Ippei Mizuhara Discusses Struggles, Reveals Reason He Stole From Shohei Ohtani in All-Encompassing Letter to Judge
Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, has sent a letter to Honorable Judge John W. Holcomb asking for an 18-month sentence in prison for his bank fraud charges after stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay off his gambling debts.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors asked for a 57-month prison sentence for Mizuhara, and for him to pay $16.9 million of restitution to Ohtani, and another $1.1 million to the IRS.
More news: Audio Recording of Ippei Mizuhara Impersonating Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani in Call With Bank Released
In the three page letter, Mizuhara opens up about his struggles, and revealed the factors in his life that led him to gamble and then steal from Ohtani.
Here is the letter, in its entirety, via Evan Drellich of The Athletic:
Honorable Judge John W. Holcomb,
I am writing you today before my sentencing hearing. Sadly, I am asking for your leniency in sentencing me and plead that your sentence be merciful and not punitive. Please take into account what I am going to say, as many lives are going to be touched and affected by your decision today.
As you know, your Honor, the crime I committed was bank fraud and tax fraud. I need to tell you what motivated me to act against the law. I am truly remorseful for the actions that I took.
Since late 2017, I had been working with Shohei Ohtani as his interpreter/manager. I can confidently say that I put my heart and soul into my work so Shohei could have the best career possible as a professional baseball player in the United States. I had sacrificed not only my own life but my family’s life to put Shohei as my number one priority ever since I started to work for him, and to this day I am very happy for all of the accolades and success he has had thus far.
Usually, when a Japanese baseball player makes the move to the United States, they would bring over multiple staff members to take care of various tasks, such as a driver, trainer, chef, off-the-field interpreter/support member, etc. However, I was the only person Shohei brought along, so naturally, I had to support him with most of the above-mentioned tasks. I drove him everywhere he needed to be, went on frequent grocery runs, ran random errands whenever he needed them, so I felt like I was on call 24/7. On top of all this, I had to communicate with his U.S. agent on a daily basis and also his mother (who was in charge of Shohei’s management on the Japanese side) a few times a week. With the busy baseball schedule and the international time difference, there were many times when I would be on the phone well past midnight and lose sleep.
The offseason was much harder both physically and mentally. Shohei would train 5-6 times per week, and I was responsible for reserving the facility, setting up and cleaning up all of the practice equipment, filming and tracking all of his exercises, being his training partner (as it was just him and I during all of the offseason training), driving him back and forth, and communicating all of this back to the Angels and his personal pitching/hitting/rehabilitation people in the United States. I would also be running daily errands such as grocery shopping, checking his mailbox, fixing his bicycle, accompanying him when he went back to Iwate Prefecture to visit his family, taking his dog to the vet and groomer, dropping off and picking up his dinners with peers while I waited in the car, helping to coordinate Japanese and U.S. lawyers for his marriage prenup and attending meetings, etc.
On top of all this, I was responsible for communicating with all of his endorsement companies and brokerage companies to set up his production days for commercials, which occurred once per week in between training. I would accompany him to all of his production shoots, which left me with almost no true days off. My only long consecutive days off would be around 4 days at the turn of the year, which left me with barely any time to spend with my wife. I often felt like the offseason was much, much busier and more stressful than the season itself. For all this work, Shohei paid me an average of roughly 400,000 yen (roughly $2,500) per month from October to January, and 20,000 yen (roughly $125–$130) per month from February to September, which equates to roughly $11,000 per year. The reason why October to January was higher was because I was not getting paid by the baseball team during those months, as they were considered the off-season. I felt like I was getting severely underpaid, but I was afraid to speak up for myself, as I was on a one-year contract every year, and I didn’t want to upset them and risk being fired.
I would like to briefly touch on my financial situation since I started working for Shohei Ohtani. My salary from the Angels was $85,000 in 2018, $87,000 from 2019 to 2021, $99,611.16 (prorated salary due to the lockout) in 2022, and $250,000 in 2023. I had to live within a certain vicinity of Shohei to be close by to accommodate his daily needs, especially in his early years in the United States. This meant that I had to rent a place near him, which resulted in higher rent costs.
On top of the hefty rent price, I needed to take care of my wife’s expenses for her flights between Japan and the United States every 90 days, as she didn’t get her Green Card until 2023. This also meant I had to pay double the rent while she stayed in Japan. Additionally, I had to pay double rent for my place in both the United States and Japan during the off-season while I accompanied Shohei to Japan for his off-season training and commercial shoots. All of these extra expenses were taking a huge toll on me, and I was living paycheck to paycheck. There were months when I had to borrow money from family and friends to make ends meet.
I have also had numerous offers from Japanese companies over the years, such as writing books, doing TV/radio interviews, and appearing in TV commercials, which would have helped me financially, but they were all shut down by Shohei and his company in Japan.
In 2021, I unfortunately met Matt Boyer, an online sports betting bookie, through one of Shohei’s teammates. Due to my ignorance of the gambling industry, I did not know until early 2024 that he was an “illegal bookmaker.” Being desperate for money at the time, I stupidly thought this might be an opportunity to help myself out financially and started using his website for sports betting. Before I knew it, my gambling debt had grown so much that I couldn’t find any way to pay it off but by using Shohei’s money. I felt terribly guilty about putting my hands on his money, but at the time, it seemed like the only solution.
As the days went on, my debt continued to grow, and at this point, I thought the only way to get out of this debt and pay Shohei back was to win it back through gambling. I now realize that I had developed a terrible addiction, and I only saw hope in life while gambling. I have learned my lesson in a very hard way, and after seeing Dr. Whiting for my gambling problems, I can confidently say that my gambling days are behind me. I would like to use my experience to help others who are suffering from similar situations and give back to the community as much as I can.
Lastly, please allow me to talk about my family. My wife and I got married in 2018 after dating for five years. She was born and raised in Japan and has very minimal English-speaking skills. We had some immigration lawyer issues, so she did not receive her green card until 2023. In the meantime, she had to travel back and forth between Japan and the United States every 90 days, which I briefly explained above.
I made my wife go through so much stress and trouble. She had been detained twice in U.S. customs overnight and deported once because they thought her frequent travel back and forth was suspicious. She said those experiences were really fearsome and even traumatic. As a result, she was unable to come to the United States for all of 2022. Now, looking back, I feel that gambling helped fill the void of not being able to see my wife for the entire year. I feel terrible and really guilty for making her go through all of this.
We always wanted to have kids and have a nice wedding one day, but we just couldn’t make it work because we didn’t have the flexibility, both time-wise and financially. Shohei gave us a honeymoon ticket via Japan Airlines as his tip for the 2018 season, but we were never able to use it since I never got enough time off. We plan to return the ticket to him through our attorneys.
She also played a big part in supporting Shohei’s journey in the U.S. In the early years, she would cook him breakfast and periodically make dinner for him. She would watch Shohei’s dog while he was away for baseball and even paid out of her pocket to learn “Gel Nail” work to protect Shohei’s nails, as he often suffered from broken nails while pitching. The Gel Nail actually helped protect his nails from further damage. She truly supported both Shohei and me to the best of her abilities over the years and never complained, knowing that my priority was to support Shohei to the best of my ability.
She was never aware of my financial struggles, as I hid them from her to spare her more stress and anxiety. We still hope to have children one day, but I feel that a lengthy imprisonment would be detrimental to those chances, as we are both getting older. Her limitations with the English language would also make it hard for her to live without me, although my parents are very supportive and willing to help her if I am not around.
My parents have also been very supportive of my time as Shohei’s interpreter. They would often cook and bring in Japanese meals that are hard to find here for him and even watched his dog for a few days when he had to be away. I am their only child, and we have always been a very close and caring family. I can confidently say that they raised me with much love and care.
I understand that I have made a decision that will impact my entire life, and I am not making excuses for what I have done. I am not trying to justify my actions in any way. I am asking that you see me as a man who believes change is possible. I don’t believe an apology will fix my wrongs. I am prepared to accept the consequences. I am simply asking for a little mercy from the court concerning the sentence you will hand down. Thank you very much.
Lastly, I truly admire Shohei, both as a baseball player and as a human being, and I was committed to devoting my life so that Shohei could be the best version of himself on the field. I want to say that I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerely,
Ippei Mizuhara
