Over the past month or so, the world of baseball has been rumbling over the scandal around Shohei Ohtani and his fired former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. A lack of clarity has only increased the interest — and speculation.
The weeks of sometimes conflicting reports and unanswered questions created a hazy picture that was thrown into as sharp definition as possible Thursday, when the U.S. government released its criminal complaint against Mizuhara. Mizuhara is accused of stealing more than $16 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers star and faces up to 30 years in prison.
Those numbers are only the start of the wild allegations in the 37-page complaint against Mizuhara. Two things in particular stand out: the brazenness of Mizuhara’s alleged crimes and the degree of control he was given by the people who were supposed to look out for Ohtani.
Here are the five most surprising revelations from a case that will live on for decades in the weirdest annals of baseball history:
1. Ippei Mizuhara’s gambling losses totaled more than $40 million
This all started because ESPN obtained documentation of two $500,000 wire transfers from Ohtani to an associate of Mathew Bowyer, an allegedly illegal bookie under federal investigation. Mizuhara was initially accused of stealing a total of $4.5 million from Ohtani to pay off Bowyer.
The true number, as alleged by the feds, turned out to be $16 million. But that was only the start of how bad this all got for Mizuhara.
In total, Mizuhara is alleged to have made 19,000 wagers with Bowyer between December 2021 and January 2024, averaging out to nearly 25 bets per day. Bets allegedly ranged from $10 to $160,000, with an average amount of $12,800. Records reportedly show Mizuhara to have won a total of $142,256,769.74 … and lost a total of $182,935,206.68.
That equates to a net loss of $40,678,436.94.
The complaint contains texts between Mizuhara, Bowyer and other associates about all this gambling. The group frequently had to coordinate on wire transfers sent from a bank account owned by Ohtani, and there were also numerous requests from Mizuhara to “bump” his credit limit. It appears that Bowyer did so because he knew of Mizuhara’s connection to Ohtani and because Mizuhara would send $500,000 each week when he was in debt.
The complaint included this series of messages between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, including three in as many days:
Nov. 14: “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!!”
Dec. 19: “Can u bump me last 200? I swear on my mom this will be the last ask before I pay it off once I get back to the states. Sorry for keep on asking. . . .”
June 22: “I got my ass kicked again lol . . . . Any chance I can get one last bump? This will be my last one for a while if I lose it. . . .”
June 23: “I’m the worst lol . . . can’t catch a break. . . . Can I get one last bump? I swear this is gonna be my last until I get the balance down significantly . . . . I promise this will be the last bump for a while.”
June 24: “I have a problem lol. . . . Can I get one last last last bump? This one is for real. . . . Last one for real[.]”
If you wanted to draft up a poster of what an unfettered gambling addiction looks like, you could do worse than just those texts.
2. Ippei Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani on the phone to hide alleged bank fraud
An enormous question looming as Ohtani’s camp accused Mizuhara of theft was “How could that amount of money go missing without anyone noticing?” As it turns out, the people hung up on that question were underestimating just how much control Mizuhara had over Ohtani’s finances — and the lengths to which he was willing to go to preserve it.
From the moment Ohtani landed in the U.S. with…
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