The former interpreter for Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani turned himself in to authorities Friday morning, a day after eataccused of stealing more than $16 million by the Los Angeles Dodgers player to make illegal sports bets.
Ippei Mizuhara, 39, of Newport Beach, California, turned himself in to law enforcement and was in federal custody. He was originally scheduled to appear in federal court Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.
Mizuhara is charged with bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Mizuhara’s attorney could not immediately be reached Friday afternoon for comment.
Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference Thursday that Mizuhara opened a bank account for Ohtani in 2018 and then acted as his de facto manager, excluding the agent, accountant and Ohtani’s financial advisor from the account.
Mizuhara committed “massive fraud” against Ohtani to satisfy an “insatiable appetite for illegal sports gambling,” Estrada said.
“I want to emphasize this point: Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case. There is no evidence that Mr. Ohtani authorized the transfers of more than $16 million from his account to the betting companies,” he said.
Ohtani, 29, came to the US in 2018 to play for the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. He went to the Dodgers in December a 10-year, $700 million deal.
Ohtani “fully cooperated” with the investigation and provided access to his digital devices and personal information, Estrada said.
Mizuhara, who did not bet on baseball, “is associated with an illegal gambling business,” Estrada said.
From November 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara recorded more than $16 million in unauthorized transfers from a checking account owned by Ohtani, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint. Transfers from the bank account were made from devices and IP addresses associated with Mizuhara, federal prosecutors said in statement.
In September 2021, Mizuhara began gambling at an illegal sports book and, months later, began losing large sums of money, prosecutors said.
Mizuhara is accused of making 19,000 bets ranging from $10 to $160,000 per bet from December 2021 to January 2024, the affidavit said.
Mizuhara’s winning bets totaled over $142,256,000 and losing bets around $182,935,000. His total losses amounted to more than $40,679,000, the affidavit said.
During that time, contact information on Ohtani’s bank account was allegedly changed to link the account to Mizuhara’s phone number and an anonymous email address linked to Mizuhara, prosecutors said.
He also called the bank and identified himself as Ohtani to trick employees into authorizing wire transfers from the account to people connected to the illegal gambling operation, prosecutors said.
The allegations against Mizuhara focused specifically on wire transfers from Ohtani’s account — totaling at least $4.5 million, made in at least nine payments of $500,000 — to a Southern California betting operation that is under federal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. Ohtani and Mizuhara’s interactions told NBC News.