Mizuhara Enters Guilty Plea in Gambling Case

Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, entered a guilty plea to bank and tax fraud charges on Tuesday. The plea took place at a change-of-plea hearing in federal court.

Combined, the counts come with a maximum sentence of 33 years, and he’ll find out his fate in that regard on Oct. 25 during the sentencing hearing.

This all comes after Mizuhara took advantage of his position and access to Ohtani’s money to fund his sports gambling habit. The end result financially was Mizuhara stealing nearly $17 million from the slugger’s bank account.

Mizuhara’s explanation

As the session drew to a close on Tuesday, the judge asked Mizuhara to detail exactly what he did.

“I worked for Victim A (Ohtani) and I had access to his bank account and I had fallen into major gambling debt, and the only way that I could think of was to use his money,” he said. “I had access to Bank A. So I went ahead and wired money for my gambling debt with his bank account.”

Mizuhara also faces a maximum fine of $1.25 million.

The legal process for him began on April 11, when authorities accused Mizuhara of taking substantial funds away from Ohtani to erase gambling debts. His wagers were made between December 2021 and January 2024, and Ohtani was completely unaware, according to the first complaint. Overall, Mizuhara made roughly 19,000 bets, resulting in $142 million in wins but $182 million in losses. The bets were made on sports outside of baseball.

At first Mizuhara pleaded not guilty on May 14, but that was a formality en route to a plea deal.

Ohtani cleared

The interpreter helped Ohtani open his bank account in 2018 before altering the emails and phone numbers associated with it to be the one getting the notifications.

Ohtani was therefore kept in the dark. In a plea agreement, Mizuhara even said he impersonated Ohtani on the phone while speaking to bank representatives. That occurred a minimum of 24 times, all while the bank was attempting to verify wire transfers.

Ohtani will face no penalty after not knowing about the scheme, and he’s been cleared of any wrongdoing.

In a prepared statement on March 25, Ohtani said he’s “very sad and shocked that someone who I’ve trusted has done this.”

“I do want to make it clear that I never bet on sports or have willfully sent money to a bookmaker,” he added. “He has been stealing money from my account and has been telling lies. All of this has been a complete lie.”