Shohei Ohtani’s former translator Ippei Mizuhara appears in L.A. court

Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, made his first court appearance Friday afternoon on charges that he stole more than $16 million from the Dodgers superstar to cover debts with an illegal bookmaker.

Prosecutors on Thursday charged Mizuhara with bank fraud, alleging the 39-year-old took advantage of his closeness with Ohtani to feed a spiraling gambling habit, accumulating $40 million in losses across more than 19,000 bets.

Authorities detailed in a 36-page criminal complaint how Mizuhara won some $142 million through illegal sports betting but lost about $183 million, placing an average of nearly 25 bets per day. As his losses mounted over about two years, prosecutors said, Mizuhara began making wire transfers from the bank account where Ohtani’s baseball salary was deposited to pay off his debts with an illegal bookmaking operation in Orange County.

Mizuhara surrendered to authorities Friday morning. He walked into a packed federal courtroom in downtown L.A. in the afternoon, wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and shuffling under the constraints of shackles on his legs.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria A. Audero told Mizuhara he could remain free on a $25,000 unsecured appearance bond and said the conditions of his release include attending gambling addiction treatment. She agreed to have the shackles removed from his legs.

“You are not to engage in any kind of gambling,” Audero told Mizuhara.

When defense lawyer Michael G. Freedman said Mizuhara intended to seek addiction treatment on his own, Audero said: “I’m really glad to hear that.”

Mizuhara spoke only when the judge addressed him, confirming his name and that he had reviewed the criminal complaint. Freedman confirmed that Mizuhara had already surrendered his passport.

The judge noted Mizuhara’s “family ties to the district” and the fact that he has no criminal history, while ordering him released. Mizuhara is barred from traveling outside of the Central District of California, which includes the Los Angeles area, without permission from the court. He must submit to drug testing and was told to “avoid all contact directly or indirectly” with any victims or witnesses in the case.

The judge also ordered Mizuhara not to sell or transfer any assets valued at $15,000 or more without first seeking permission. Mizuhara did not have to put up any money for his bond, but he would be forced to pay the $25,000 if he’s found to have violated the conditions.

Mizuhara’s arraignment is scheduled for May 9. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Freedman, a former federal prosecutor, said in a statement Friday afternoon that Mizuhara is “continuing to cooperate with the legal process and is hopeful that he can reach an agreement with the government to resolve this case as quickly as possible so that he can take responsibility.”

“He wishes to apologize to Mr. Ohtani, the Dodgers, Major League Baseball and his family,” Freedman said.

E. Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference Thursday that Ohtani was an unwitting victim, not an accomplice, in Mizuhara’s gambling spree. Ohtani fully cooperated with a federal investigation and provided access to his digital devices and personal information, Estrada said.

“Our investigation has revealed that due to the position of trust he occupied with Mr. Ohtani, Mr. Mizuhara had unique access to Mr. Ohtani’s finances,” Estrada said. “Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account … to feed his insatiable appetite for illegal sports betting.”

The two 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 players. When Ohtani signed with the Angels in 2018, Mizuhara came too.

Mizuhara, who was born in Japan but attended middle and high school in L.A. County, served as Ohtani’s body man and de facto manager in Southern California, helping the star navigate an unfamiliar language and country.

Mizuhara had taken an unusual path to a job with Major League Baseball. After graduating from Diamond Bar High School in 2003, he tried his hand at several careers, including working at a sushi restaurant and for a Japanese company that imported and distributed sake. It had been widely reported, including in a biography provided by the Angels, that Mizuhara graduated from UC Riverside in 2007, but the school said there were no records of a student by that name.

After Ohtani joined the Angels six years ago, Mizuhara became a constant presence in his life, translating conversations and interviews, helping to manage his schedule and corresponding with his parents, friends and business associates in Japan. Whenever Ohtani did well on the field, Mizuhara told a reporter in 2018, “I usually get 15 to 20 texts.”

When Ohtani first arrived in the U.S., the complaint alleged, Mizuhara took him to a bank in Arizona to set up a U.S. account, where Ohtani’s salary was deposited. The account wasn’t accessed online at all between early 2018 and late 2021, about a month after Mizuhara was granted an account with the allegedly illegal Orange County bookmaking operation, the complaint said.

Federal officials said Mizuhara arranged wire transfers from the account without Ohtani’s knowledge or permission, impersonated Ohtani during phone calls with bank employees and used biographical details from Ohtani’s life to pass security questions.

Ohtani told U.S. investigators that when he wanted to get a sense of his financial portfolio, he would ask Mizuhara to talk to his agent, bookkeeper, tax preparer and financial advisor. But when Ohtani’s team inquired about the bank account containing his MLB salary, the complaint said, Mizuhara told them that Ohtani wanted the account kept private.

Bank records reviewed by investigators showed that the contact information on the account was changed to link it to Mizuhara’s phone number and an email account also connected to the interpreter.

More than $16 million was sent from the account via wire transfers from November 2021 to January 2024 to accounts controlled by people linked to the bookmaking operation, the complaint said. Most of the money — about $15 million — was moved between February 2022 and October 2023.

Investigators said they seized Mizuhara’s phone at Los Angeles International Airport on March 21 after he returned from South Korea, where the scandal had erupted during the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Seoul.

Investigators compiled 9,700 pages of text messages, including those in which the alleged bookmakers asked Mizuhara to pay his gambling debts, and Mizuhara asked for “bumps,” slang for increasing his borrowing limit with the gambling operation.

In November 2022, Mizuhara texted a person identified in the complaint as Bookmaker 1: “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.”

But by November 2023, Bookmaker 1 appeared to be impatient to collect what was owed, writing in one message that he was frustrated that Mizuhara wasn’t returning his calls.

“I’m here in Newport Beach and I see [Ohtani] walking his dog,” the message said. “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.”

By January, the messages had grown more ominous, with Bookmaker 1 writing: “You’re putting me in a position where this is going to get out of control. If I don’t hear from you by the end of the day today it’s gonna be out of my hands.”