Shohei Ohtani’s longtime Japanese-langauge interpreter has been charged with stealing more than $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star to pay off his personal gambling debts, the Department of Justice announced in a release on Thursday.
Ippei Mizuhara, 39, was charged with bank fraud by federal authorities in the Central District of California. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Mizuhara is expected in court on Friday after agreeing to self-surrender to federal authorities, prosecutors said in a separate advisory Thursday afternoon. He will not be asked to enter a plea during the hearing, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said, and it’s likely he will be released on bond.
“From November 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara wired more than $16 million in unauthorized transfers from a checking account [belonging] to an MLB player identified in the affidavit as ‘Victim A,’ who in fact is MLB star Shohei Ohtani,” the DOJ said in a release. “The transfers from this bank account allegedly were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Mizuhara, who served as Ohtani’s translator and de facto manager.”
Prosecutors allege that Mizuhara took advantage of Ohtani’s language barrier in order to commit sweeping fraud. The interpreter was present at meetings in 2018 when Ohtani, who did not speak English at the time, set up a U.S. bank account to receive his earnings from Major League Baseball, translating for the player as he set up his account details. Mizuhara then blocked Ohtani’s English-speaking U.S. financial advisers from the account, telling them that the player had denied them access.
In late 2021, when Mizuhara began accruing debts from separate illegal gambling operations, he allegedly dipped into Ohtani’s funds by posing as the ballplayer over the phone and tricking bank employees into wiring massive transfers. He also changed the contact information on Ohtani’s account to his own phone number and an email address connected to him. From January to March 2024, Mizuhara allegedly used Ohtani’s money to purchase $350,000 worth of baseball cards on eBay and Whatnot, which he mailed to himself under a false name.
Mizuhara is reportedly negotiating a guilty plea deal, sources told The New York Times on Wednesday before the charges were announced.
Ohtani, who claimed to have no knowledge of the fraud at a press conference on March 25, appears to be cleared of wrongdoing. The MLB had begun an investigation into Ohtani after Mizuhara claimed he’d authorized the payments, but the two-time MVP had maintained his innocence throughout the investigation. The DOJ agreed, saying it had no evidence the player knew about the transfers.
“In an interview last week with law enforcement, Ohtani denied authorizing Mizuhara’s wire transfers. Ohtani provided his cellphone to law enforcement, who determined that there was no evidence to suggest that Ohtani was aware of, or involved in, Mizuhara’s illegal gambling activity or payment of those debts,” the DOJ said in its release.
Ohtani signed a whopping $700-million deal with the Dodgers in December, making him the highest-paid player in MLB history. Typically soft-spoken with a squeaky clean reputation, the fraud allegation shocked the baseball world as the beloved two-way icon had remained scandal-free during his meteoric rise.