The Los Angeles Dodgers' interpreter for Shohei Ohtani was fired Wednesday afternoon after questions about at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani's bank account to a gambling operation set off a series of events.
Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani's longtime friend and performer, incurred gambling debts with a Southern California gambling operation that is under federal investigation, multiple sources told ESPN. The way he lost his job began when reporters asked him questions about bank transfers.
Initially, a spokesperson for Ohtani told ESPN that the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt. The spokesperson brought Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his story in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story on Wednesday, the spokesperson disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement.
“In responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to authorities,” the statement from Berk Brettler LLP reads.
The spokesperson declined to answer further questions and the statement did not specify who he believes carried out the alleged robbery.
When asked by ESPN on Wednesday afternoon, after Berk Brettler's statement, whether he had been charged with theft, Mizuhara said he was told he could not comment, but declined to say who.
This week's developments came as federal investigators are examining the operation run by Southern California bookmaker Mathew Bowyer. The wire transfer payments were sent from Ohtani's account to a Bowyer associate, according to multiple sources and bank data reviewed by ESPN. Multiple sources, including Mizuhara, told ESPN that Ohtani does not play and that the funds covered Mizuhara's losses.
ESPN had reviewed banking information that showed Ohtani's name on two $500,000 payments sent in September and October.
While sports betting is legal in nearly 40 states, it remains illegal in California. Government-regulated betting houses require bettors to prepay their bets, while illegal betting houses accept bets on credit.
Sources close to the gambling operation told ESPN that Bowyer dealt directly with Mizuhara, who placed bets on international soccer games and other sports, but not baseball, starting in 2021. One source said Bowyer was aware of the name on electronic transfers, but chose not to ask any questions while the payments arrived; However, the source said Bowyer allowed people to believe Ohtani was a client to drum up business.
Bowyer's attorney, Diane Bass, told ESPN: “Mr. Bowyer has never met or spoken to Shohei Ohtani.” She declined to answer other questions.
In Tuesday's interview arranged by Ohtani's spokesperson, Mizuhara, 39, told ESPN that he asked Ohtani, 29, last year to pay off his gambling debt, which multiple sources said had ballooned to at least $4.5 million. Mizuhara said she had previously placed bets through DraftKings and assumed bets placed through Bowyer were legal.
“Obviously, he [Ohtani] “He wasn't happy about it and said he would help me to make sure I never did this again,” Mizuhara said. “He decided to pay for me.
“I want everyone to know that Shohei had no involvement in the betting. I want people to know that I didn't know this was illegal. I learned my lesson the hard way. I will never bet on sports again.”
But on Wednesday afternoon, Mizuhara told ESPN that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and that Ohtani had not transferred money to the sportsbook associate.
Mizuhara and Ohtani are friends in addition to their professional relationship. Mizuhara has translated for Ohtani since the star moved to the United States in 2018, accompanying the two-way player in dugouts, locker rooms, players' rooms, on trips, in media environments and elsewhere, making Mizuhara very recognizable to baseball fans. He has been Ohtani's interpreter with team managers and coaches and reviews scouting reports with Ohtani during games. The two are rarely apart: Mizuhara runs errands for the pitcher, carries his water bottle and is so ever-present that a teammate of Ohtani's once referred to the duo as having a “brotherhood” that goes beyond friendship. friendship.
Mizuhara was under contract with the Los Angeles Angels when Ohtani played there and signed with the Dodgers this offseason. Mizuhara confirmed to ESPN that he is paid between $300,000 and $500,000 a year.
Mizuhara told ESPN on Tuesday that his bets were placed on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football.
“I never bet on baseball,” Mizuhara said. “That's 100 percent. I knew that rule. … We have a meeting about that in spring training.”
MLB players and employees can bet on sports other than baseball, but not at illegal sportsbooks or offshore websites. League rules state that bets placed at illegal betting houses are subject to sanctions at the discretion of the commissioner.
A Major League source told ESPN that the league had not been contacted by federal authorities and was not aware of the situation until ESPN raised it in recent days. The source said MLB's next step would be to gather data, which could take time in light of the ongoing federal investigation.
Federal authorities learned of Ohtani's electronic payments in January as part of their investigation into Bowyer's gambling operation, a source told ESPN. ESPN reviewed wire transfer data for two of the transactions, each totaling $500,000; “Shohei Otani” is visible next to various information about bank accounts and wire transfers and the word “loan.” “Otani” is the legal name of the Japanese two-way player.
Officials with the U.S. attorney's office in the Central District of California declined to comment. A lawyer for Bowyer's gambling associate also declined to comment.
Two sources said federal authorities have not contacted Ohtani or Mizuhara.
Bowyer, 48, could face possible felony charges. Her home was raided by federal authorities in October, according to multiple sources and documents reviewed by ESPN. According to a search warrant inventory obtained by ESPN, agents seized cash, casino chips, bank documents, a money counting machine, several computers, portable storage devices and cell phones. Agents also confiscated two Breitling watches and nearly a dozen luxury handbags made by Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès.
Mizuhara told ESPN that he met Bowyer at a poker game in San Diego in 2021 and began betting with him on credit later that year. Mizuhara estimated that his losses amounted to more than $1 million by the end of 2022 and skyrocketed from there.
“I'm terrible [at gambling.] I'll never do it again. I never won any money,” Mizuhara said. “I mean, I dug a hole and it kept getting bigger, and that meant I had to bet more to get out of it and I kept losing. “It's like a snowball effect.”
After Ohtani agreed to pay the debts, Mizuhara said Tuesday, Ohtani logged on to his own computer and sent the wire transfers under Mizuhara's supervision in installments over several months last year. Added “loan” to the transaction description field.
“We had to add a description for the cable,” Mizuhara said. “I think Matt [Bowyer] He could have told me to just put “loan.” “We had to put something in.”
When asked why Ohtani didn't just give him the money instead of paying Bowyer's partner directly, Mizuhara said Ohtani didn't trust him with the money.
“He didn't want me to bet him,” Mizuhara said.
Mizuhara said he told Ohtani he would pay him back.
When an ESPN reporter asked Ohtani's group about Mizuhara's allegation that Ohtani was present and helped move the funds and that they were going to return the money, the spokesperson contacted Ohtani's lawyers, who then issued the statement saying that he was the victim of a “massive robbery.”
Mizuhara, however, on Wednesday afternoon walked back much of what he had said Tuesday night, saying Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts or efforts to pay them off.
“Obviously, this is all my fault, everything I've done,” he said. “I am prepared to face all the consequences.”
He said he had no legal representation but was “working on it.” He said he spoke only to ESPN on Wednesday afternoon.
However, he reiterated that he had never bet on baseball.
The Dodgers are in South Korea for their season-opening series, which began Wednesday with a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. Mizuhara was seen in the Dodgers dugout during the game. A Dodgers spokesperson said Mizuhara went to the clubhouse after the game and told them that she was breaking a story and that it was all her fault, saying that she has a gambling addiction.
Ohtani signed a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December, making him the highest-paid player in the history of North American sports. Most of that money, $680 million, is deferred and will be paid between 2034 and 2043.
Multiple sources told ESPN that Bowyer's operation is being investigated by the same US attorney's office that is handling a sprawling federal money laundering and illegal gambling case in Las Vegas that ensnared former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix. In March 2022, Nix, who had become a bookie in California, agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to operate an illegal sports betting business and filing a false tax return. His sentencing is scheduled for September. Four other men connected to his gambling business also pleaded guilty.
As part of his deposition, Nix admitted to receiving nearly $1.5 million in income that he did not report to the IRS and that was related to gambling losses suffered by an unnamed professional football player, an MLB coach and a baseball analyst. Prosecutors said a sports announcer told Nix that he planned to refinance his house to pay off his gambling debts.
In November 2022, former MLB right fielder Yasiel Puig was accused of lying to federal law enforcement officials about placing bets with the Nix operation. His case is currently before the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office.
Scott Sibella, former president of Resorts World and MGM Grand casinos in Las Vegas, also pleaded guilty in January following Nix's investigation. According to his plea agreement, Sibella knew that Nix operated an illegal gambling business, but still allowed Nix to gamble at MGM Grand and its affiliated properties with illicit profits generated by the illegal gambling business without notifying the compliance department. casino. Along with Sibella's guilty plea, MGM Grand and the Cosmopolitan casino agreed to pay $7.45 million in fines.
Tisha Thompson is an investigative reporter for ESPN. Contact her at [email protected].
ESPN's TJ Quinn and Paula Lavigne contributed to this report.
