Ippei Mizuhara, the previous interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, made his first court docket look Friday afternoon on fees that he stole greater than $16 million from the Dodgers celebrity to cowl money owed with an unlawful bookmaker.
In an artist’s rendering, Ippei Mizuhara seems in federal court docket in Los Angeles on Friday.
(Invoice Robles by way of Related Press)
Prosecutors on Thursday charged Mizuhara with financial institution fraud, alleging the 39-year-old took benefit of his closeness with Ohtani to feed a spiraling playing behavior, accumulating $40 million in losses throughout greater than 19,000 bets.
Authorities detailed in a 36-page prison grievance how Mizuhara gained some $142 million via unlawful sports activities betting however misplaced about $183 million, putting a mean of practically 25 bets per day. As his losses mounted over about two years, prosecutors mentioned, Mizuhara started making wire transfers from the checking account the place Ohtani’s baseball wage was deposited to repay his money owed with an unlawful bookmaking operation in Orange County.
Mizuhara surrendered to authorities Friday morning. He walked right into a packed federal courtroom in downtown L.A. within the afternoon, sporting a darkish go well with with a white shirt and shuffling below the constraints of shackles on his legs.
U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Maria A. Audero informed Mizuhara he might stay free on a $25,000 unsecured look bond and mentioned the circumstances of his launch embrace attending playing dependancy therapy. She agreed to have the shackles faraway from his legs.
“You aren’t to interact in any form of playing,” Audero informed Mizuhara.
Michael G. Freedman, Mizuhara’s lawyer, arrives at federal court docket in downtown L.A.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Occasions)
For the document:
5:28 p.m. April 12, 2024An earlier model of this story reported lawyer Michael G. Freedman’s first identify as Matthew.
When protection lawyer Michael G. Freedman mentioned Mizuhara supposed to hunt dependancy therapy on his personal, Audero mentioned: “I’m actually glad to listen to that.”
Mizuhara spoke solely when the choose addressed him, confirming his identify and that he had reviewed the prison grievance. Freedman confirmed that Mizuhara had already surrendered his passport.
The choose famous Mizuhara’s “household ties to the district” and the truth that he has no prison historical past, whereas ordering him launched. Mizuhara is barred from touring outdoors of the Central District of California, which incorporates the Los Angeles space, with out permission from the court docket. He should undergo drug testing and was informed to “keep away from all contact straight or not directly” with any victims or witnesses within the case.
The choose additionally ordered Mizuhara to not promote or switch any property valued at $15,000 or extra with out first searching for permission. Mizuhara didn’t need to put up any cash for his bond, however he could be pressured to pay the $25,000 if he’s discovered to have violated the circumstances.
Mizuhara’s arraignment is scheduled for Could 9. He faces as much as 30 years in jail if convicted.
Freedman, a former federal prosecutor, mentioned in an announcement Friday afternoon that Mizuhara is “persevering with to cooperate with the authorized course of and is hopeful that he can attain an settlement with the federal government to resolve this case as rapidly as attainable in order that he can take duty.”
“He needs to apologize to Mr. Ohtani, the Dodgers, Main League Baseball and his household,” Freedman mentioned.
E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. lawyer for the Central District of California, mentioned at a information convention Thursday that Ohtani was an unwitting sufferer, not an confederate, in Mizuhara’s playing spree. Ohtani totally cooperated with a federal investigation and supplied entry to his digital gadgets and private data, Estrada mentioned.
“Our investigation has revealed that because of the place of belief he occupied with Mr. Ohtani, Mr. Mizuhara had distinctive entry to Mr. Ohtani’s funds,” Estrada mentioned. “Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that place of belief in an effort to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s checking account … to feed his insatiable urge for food for unlawful sports activities betting.”
The 2 met in 2013, when Ohtani was an 18-year-old rookie for the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan and Mizuhara was an interpreter for American gamers. When Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2018, Mizuhara got here too.
Mizuhara, who was born in Japan however attended center and highschool in L.A. County, served as Ohtani’s physique man and de facto supervisor in Southern California, serving to the star navigate an unfamiliar language and nation.
Mizuhara had taken an uncommon path to a job with Main League Baseball. After graduating from Diamond Bar Excessive Faculty in 2003, he tried his hand at a number of careers, together with working at a sushi restaurant and for a Japanese firm that imported and distributed sake. It had been extensively reported, together with in a biography supplied by the Angels, that Mizuhara graduated from UC Riverside in 2007, however the faculty mentioned there have been no data of a pupil by that identify.
After Ohtani joined the Angels six years in the past, Mizuhara turned a relentless presence in his life, translating conversations and interviews, serving to to handle his schedule and corresponding along with his dad and mom, buddies and enterprise associates in Japan. Each time Ohtani did properly on the sphere, Mizuhara informed a reporter in 2018, “I often get 15 to twenty texts.”
When Ohtani first arrived within the U.S., the grievance alleged, Mizuhara took him to a financial institution in Arizona to arrange a U.S. account, the place Ohtani’s wage was deposited. The account wasn’t accessed on-line in any respect between early 2018 and late 2021, a few month after Mizuhara was granted an account with the allegedly unlawful Orange County bookmaking operation, the grievance mentioned.
Federal officers mentioned Mizuhara organized wire transfers from the account with out Ohtani’s information or permission, impersonated Ohtani throughout telephone calls with financial institution workers and used biographical particulars from Ohtani’s life to move safety questions.
Ohtani informed U.S. investigators that when he wished to get a way of his monetary portfolio, he would ask Mizuhara to speak to his agent, bookkeeper, tax preparer and monetary advisor. However when Ohtani’s workforce inquired concerning the checking account containing his MLB wage, the grievance mentioned, Mizuhara informed them that Ohtani wished the account saved non-public.
Financial institution data reviewed by investigators confirmed that the contact data on the account was modified to hyperlink it to Mizuhara’s telephone quantity and an electronic mail account additionally linked to the interpreter.
Greater than $16 million was despatched from the account by way of wire transfers from November 2021 to January 2024 to accounts managed by folks linked to the bookmaking operation, the grievance mentioned. A lot of the cash — about $15 million — was moved between February 2022 and October 2023.
Investigators mentioned they seized Mizuhara’s telephone at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport on March 21 after he returned from South Korea, the place the scandal had erupted in the course of the Dodgers’ season-opening collection in Seoul.
Investigators compiled 9,700 pages of textual content messages, together with these wherein the alleged bookmakers requested Mizuhara to pay his playing money owed, and Mizuhara requested for “bumps,” slang for rising his borrowing restrict with the playing operation.
In November 2022, Mizuhara texted an individual recognized within the grievance as Bookmaker 1: “I’m horrible at this sport betting factor huh? Lol … Any probability u can bump me once more?? As you realize, you don’t have to fret about me not paying.”
However by November 2023, Bookmaker 1 seemed to be impatient to gather what was owed, writing in a single message that he was pissed off that Mizuhara wasn’t returning his calls.
“I’m right here in Newport Seashore and I see [Ohtani] strolling his canine,” the message mentioned. “I’m simply gonna go up and discuss to him and ask how I can get in contact with you because you’re not responding? Please name me again instantly.”
By January, the messages had grown extra ominous, with Bookmaker 1 writing: “You’re placing me ready the place that is going to get uncontrolled. If I don’t hear from you by the tip of the day as we speak it’s gonna be out of my arms.”
