Federal prosecutors on Thursday disclosed a nearly four-minute audio recording which they said showed Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter convicted of defrauding Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, attempting to push through a $200,000 wire transfer from one of the player’s accounts.
The recording, obtained by The Athletic from the Department of Justice, was mentioned in a court filing in which prosecutors recommended a nearly five-year sentence and restitution for Mizuhara. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return after stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. Mizuhara is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 6.
In his own filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California later Thursday, Mizuhara cited a serious gambling addiction — he racked up a debt of $40.7 million — and deep regret for his crimes in asking the court for a much shorter sentence, 18 months. Prosecutors requested 57.
The recording, which assistant U.S. attorney Jeff Mitchell said was obtained from a bank, was filed to back up the prosecution’s claims that Mizuhara repeatedly called the bank to arrange wire transfers, having bypassed security measures by routing Ohtani’s online account information to his own email and phone number.
“Who am I speaking with?” a bank agent asks in the clip.
“Shohei Ohtani,” Mizuhara answers.
The agent goes through a two-factor authentication process, asking Mizuhara to recite a six-digit number relayed by text message to the phone number linked to the account — a number that matches Mizuhara’s personal cell.
The agent later asks for details about the transaction.
“Now recently, we’ve come across a trend of fraud and scams, so we have been monitoring the online transactions closely to make sure our clients are not the victim of either,” the agent says. “What is the reason for this transaction?”
Mizuhara says that it’s for a car loan.
“What is your relationship to the payee?” the agent asks.
“He’s my friend,” Mizuhara says.
“Have you met your friend in person?” the agent responds.
“Yes, many times,” Mizuhara says.
Mizuhara is later asked if “there will be any future wires to your friend?”
“Uh, possibly,” he responds.
The audio was edited to redact the names of the bank and an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
Prosecutors asked for restitution of nearly $17 million to Ohtani and another $1.1 million to the IRS, but noted in the filing Mizuhara is unable to pay back Ohtani. A $200 fine is also included.
Mizuhara asserted in his filing that neither he nor his wife could work, and that they relied on his parents for money. He tried to work as an Uber Eats driver briefly, but was fired when his photo was released publicly, the filing said.
“This has not been pleasant at all,” Mizuhara is quoted as having told a forensic psychologist. “My mother had to stop working at her job as a nurse because she works with many Asians. My wife and I have been followed and harassed, and we have to be careful about going out in public. I realize this is all because of what I did, and I accept this, but it has not been easy. I must admit, I never thought about the shame that would come to my family if I failed to win back the money and got caught.”
Mizuhara’s lawyer wrote that his client has struggled with “gambling dependence” since he was 18. The $17 million loss started with a credit of $20,000 from his bookie.
“I became almost dead inside,” Mizuhara was quoted as saying. “It was like I was just going through the motions. Although I had always told myself that I would win it all back, as it became clear to me this was an impossibility, I think I just shut down. But that did not stop me from placing more bets. I felt really antsy and anxious if I did not have an active bet. I felt pressure to stay in the game.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office expected Mizuhara would point to his gambling addiction.
“Even if defendant is addicted to gambling, it cannot fully explain defendant’s conduct because defendant used the stolen funds for numerous personal expenses that had nothing to do with gambling,” Mitchell wrote. “Ultimately, the government submits, the motivating factor behind defendant’s crimes was not a gambling addiction but rather greed.”
The recording served as a quick example of the extraordinary trust between Ohtani and Mizuhara that went beyond normal arrangements between a baseball player and an interpreter. For years they were close friends and confidants, with the two-way superstar leaning on Mizuhara for many elements of his life. Mizuhara would assist in driving Ohtani, shopping for him, and acting as a conduit to teammates, agents and sponsors. Mizuhara gained Ohtani’s trust and was given widespread access to his accounts, which prosecutors said led to Mizuhara having the means to change Ohtani’s account information and contact the bank for transactions without Ohtani’s direct knowledge.
Between December 2021 and January 2024, Mizuhara placed approximately 19,000 bets online through bookie Matthew Bowyer.
“His years-long theft of funds from Mr. Ohtani and the myriad lies he told to Mr. Ohtani’s agents and financial advisors to cover up his theft represent a calculated betrayal of the very person he was hired to help,” Mitchell wrote.
Mizuhara was initially paid $80,000 by the Los Angeles Angels, which was Ohtani’s first team in the United States. Mizuhara’s salary increased in 2022 to $250,000, and then when Ohtani joined the Los Angeles Dodgers for 2024, it doubled to $500,000, according to the filing. Ohtani also gave Mizuhara additional money and a Porsche Cayenne, prosecutors said.
Mizuhara, however, painted a picture in the filing that he was “on call 24/7” and “severely underpaid.” But because he worked on one-year contracts, he did not want to risk getting fired by asking for more pay. So he continued functioning as the go-between for everything from Ohtani’s endorsement and brokerage companies to the player’s mother, who managed her son’s interests in Japan. The time difference, Mizuhara said, often left him working late hours at the expense of sleep.
“I would also be running daily errands such as grocery shopping, checking his mail box, fixing his bicycle, accompany him when he went back to Iwate prefecture to visit his family, take his dog to the vet, take his dog to the groomer, drop off and pick up for his dinners he had with his peers while I wait in the car, helped coordinate Japanese and U.S. lawyers for his marriage prenup and attended the meetings, etc,” Mizuhara said, per the filing.
He continued: “My only long consecutive days off would be around 4 days at the turn of the year which left me barely any time to spend with my wife.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office cited a $325,000 charge Mizuhara put on Ohtani’s credit card for baseball cards on eBay, and a $60,000 check Ohtani cut Mizuhara for dental work, as examples of personal expenses.
“Instead of using the check to pay for the dental work, defendant deposited the check into his personal bank account and then used Mr. Ohtani’s debit card to pay for the dental work, without Mr. Ohtani’s authorization or knowledge,” Mitchell wrote.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice declined comment. Mizuhara’s attorney, Michael Freedman, did not respond to a request for comment.
As part of the May 2024 plea agreement and again on Thursday, prosecutors suggested that it was a possibility that Mizuhara could be deported to Japan, where he was born.
Mizuhara’s lawyer wrote his client, who grew up in Los Angeles but is not a U.S. citizen, “is virtually certain” to be deported Japan, where he “will continue to face great scrutiny and shame given the unique notoriety of this case” in the country.
“I truly admire Shohei as a baseball player and a human being and I was committed to devote my life so Shohei can be the best version of himself on the field,” Mizuhara said per the filing. “I want to say I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me.”
(Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images)