An affidavit released by federal prosecutors Thursday detailed its case against Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, outlining how Mizuhara allegedly stole at least $16 million from Ohtani’s accounts in part to fund his illegal sports gambling.
Mizuhara faces a charge of felony bank fraud, United States attorney Martin Estrada said during a news conference in Los Angeles. Within, Estrada laid out claims that Mizuhara gained access to Ohtani’s account without his knowledge and sent millions of dollars worth of wire transfers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Mizuhara on March 20 as news reports circulated about the nature of the transfers. Within the affidavit, Mizuhara allegedly confessed to stealing the money in conversations with Ohtani and in encrypted text messages with alleged illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer.
“Technically I did steal from him,” Mizuhara wrote on March 20 in an encrypted text message reviewed by investigators. “it’s all over for me.”
From the federal complaint on Ippei Mizuhara: pic.twitter.com/jB83SxkvWT
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 11, 2024
It was among the startling revelations from the affidavit, which included messages detailing Mizuhara’s descent into sports betting debt, how he impersonated Ohtani to gain access to the accounts and a near-encounter between baseball’s biggest star and one of Mizuhara’s bookies:
How did Mizuhara get started in illegal betting?
Mizuhara was provided with an account, password and website URL for the illegal gambling operation by a bookie on Sept. 8, 2021, while Ohtani was in the midst of his fourth season in Major League Baseball. Ohtani dominated the sport that summer, earning his first American League MVP award – all with Mizuhara, whom he had known since their time with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013, serving as his interpreter and “de facto manager” and assistant starting in 2018
More than two weeks later, on Sept. 24, Mizuhara texted one of the illegal bookmakers, saying he was “messing around with soccer” and noting that he lost an outright bet on UCLA that night (Fresno State beat the Bruins 40-37 in football). Mizuhara then asked how to pay and withdraw funds from the operation.
“He pays and collects as the week ends Sunday night,” one of the bookmakers responded. “Whatever you are up or down Sunday night you pay or receive[.]”
Around Oct. 31, 2021, Mizuhara messaged the bookmaker saying he needed more information to process a wire transfer to pay off his losses. The bank had declined his attempts multiple times, Mizuhara said. On Nov. 10, Mizuhara confirmed to the bookmaker that he was able to send $40,000 (bank records showed a debit transaction of $40,010 from Ohtani’s account on Nov. 15). Several of the transfers, including that one, were executed through Xoom, a PayPal money transfer service.
Gambling records from legal sites showed Mizuhara had opened accounts with FanDuel, DraftKings and MGM. They showed no record of an account for Ohtani.
How did Mizuhara rack up such large debts?
Investigators reviewed an Excel spreadsheet tracking wagers from Mizuhara’s account with the bookmaker, including approximately 19,000 bets from December 2021 to January 2024 that ranged from $10 to $160,000 per bet. His total net balance was a loss of $40.678 million dollars, far more than the amount Mizuhara is alleged to have stolen from Ohtani’s accounts.
“Records do not reflect any bets on baseball games,” the affidavit reads.
On occasions when Mizuhara won his bets, he sent the money to his own personal account, which is set up in the same bank as Ohtani. On May 18, 2022, a bookmaker asked Mizuhara for banking information so Mizuhara could receive a wire transfer. Mizuhara provided a different account number than the one he had been sending the money from to cover his losses. That day, bank records showed Mizuhara received $47,260.
Mizuhara repeatedly asked to expand his line of credit as his losses piled up and as he experienced delays with the transfers. In addition to giving Mizuhara “FreePlay” – access to bets where Mizuhara would be able to bet without accruing any losses – they expanded the line of credit.
“Thank you, can you put in 100k instead of 300k?” Mizuhara texted on March 10, 2022.
“U mean lower credit to 100?” the bookmaker responded.
“Yea, I’ll get too reckless with 300,” Mizuhara said.
So long as he paid, the limits went up.
“I’m terrible at this sport betting thing huh? Lol … Any chance u can bump me again?? As you know, you don’t have to worry about me not paying!!” Mizuhara said in a message to a bookmaker on Nov. 14, 2022.
“Mr. Ohtani has cooperated fully and completely in this investigation,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.
That includes speaking to investigators and giving access to his personal devices. Conversations between Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara were reviewed by a linguist.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 11, 2024
On June 24, 2023, the bookmaker again extended him more credit. In a text message he wrote to Mizuhara: “To be honest with you Ippie (sic), as long as you can guarantee the 500 every Monday I’ll give you as much as you want because I know you’re good for it[.]”
Months later, they were still looking to collect. On Nov. 17, 2023, the bookmaker texted Mizuhara looking to receive payment. Knowing Mizuhara’s public connection to Ohtani – the former interpreter garnered a semi-celebrity status due to their friendship – the bookmaker alluded to seeing Ohtani to gain access to Mizuhara.
The text read: “Hey Ippie (sic), it’s 2 o’clock on Friday.I don’t know why you’re not returning my calls. I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Ohtani] walking his dog. I’m just gonna go up and talk to him and ask how I can get in touch with you since you’re not responding? Please call me back immediately.”
The affidavit does not note whether or not Mizuhara responded.
How did Mizuhara get such access?
Mizuhara and Ohtani have known each other since 2013, when Ohtani was a rookie with the Nippon-Ham Fighters of NPB and Mizuhara was serving as an interpreter for English-speaking players. When Ohtani announced his intent to move to Major League Baseball in 2018, Mizuhara contacted Ohtani “and offered to be (his) translator in the United States.”
Ohtani then independently employed Mizuhara “to act as a de facto manager and assistant.” In 2018, that included accompanying Ohtani to a bank branch in Arizona to set up an account for Ohtani to receive his salary from the Los Angeles Angels. Additional sources of income, including money from endorsements and investments, went into different accounts.
Bank records show there was no online access activity on the account from when it was established in 2018 until October 27, 2021, approximately one month after Mizuhara set up an account with the bookmaker.
According to investigators, Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani to bank employees to bypass security and successfully make the transfers. On Feb. 2, 2022, Mizuhara called the bank attempting to access the account, saying he was wiring money to one of the bookmakers for “a car loan.” On a call later that day, he again identified himself as Ohtani and was successfully able to access the account after answering security questions and providing personal information about Ohtani. The affidavit stated that investigators, when reviewing recordings of the conversations, recognized Mizuhara’s voice from an attempted interview with him on March 21. They also noted that while Ohtani “does not speak English fluently…the caller spoke fluent English.”
Bank records showed that the registered phone number for the account was Mizuhara’s, and that the email address attached to the account was an anonymous Gmail account that had been associated with a PayPal account found on Mizuhara’s phone. Follow-up interviews by investigators confirmed that Ohtani uses a different email address.
How did no one find out?
Mizuhara was a constant presence around Ohtani, including accompanying Ohtani to meetings with his agent, Nez Balelo of Creative Artists Agency, as well as a bookkeeper and financial advisor retained by Balelo. None of the three spoke Japanese and relied on Mizuhara to translate.
CAA, investigators found, “does not employ any individuals who speak Japanese, but (Balelo) will occasionally hire Japanese-language interpreters to communicate with his clients.”
In his interview with investigators, Ohtani said he believed that Balelo, his accountants and his financial advisors all had access to the account where he collected his salary. He told investigators he never granted Mizuhara control over any of his accounts.
Balelo “was aware” of the account for Ohtani’s baseball salary and asked Mizuhara about it on multiple occasions. Mizuhara told (Balelo) that the account was “private” and that (Ohtani) did not want anyone else to monitor that account.” The agent never confirmed this directly with Ohtani.
But none of the three were ever actually given access to the account. Ahead of one meeting with the financial advisor in October 2022, “Mizuhara stated that (Ohtani) was sick, and unable to join the meeting.” In the meeting, Mizuhara told the advisor wanted the account “kept private from everyone.”
What else did Mizuhara do with the money?
According to a Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse employee interviewed by investigators, Mizuhara spoke to them in January about setting aside packages under a pseudonym, “Jay Min.” It was the same pseudonym Mizuhara had used for email addresses and websites in the past.
Within were packages of baseball cards, including those for Yogi Berra, Juan Soto and Ohtani.
There were approximately $325,000 in transactions at eBay and Whatnot between January and March 2024” from Ohtani’s account, which investigators believe were used to buy the cards “with the intent to resell them at a later date.”
What did Ohtani know?
In reviewing approximately “9,700 pages of text messages” between Ohtani and Mizuhara between 2020 and 2024, “there was no discussion of sports betting” between Mizuhara and Ohtani. In addition, there were no texts about Ohtani wanting to keep his accounts private from his agent and advisors. And Ohtani’s phone showed no record that he had accessed the illegal gambling website account under Mizuhara’s name.
US Attorney Martin Estrada said the bank account was set up by Ippei Mizuhara in 2018.
He said the Ippei’s illegal gambling began in 2021, and his bets became more and more prevalent.
“The bets do not appear to have been made on the sport of baseball.”
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) April 11, 2024
Ohtani and Mizuhara met after the Dodgers’ season-opening win over the San Diego Padres on March 20, speaking at the club’s hotel in Seoul, South Korea. Mizuhara had addressed the clubhouse after the game along with team officials, and while Ohtani had a sense there was an issue involving Mizuhara, “he did not understand most of what was said in English.” Within that meeting, Mizuhara told Ohtani that he had falsely told Balelo and others (including ESPN) that Ohtani had agreed to loan money to pay his own gambling debts.
“Ohtani never authorized any wires to the (bookmaker’s) Account,” the affidavit reads.
Who spoke to the investigators?
Ohtani, who Estrada said Thursday “cooperated fully and completely” with investigators, was interviewed on April 2 and 3, ahead of Dodgers home games in Los Angeles against the San Francisco Giants. He also gave investigators access to his phone and devices.
“Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case,” Estrada said. “There is no evidence that Mr. Ohtani authorized the transfers to the bookmakers.”
Mizuhara, who is expected to appear in front of a judge on Friday, was approached by Homeland Security agents at Los Angeles International Airport on March 21 upon his return flight from South Korea. Investigators seized Mizuhara’s phone.
Investigators also spoke with Balelo (on March 25), Ohtani’s bookkeeper (on March 29) and his financial advisors (on April 1).
(Photo of Shohei Ohtani, left, and Ippei Mizuhara from 2021: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
