While the Los Angeles Dodgers were beginning the 2024 regular season with the Seoul Series, Shohei Ohtani and former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara became embroiled in a scandal due to illegal sports gambling.
It stemmed from an ongoing federal investigation into Southern California bookmaker Mathew Boyer that turned up wire transfers from a bank account under Ohtani’s name. Mizuhara initially claimed Ohtani was aware of the payments made to erase gambling debt, but then changed his explanation to the two-way star not being involved.
The Dodgers immediately fired Mizuhara and Ohtani would later emphatically state he never bet on sports nor agreed to pay off Mizuhara’s debt. That appears to have been true as Ohtani will be cleared in a federal investigation.
According to Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times, Mizuhara is expected to file a guilty plea amid potential evidence he took measures to ensure Ohtani would not discover millions that were stolen:
A guilty plea from Mizuhara before a federal judge — likely to include an admission of a range of facts related to any illegal conduct — could confirm the account that Ohtani gave to reporters two weeks ago, in which he said he had no knowledge of what happened to the money.
Those briefed on the matter claim that prosecutors have uncovered evidence that Mizuhara may have stolen more money from Ohtani than the $4.5 million he was initially accused of pilfering, the people said. In particular, the authorities think they have evidence that Mizuhara was able to change the settings on Ohtani’s bank account so Ohtani would not receive alerts and confirmations about transactions, the three people said.
The investigation is said to have included three federal agencies:
The investigation has been jointly led by the Los Angeles offices of the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal division and the Department of Homeland Security, along with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California.
As part of his only public remarks about the betting scandal, Ohtani expressed disappointment and sadness over the matter, and made it clear he was going to cooperate with all investigations.
“To summarize how I’m feeling right now, I’m beyond shocked. It’s really hard to verbalize how I am feeling at this point,” Ohtani said through current interpreter Will Ireton.
“The season is going to start, so I’m going to obviously let my lawyers handle matters from here on out and I am completely assisting in all investigations that are taking place right now. I’m looking forward to focusing on the season.
“I’m glad we had this opportunity to talk and I’m sure there will be continuing investigations moving forward. Thank you very much.”
Federal charges against Ippei Mizuhara
During a press conference Thursday to announce federal charges, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Ohtani.
Estrada added that Mizuhara turned off notifications that Ohtani would have received and was part of creating bank accounts.
“At this point, Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” Estrada said.
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