Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter charged with bank fraud due to theft of over $16M

U.S. attorney Martin Estrada announced Thursday that Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has been charged with bank fraud to finance a “voracious appetite for illegal sports betting,” per Sam Blum of The Athletic. Mizuhara allegedly transferred more than $16M from Ohtani’s account to an illegal sports book, per Alden González of ESPN. Meghann Cuniff of The Washington Post relayed the full 37-page complaint against Mizuhara.

Per Blum, Estrada says the account was set up by Mizuhara in 2018, and he began illegal gambling in 2021. “The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball,” Estrada says. “At this point, Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” Estrada added, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. “Mr. Mizuhara lied to the bank to access the account … lied to them about being Mr. Ohtani,” Estrada said, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. When Mizuhara won a bet, the winnings would go into his account, not Ohtani’s, per Blum. Estrada says investigators have viewed text messages from Mizuhara in which he admitted to stealing from Ohtani, as relayed by Ardaya.

Last month, ESPN reported that more than $4.5M had been wired from an account in Ohtani’s name to a sports gambling ring in California, where betting on sports is illegal. Mizuhara initially told ESPN that he was the one who racked up the debt but that Ohtani wired the money to help him pay it off. He later retracted that story and said Ohtani knew nothing about the gambling or the wire transfers. Ohtani later spoke on the matter, accusing Mizuhara of stealing money from him and lying about it, saying that he didn’t find any details until the reporting had come out.

Both Mizuhara and Ohtani said that Ohtani had not placed any bets. Mizuhara has said that he did not bet on baseball and there’s not yet been any reporting to contradict that. As relayed by Jayson Stark of The Athletic, Mizuhara is alleged to have made about 19,000 wagers from December 2021 to January 2024, winning $142.27M but losing $182.94M for a net loss of $40.7M.

It was reported last night that Mizuhara was in negotiations with federal authorities about pleading guilty. As part of that reporting, it was relayed that prosecutors had evidence Mizuhara disabled notifications that Ohtani would have received from his bank about transactions. The details from Thursday go even further, alleging that Mizuhara called the bank and impersonated Ohtani to access funds, per Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. He answered security questions related to Ohtani’s biographical information to wire funds to a bookmaker, saying it was for a car loan. Per Shaikin, Ohtani’s agent repeatedly asked about the account, but Mizuhara told him it was “private” and that Ohtani didn’t want anyone else to monitor it.

Shaikin relays a text message exchange between Mizuhara and a bookmaker in which he admits to the theft: “Technically, I did steal from him. It’s all over for me.” The maximum penalty for these charges is 30 years, per Shaikin. Blum says Mizuhara will appear in federal court in the coming days. Ohtani has cooperated fully in the investigation, per Shaikin, including providing access to digital devices.