Date: Feb. 6, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
SANTA ANA, California – A former Japanese-language interpreter was sentenced today to 57 months in federal prison for illegally – and without authorization – transferring nearly $17 million from the bank account of Major League Baseball (MLB) star Shohei Ohtani to pay off his own substantial gambling debts incurred with an illegal bookmaking operation and for signing a false tax return.
Ippei Mizuhara of Newport Beach was sentenced by United States District Judge John W. Holcomb, who also ordered him to pay $16,975,010 in restitution to Ohtani and $1,149,400 in restitution to the IRS.
Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June 2024 to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. He is free on $25,000 bond and was ordered to surrender to federal authorities by March 24.
“Mr. Mizuhara had a unique position of trust that gave him power, brought him fame, and paid him well,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. “Unfortunately, he exploited this dream job to steal millions of dollars from his friend and confidant. This is a sad tale of an American success story gone wrong – so wrong that Mr. Mizuhara will be spending years inside a prison cell.”
“Mr. Mizuhara exploited his position of trust as an advisor to steal from Mr. Ohtani to cover debts incurred through illegal and irresponsible gambling,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office. “Furthermore, Mr. Mizuhara failed to report his ill-gotten gains as taxable income. This sentencing should serve as a warning to those who neglect to report all income during tax season. We are proud to have partnered with Homeland Security Investigations to bring closure to Mr. Ohtani and justice to Mr. Mizuhara.”
“Mr. Mizuhara is yet another example of how those in a position of trust can take advantage of a relationship and defraud the government,” said Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles Acting Special Agent in Charge John Pasciucco. “The HSI-led El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force will leverage all partnerships to locate and bring to justice those who commit financial crimes, especially those who think they can hide in plain sight.”
Mizuhara was the translator and de facto manager of a professional baseball player identified in court documents as “Victim A,” but who in fact was MLB star Shohei Ohtani. As part of his job duties, Mizuhara regularly interacted with Ohtani’s sports agents and financial advisors – who did not speak Japanese – on behalf of Ohtani, who did not speak English. Although Mizuhara was an employee of the Los Angeles Angels MLB team, for whom Ohtani played from 2018 to 2023, and, later, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom Ohtani has played since 2024, Ohtani paid him separately for the additional work of driving him to meetings and interpreting for non-baseball-related activities.
In March 2018, Mizuhara accompanied Ohtani to a bank in Phoenix to help him open a bank account to deposit his MLB salary. Inside the bank branch, Mizuhara interpreted for Ohtani when the bank employee provided Ohtani the login information for this bank account.
Beginning in September 2021, Mizuhara began placing sports bets with an illegal bookmaker. Shortly thereafter, Mizuhara began to lose bets and quickly became indebted to the bookmaker. Unable to pay his gambling debts, Mizuhara orchestrated a scheme to deceive and cheat the bank to fraudulently obtain money from the account.
From no later than November 2021 to March 2024, Mizuhara used Ohtani’s password to successfully sign into the bank account and then changed the account’s security protocols without Ohtani’s knowledge or permission. Specifically, Mizuhara changed the registered email address and telephone number on the account so bank employees would call him – not Ohtani – when attempting to verify wire transfers from the account.
Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani and used Ohtani’s personal identifying information to deceive the bank’s employees into authorizing wire transfers from the bank account. In total, Mizuhara called the bank and impersonated Ohtani on approximately 24 occasions.
In addition, in September 2023, Mizuhara needed $60,000 worth of dental work and Ohtani agreed to pay for it via a check drawn on a business account at a different bank. However, Mizuhara provided his dentist Ohtani’s debit card number for the bank account Ohtani had opened in Phoenix, charged $60,000 to that account, then deposited the $60,000 check into Mizuhara’s personal bank account.
From January 2024 to March 2024, Mizuhara purchased approximately $325,000 worth of baseball cards from online resellers such as eBay from Ohtani’s bank account with the intent to resell them later and for his own personal benefit.
When Ohtani’s sports agent and financial advisors asked Mizuhara for access to the bank account, Mizuhara lied and said Ohtani did not want them to access the account because it was private. In fact, Mizuhara did not want them to know that he had been stealing from Ohtani and had fraudulently obtained more than $16,975,010 from him.
In February 2024, he willfully made and subscribed to a false individual federal income tax return for the tax year 2022. On that tax return, Mizuhara falsely claimed that his total taxable income for that year was $136,865 when in fact he knew the amount was substantially higher and he knowingly failed to report additional income of $4.1 million.
Mizuhara, under penalty of perjury, signed the false income tax return and owes approximately $1,149,400 in additional taxes for the tax year 2022, plus additional interest and penalties.
IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Jeff Mitchell of the Major Frauds Section and Jonathan Galatzan of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section prosecuted this case.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.