SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal choose sentenced Ippei Mizuhara, the previous interpreter convicted of defrauding Los Angeles Dodgers celebrity Shohei Ohtani, to 57 months in jail at a sentencing listening to inside Orange County Superior Court docket on Thursday.
Mizuhara sat silently, and had no seen response as Choose John W. Holcomb learn the sentence, which included three years of supervised launch and a restitution of greater than $18 million to Ohtani and the Inner Income Service.
The sentence was precisely what the federal government had requested in a pre-sentencing submitting. Mizuhara had requested an 18-month sentence after pleading responsible in June to financial institution fraud and submitting a false tax return.
Holcomb said that the reasoning for the sentence was, partially, on account of Mizuhara’s pre-sentencing letter to the court docket, which Holcomb mentioned was “full of misrepresentations and omissions.”
“I give it no credit score,” Holcomb mentioned of Mizuhara’s letter.
Mizuhara additionally spoke briefly on the sentencing, apologizing to Ohtani, his household, the Dodgers and the USA authorities. He instructed the choose “I encourage your mercy, and I promise I’ll benefit from it.”
Mizuhara declined remark following Thursday’s listening to. He has to report back to the to-be-determined jail by midday on March 24. He requested to be incarcerated in Southern California.
Mizuhara, 40, didn’t have any buddies or kin current, although a number of wrote letters on his behalf to the choose.
Ohtani filed a sufferer impression assertion with the court docket beneath seal. Victims have the fitting to file their statements in such a way to keep away from them changing into public. He was not current on the listening to.
Holcomb’s sentence brings a conclusion to an 11-month ordeal that rocked the baseball universe at first of the 2024 season. Mizuhara had labored alongside Ohtani for greater than a decade, courting again to Ohtani’s enjoying days with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013. He served as his interpreter, private assistant, dwelling run derby catcher, and shut good friend.
Their skilled relationship got here to an finish in March, when the Dodgers fired Mizuhara following accusations of theft surrounding the longtime Ohtani confidant. The Dodgers had been in South Korea, dealing with the Padres to open the season. Mizuhara initially said to the Dodgers, and in interviews, that Ohtani had loaned him cash to repay playing money owed.
That story rapidly unraveled, and prosecutors formally alleged weeks later that Mizuhara wager a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} with an unlawful bookmaker and stole cash to pay the bookie. Mizuhara, they mentioned, accessed one in every of Ohtani’s financial institution accounts to repay a betting debt that reached greater than $40.6 million.
In audio first obtained by The Athletic in January, by the Division of Justice, Mizuhara referred to as the financial institution, impersonating Ohtani within the hopes of wiring $200,000 from his account. He made quite a few such calls, and likewise created pretend e-mail addresses pretending to be Ohtani.
In a pre-sentencing letter to the choose, Mizuhara claimed to be “severely underpaid” and overworked by Ohtani, who relied on him for each day errands all through a lot of the calendar yr. Mizuhara additionally mentioned he had developed a playing dependancy.
“Though I had at all times instructed myself that I’d win all of it again, because it turned clear to me this was an impossibility, I believe I simply shut down,” Mizuhara wrote within the Jan. 23 letter. “However that didn’t cease me from putting extra bets. I felt actually antsy and anxious if I didn’t have an energetic wager. I felt strain to remain within the sport.”
Mizuhara and Ohtani shared many a podium collectively; the Seoul Sequence would mark the top of that relationship. (JUNG YEON-JE / AFP through Getty Photos)
Holcomb pressed Mizuhara and his lawyer, Michael Freedman on the claims. The choose was particularly inquisitive about Mizuhara’s omissions that Ohtani paid for the interpreter’s lease, tipped him usually in five-figure quantities, gave him a Porsche, and paid for he and his spouse to fly around the globe.
The choose additionally agreed with prosecutors, who had famous that Mizuhara made no try and pay Ohtani again, and frequently pocketed winnings, whereas stealing from Ohtani to cowl losses.
As such, he rejected Mizuhara’s declare that he was dwelling “paycheck to paycheck” on condition that he at all times had cash in his checking account.
Freedman, Mizuhara’s lawyer, acknowledged that a part of Mizuhara’s letter was “poorly worded.”
Whereas prosecutors and Freedman mentioned that Mizuhara took full duty for his actions, Holcomb disagreed with Freedman’s assertion that his shopper instantly “fessed up.” He pointed to the preliminary ESPN article that broke this scandal, wherein Mizuhara claimed Ohtani was conscious of Mizuhara’s playing dependancy and helped repay the debt.
“Why is he not giving me the complete image,” Holcomb requested?
Holcomb additionally took situation with Freedman’s argument that the numerous quantity stolen shouldn’t be thought of a think about sentencing, given the distinctive nature of the case and its sufferer. His argument was that Mizuhara was given a major line of credit score from bookmaker Matthew Bowyer due to his connection to Ohtani. Finally, the amount of cash stolen did play a think about Holcomb’s sentence.
Prosecutor Jeff Mitchell continued to push again in opposition to Mizuhara’s letter as nicely, reiterating in court docket that he supplied excuses for his conduct, slightly than genuinely feeling unhealthy for his crimes.
“As an alternative of exhibiting true regret,” the federal government mentioned in a Jan. 30 submitting, “defendant seems to attempt to justify stealing tens of millions of {dollars} from Mr. Ohtani.”
Each Freedman and prosecutors consider that Mizuhara will likely be deported again to his dwelling nation of Japan. He’s a authorized everlasting resident of the USA, and grew up in Southern California, however isn’t a citizen. Committing a felony could possibly be grounds for deportation, although that probably gained’t be resolved till he finishes his jail sentence.
“The sentence, each the jail time and restitution mirror the seriousness of the offense, and sends a robust message to others who would possibly resolve to have interaction on this form of conduct,” mentioned performing U.S. Legal professional Joseph T. McNally outdoors the courthouse following the listening to.
“This case is a high-profile model of one thing that occurs on a regular basis. An unscrupulous individual takes benefit of the belief positioned in them.”
(Photograph of Mizuhara leaving court docket Thursday: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP through Getty Photos)