Ippei Mizuhara’s Bookie Wonders About Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani’s Knowledge of Gambling
The Los Angeles Dodgers landed Shohei Ohtani ahead of the 2024 season as the generational talent inked a 10-year, $700 million deal. As festive as Dec. 2023 was for Dodgers fans, a dark scandal soon followed Ohtani’s now-former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
Mizuhara stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to fund his secret and illegal sports gambling ventures. He falsified his tax returns and even committed bank fraud by pretending to be the superstar baseball player he worked for, leading to a 57-month prison sentence.
The man who accepted those bets from Mizuhara via one of the largest bookmaking schemes in the country was Mathew Bowyer. He is awaiting a sentence of his own for not just his involvement in the Ohtani situation, but also his other illegal activities while running this sports gambling ring.
More news: Dave Roberts Says Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani in ‘Lock Step’ Over Slowed Pitching Progression
Bowyer recently told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the notion of Ohtani not having an idea of what was happening to his interpreter was plausible, at best.
“It’s definitely possible Ohtani didn’t know anything, but plausible is a different answer,” Bowyer said. “I gambled bigger than most. I hid my emotions better than most. But you can only hide so much when you’re in serious turmoil. And clearly, he was in serious turmoil.”
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote that Mizuhara acted more as a de facto manager and assistant, per the U.S. government’s complaint. Ohtani was busy enough with his pitching and hitting efforts, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the two to have a closer relationship than the average interpreter and foreign star.
“I truly believe that Shohei doesn’t gamble, but I think he knew some area of demise with Ippei, just maybe not to that extent,” Bowyer said.
From a human standpoint, it’s possible that despite Ohtani’s rigorous baseball schedule, he could still see a level of stress from his interpreter — but in no way does it mean Ohtani knew anything of what was really happening behind the curtain.
Finding out one of your closest allies has stolen almost $17 million from you is unthinkable, but not only did Ohtani battle through the emotional hardship, he earned his third MVP award and opened up the 50-home run, 50-stolen bases club with the nightmarish start to the season ending with a World Series victory.
More news: Dodgers Ranked as Second-Most Valuable Franchise in MLB Behind Yankees
Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Have you joined our Discord Channel yet? Be a part of the ultimate Dodgers Nation community and get VIP Nation Access! Don’t miss out on real-time Dodgers talk, call-in access to Dodgers Dougout, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive interviews, giveaways, and more!
There is a lot about this case that we will never know the whole truth about.
The official position that MLB, and the distric attorney have put forward. is a complete fairytale. There is no possible way that Bowyer extended that kind of credit to anyone but Ohtani. I know this with 100% certainty!! They cut a deal, the interpreter will do very little time, and return to Japan, a rich man. Bowyer will probably serve somewhere around 2 years.
You don’t know Jack. You may think, but you don’t have any certainty. Stop it.
I believe Ohtani did not know until it’s proven he did know. My ex spouse was transferring money into two separate accounts in her name without my knowledge for almost 15 years until it was exposed just before our divorce. Unless someone is looking for something it can definitely go unnoticed but once you suspect or distrust then it’s best as Ronald Reagan famously said “Trust but verify”. Just as in the Houston Astros cheating scandal those that were exposed and caught should always be looked at as possibly still possibly cheating.
Ohtani knew what was going on he was a part of the whole thing