- Mizuhara bags 57 months sentence after covering gambling losses with stolen funds
A former interpreter, 40-year-old Ippei Mizuhara, was sentenced on Thursday to nearly five years in prison for stealing $17 million from Los Angeles Dodgers star, Shohei Ohtani to pay off his gambling debts.
According to local media reports, Mizuhara, the one-time translator and de facto manager of Ohtani, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison based on the prosecutors’ request.
The US District Judge John Holcomb also ordered Mizuhara to pay restitution of over $18m as part of his sentencing after he pleaded guilty to felony bank fraud and subscribing to a false tax return last year, according to his plea deal previously filed in US district court in Los Angeles.
Mizuhara was accused of embezzling nearly $17m from a bank account of Ohtani’s that he (Mizuhara) had helped open in Phoenix in 2018, and transferring the funds without Ohtani’s knowledge to an illegal bookmaking operation to cover his gambling debts.
Announcing the original bank fraud charge last year, former US Attorney, E Martin Estrada stressed there was nothing to suggest wrongdoing by Ohtani, who said he was an unwitting victim of theft and has never bet on baseball or knowingly paid a bookmaker.
Prosecutors said Mizuhara began gambling with an illegal sports book in late 2021 and lost substantial sums. To cover his debts, Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani over the phone on more than two dozen occasions to deceive bank employees into authorizing wire transfers from Ohtani’s account, prosecutors said.
Mizuhara’s lawyer reportedly sought an 18-month sentence for his client, but the judge ruled in favor of the 57-month sentence. The judge ruled that the 40-year-old should self-surrender on March 24. The Japan native could also potentially be deported after completing his sentence.
Mizuhara admitted to placing as many as 19,000 bets over a two-year period and racking up a gambling debt of over $40 million. Last summer, he pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return.
“I truly admire Shohei as a baseball player and a human being and I was committed to devote my life so Shohei can be the best version of himself on the field. I want to say I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me,” said Mizuhara to the court, via the BBC.
Ohtani signed a record $700m, 10-year contract to join the Dodgers last season, becoming the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball (MLB). The 30-year-old’s talents as a slugger and a pitcher have earned him comparisons to Babe Ruth.
Born on 31st December 1984, in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan, Ippei Mizuhara is a Japanese, who served as the interpreter for Major League Baseball player Shohei Ohtani, translating Japanese to English and vice versa for Ohtani’s media appearances and teammate interactions.
