Ippei Mizuhara

Ippei Mizuhara
Born:	December 31, 1984 Hokkaido, Japan
Charges:	Bank fraud (1 count), Subscribing to a false tax return (1 count)
Sentence:	57 months federal prison, 3 years supervised release
Facility:	FCI Allenwood Low
Status:	Incarcerated

Ippei Mizuhara (born December 31, 1984) is a former Major League Baseball interpreter. For most of a decade he worked beside Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani. In 2024 federal prosecutors charged him with draining roughly $17 million from Ohtani's bank account. The money went to an illegal sports bookmaker. Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June 2024 to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return.

A federal judge sentenced him on February 6, 2025, to 57 months in prison. That is four years and nine months. The court also ordered him to pay more than $18 million in restitution, most of it back to Ohtani. He reported to a federal prison in central Pennsylvania in June 2025.

Mizuhara had been Ohtani's interpreter since 2013, first in Japan and then across the player's move to the United States. He became a familiar face at press conferences and in the dugout. He caught for Ohtani during the 2021 Home Run Derby. Federal authorities determined that Ohtani never gambled and did not know his account was being looted.

Background

Early Life

Mizuhara was born on December 31, 1984, in Hokkaido, Japan. His family moved to Southern California in 1991. His father, Hidemasa, worked as a chef. They settled in Diamond Bar, a city in eastern Los Angeles County. Mizuhara attended Chaparral Middle School and then Diamond Bar High School, graduating in 2003.

He arrived in the United States with little English. He learned it over time and grew fluent in both English and Japanese. In high school he was a backup goalkeeper on the varsity soccer team. He rarely got into games.

Mizuhara later said he had graduated from the University of California, Riverside in 2007. When reporters checked in March 2024, the university said it had no record of any student by that name.

Path to Baseball

He never played the game himself. His interest traced back to 1995, when Hideo Nomo pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and set off a wave of Japanese fan interest. "I was right in the middle of Nomo Fever," Mizuhara told Sports Illustrated in 2021. He worked a string of jobs first, including a stint at a sushi restaurant and a position with a Japanese sake importer. Then he decided to become a baseball interpreter.

Career as an Interpreter

In 2013 the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball hired Mizuhara to translate for English-speaking players. Ohtani had joined the same club that year. The job ran wider than language. Mizuhara helped foreign players obtain work visas, open bank accounts, and get to medical appointments.

Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels in December 2017. The team brought Mizuhara along as his personal interpreter. The two became close. Mizuhara was at Ohtani's side at nearly every public appearance. He took part in on-field warmups and caught for Ohtani at the 2021 Home Run Derby. During the 2021-22 MLB lockout he briefly stepped away from his Angels role so he could keep working with Ohtani without violating rules that barred team contact with players.

When Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season, Mizuhara followed him there. Within three months the case broke and the job was gone.

The Theft and Gambling

Mizuhara's gambling problem started with a poker game. In September 2021 he attended one alongside Angels players and coaches. There he met Mathew Bowyer, an illegal bookmaker. Bowyer set up a betting account for him on a Costa Rica-based gambling site that Bowyer ran.

The betting escalated fast. Within about a month Bowyer could see he was dealing with a problem gambler. Mizuhara wagered around the clock, often on soccer matches in obscure overseas leagues. His average bet ran roughly $12,800. He placed something close to 25 bets a day.

Over roughly two and a half years the totals reached a staggering scale. Mizuhara placed at least 19,000 bets. The wagers added up to about $325 million. He won roughly $142 million of that and lost more than $182 million. The gap left him down over $40 million.

He covered the losses with Ohtani's money. Starting no later than November 2021 and running through March 2024, Mizuhara logged into Ohtani's bank account using the password. He changed the account's security settings. He swapped out the registered email address and phone number so that bank staff would reach him, not Ohtani, when they called to verify a transaction.

On about two dozen calls with the bank, Mizuhara posed as Ohtani. He used the player's personal details to authorize wire transfers to associates of the bookmaker. In all he moved roughly $17 million out of the account through more than 40 wires.

The fraud reached his taxes too. For 2022 Mizuhara reported taxable income of $136,865. He left out about $4.1 million in additional income that year.

Everything came apart in March 2024. Federal investigators were following money tied to Bowyer's operation when they spotted the transfers out of Ohtani's account. On March 20, 2024, the Dodgers fired Mizuhara after Ohtani's representatives reported the theft. Prosecutors said from the start that Ohtani was a victim. He had not gambled. He had not known.

Charges and Guilty Plea

Federal authorities filed a criminal complaint in April 2024 accusing Mizuhara of bank fraud. The affidavit stated there was no evidence Ohtani knew about the gambling or the transfers. A grand jury indictment followed in the Central District of California.

On June 4, 2024, Mizuhara pleaded guilty to two counts. The first was bank fraud. The second was subscribing to a false tax return, which covered the income he failed to report for 2022. In the plea agreement he admitted impersonating Ohtani on the calls to the bank and transferring the money to pay his debts.

Sentencing

U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb sentenced Mizuhara on February 6, 2025. The term was 57 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. That fell below the 63-month sentence prosecutors had asked for.

The judge ordered restitution of $16,975,010 to Ohtani and $1,149,400 to the Internal Revenue Service. The combined figure came to more than $18 million.

Prosecutors were direct about who had been harmed. "Let there be no doubt, Mr. Ohtani is truly a victim and has suffered, and will continue to suffer, harm from defendant's conduct," they wrote in court filings. The investigation had been run by Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles and IRS Criminal Investigation.

Incarceration

The court first ordered Mizuhara to surrender by late March 2025. His report date was pushed back twice. He reported in June 2025.

The Bureau of Prisons designated him to FCI Allenwood Low, a minimum-security facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, about 75 miles north of Harrisburg. He arrived around midday. His BOP register number is 09459-511.

Mizuhara is a Japanese citizen. His attorney, Michael G. Freedman, has said he is expected to be deported to Japan after he finishes his sentence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What did Ippei Mizuhara do?

Mizuhara was Shohei Ohtani's interpreter. Federal prosecutors say he transferred roughly $17 million out of Ohtani's bank account between November 2021 and March 2024 to pay an illegal sports bookmaker. He impersonated Ohtani on about two dozen calls to the bank. He pleaded guilty in June 2024 to bank fraud and to subscribing to a false tax return.

Q: How long is Ippei Mizuhara's sentence?

U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb sentenced Mizuhara on February 6, 2025, to 57 months in federal prison. That is four years and nine months. The sentence is followed by three years of supervised release.

Q: How much did Ippei Mizuhara steal?

He moved about $17 million out of Ohtani's account. The court ordered him to pay $16,975,010 in restitution to Ohtani and $1,149,400 to the IRS, for a total above $18 million.

Q: Where is Ippei Mizuhara incarcerated?

He is held at FCI Allenwood Low, a minimum-security federal facility in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, about 75 miles north of Harrisburg. He reported in June 2025. His Bureau of Prisons register number is 09459-511.

Q: Did Shohei Ohtani know about the theft?

No. Federal authorities determined that Ohtani was a victim. There was no evidence he gambled or knew that his bank account was being used to pay Mizuhara's debts.

Q: How did Ippei Mizuhara get caught?

Federal investigators were tracing money tied to the bookmaker's operation when they found the wire transfers from Ohtani's account. The Dodgers fired Mizuhara on March 20, 2024, after Ohtani's representatives reported the theft.

Q: Will Ippei Mizuhara be deported?

His attorney has said Mizuhara, a Japanese citizen, is expected to be deported to Japan once he completes his federal sentence.