OC bookie who took bets from Ohtani’s interpreter agrees to plead guilty to federal charges

The Orange County bookmaker who took millions of dollars in sports bets from Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges, federal prosecutors announced Thursday, Aug. 1.

Mathew Bowyer, 49, of San Juan Capistrano faces a maximum sentence of 18 years in federal prison on charges of operating an illegal gambling business, money laundering and filing a false tax return. Bowyer, who also took bets from current and former professional athletes, is expected to plead guilty Aug. 9 in federal court.

“”Mr. Bowyer is looking forward to accepting responsibility for his actions,” said his attorney, Diane Bass.

For at least five years, Bowyer operated an illegal gambling operation that at times had more than 700 bettors before it shut down in October, according to the 40-page plea agreement.

Among his clients was Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who admittedly stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay down more than $40 million in gambling losses to Bowyer. Prosecutors say Mizuhara placed 19,000 bets with Bowyer’s operation, which on a regular basis would increase his betting limits.

Ohtani and his lawyer insisted from the outset that he never placed sports bets and he had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s activities.

A source familiar with Bowyer said Mizuhara met the bookmaker in 2021 through a mutual friend in San Diego after a Padres game.

They were in a hotel lobby and Mizuhara was placing a bet on his cellphone with another bookie. The friend overheard Mizuhara, walked over and said, “This is the guy you need to be betting with,” and introduced him to Bowyer, according to the source.

Mizuhari, who was Ohtani’s translator mostly while the reigning American League MVP was with the Los Angeles Angels, pleaded guilty in June to one count of bank fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25.

Bowyer transferred at least $9.3 million of the money he received from Mizuhara to a casino to pay off markers for himself and his associates, prosecutors said. Bowyer also transferred another $9 million to one other casino in Southern California to pay off credit lines.

Bowyer’s other clients included a current member of a Southern California baseball team, identified by prosecutors as “Individual B,” and a former minor league baseball player identified as “Individual C.” Both athletes were friends and the ex-minor leaguer sometimes placed bets on games involving the current player, according to the plea agreement.

Prosecutors said Bowyer employed agents and sub-agents, including casino hosts, and operated out of locations in Las Vegas as well as Orange and Los Angeles counties. The employees were paid from the gamblers’ losses.

Bowyer used Costa Rica-based websites and a call center where agents and customers could place and track bets. Prosecutors said Bowyer sometimes operated the bookmaking business while gambling at a casino, paying his agents in casino chips.

So entrenched was Bowyer with one casino that employees there would sometimes stop play at a table game so Bowyer could take phone calls to discuss payments and bets with his clients, said the plea agreement.

At times, Bowyer would collect proceeds, in the form of chips or bags of cash, while gambling at the casino. Bowyer also would bring clients to the casino to gamble as a group.

In his plea agreement, Bowyer admitted to falsifying his 2022 federal tax returns, reporting $607,897 in income but failing to report another $4 million from the illegal gambling business. More than $3.8 million of that money was in the form of wire transfers to one of his bank accounts that he did not declare, prosecutors said.

Bowyer, they said, owes $1.6 million in unpaid taxes from 2022.

He will face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison on the money laundering count, up to five years for operating an unlawful gambling business and up to three years for filing a false tax return count, according to prosecutors.

Bowyer has agreed to forfeit $257,923 as well as $14,830 in casino chips seized by law enforcement in October 2023. He also has agreed to fully cooperate in an ongoing federal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security.

Bowyer, who declared bankruptcy in 2011, has tried his hand at several occupations: bookmaker, commodities trader, pest control company owner and operator of a Brazilian jujitsu studio.

But it was his relationship with Mizuhara — and the tie to Ohtani — that he hoped would give his gambling operation a hefty boost. Instead, it supercharged the federal investigation.

Originally Published: August 1, 2024 at 1:23 p.m.