for Ohtani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“If this is true that Ippei was the guy, and gambling all by himself the whole time, I don’t know how you could hide that from your best friend, someone you were with almost 24 hours a day? They were inseparable,” Bowyer told USA Today in April. “And if you really could hide that from his best friend for so long – then how could Shohei Ohtani not see $17 million gone from his account?”
