Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison in federal court Thursday.
Mizuhara, 40, pleaded guilty last year to committing bank fraud and filing a false tax return after a scandal that rocked the baseball world last spring. He admitted that he stole close to $17 million from the baseball star starting in 2021 to fund an illegal gambling habit.
In the two-plus years Mizuhara spent betting with an illegal bookmaker, he racked up $180 million in losses, going over $40 million in debt to the bookie, according to prosecutors.
Mizuhara has been ordered to pay back the nearly $17 million he stole from Ohtani, and undergo three years of supervised release. That part of the sentence will likely be rendered moot by Mizuhara being deported to Japan upon his release, something his lawyers called a “virtual certainty” in his plea agreement. Judge Judge Holcomb said Mizuhara’s ability to repay Ohtani “remains to be seen.”
Joe McNally, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said Thursday Mizuhara pretended to be Ohtani to try to acquire money in phone calls 24 different times. “Mr. Ohtani is a victim in this case,” McNally repeated several times.
“Mr. Mizuhara took advantage of Mr. Ohtani’s vulnerability as a [non-English speaking] person trying to navigate the celebrity baseball world in the United States,” McNally said.
In January, Mizuhara and members of his family filed letters to the judge in support of his character, saying he was “severely underpaid” while “on call 24/7” for Ohtani and asking for an 18-month sentence. Mizuhara’s attorneys claimed he had a “longstanding” and “severe gambling addiction” that began when he was 18 years old and intensified while working for Ohtani. They said he went to casinos four or five times per week, started racking up debts “virtually from the start” that his parents had to pay back, and started sports betting when he was 22.
Prosecutors received the full sentence that they had sought. In a pre-sentencing filing, they fired back at Mizuhara’s claims that he faced serious debt—“he had no expenses,” they contended—or had a “longstanding” gambling addiction.
Judge Holcomb had many of the same questions Thursday that prosecutors had raised in their filings. He asked how Mizuhara had financial struggles while Ohtani bought him a Porsche SUV, paid his rent, tipped him five-figures per year, and paid for his wife’s flights to and from Japan. Holcomb said Mizuhara’s letter wasn’t credible and full of misrepresentations and omissions.
Mizuhara initially faced a maximum sentence of up to 33 years in federal prison, but prosecutors sought less after he pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators.
Reports emerged in March that Ohtani’s own accounts had paid $4.5 million to bookie Mathew Bowyer’s illegal gambling operation. Mizuhara originally said that Ohtani was involved, then admitted he did it all behind his friend’s back. In April, federal authorities said the amount stolen from Ohtani was more than $16 million. Mizuhara agreed to a plea deal in May, and pleaded guilty in June.
Audio has also surfaced of Mizuhara pretending to be Ohtani on a call with a bank while attempting to wire $200,000 for a “car loan.”
“It was very obvious after some time he was stealing money and not asking Ohtani for permission,” Bowyer told the New York Post in a story published Monday.
