OC man agrees to plead guilty in illegal sports betting scandal involving ex-Ohtani interpreter

A San Juan Capistrano man agreed to plead guilty to federal tax-related charges stemming from his role in an illegal sports betting operation that involved the interpreter for Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani.

Mathew Bowyer, 49, agreed to plead guilty to operating an unlawful gambling business, money laundering, and subscribing to a false tax return. The formal plea hearing is scheduled for Aug. 9.

Bowyer’s Orange county home was raided in the illegal sports betting investigation that ensnared Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Ohtani. Authorities executed a search warrant for computers, phones and other electronic devices related to what they described as an illegal business that took bets on the outcomes of sporting events.

The illegal business operated for at least five years until October 2023 and at times had more than 700 bettors, according to authorities.

Bowyer’s attorney confirmed to NBCLA in March that Bowyer was a bookmaker who placed bets with Mizuhara. The former interpreter for MLB superstar Ohtani and other professional athletes met Bowyer through a mutual friend in San Diego in 2022, according to the attorney.

Ippei Mizuhara told a judge, after falling into major gambling debt, the only way he could think of was using Ohtani’s money. NBC Los Angeles’ Hetty Chang reports.

After Mizuhara became Bowyer’s client, the two mostly correspond via text messaging and sometimes in person.

In the plea agreement, Bowyer admitted to falsely reporting his taxable income to the IRS on his tax return for the year 2022. That year’s tax return showed about $607,897 in total income. His unreported income for that year was $4,030,938, which federal authorities said was income from his illegal gambling business. That included $3.8 million in wire transfers into one of his bank accounts, which was not declared on his tax return.

Bowyer owes additional taxes of $1,613,280 for the tax year 2022, not including interest and penalties, prosecutors said.

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

Bowyer, who agreed to fully cooperate with investigators looking into the betting operation, will forfeit $257,923 in US currency and $14,830 in casino chips seized by law enforcement in October 2023 as part of the agreement.

“Government counsel and I have been working on this plea agreement for a very long time,” Bowyer’s attorney Diane Bass said Thursday. “Mr, Bowyer is looking forward to accepting full responsibility for his actions.”

Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June to bank and tax fraud in the sports betting scandal in which he is accused of stealing nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers star over several years. The plea came about a month after prosecutors and Mizuhara, a longtime friend of Ohtani’s, reached a plea agreement as part of a broader federal sports gambling investigation.

Prosecutors accused Mizuhara of placing a staggering number of bets using money stolen from a longtime friend and one of the world’s most popular and well-paid athletes to support a “voracious appetite” for sports betting. The allegations against the Orange County man were outlined in a lengthy criminal complaint in support of federal bank fraud charge.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the gambling scandal, Mizuhara placed about 19,000 wagers between December 2021 and January 2024 with nearly 25 bets per day on average. The wagers ranged in value from roughly $10 to $160,000 per bet, with an average bet amount of roughly $12,800.

Mizuhara’s winning bets totaled more than $142,256,000 and losing bets about $182,935,000. Total losses amounted to more than $40,679,000, the affidavit said.

The complaint, written by an IRS senior special agent, cites wire transfers, text messages, phone records and interviews. In a text message to a bookmaker, Mizuhara admitted that he was stealing the money from Ohtani’s account, prosecutors said. The investigation into Mizuhara was part of a larger probe involving illegal gambling operations.

Prosecutors have said there is no evidence Ohtani authorized the transfers from his account and characterized the baseball superstar as a victim in the case. Ohtani reportedly has been assisting authorities with the investigation.

The records do not indicate any bets on baseball.