The Justice Department announced Thursday that a bookmaker at the center of a scandal surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s longtime former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has agreed to plead guilty to three federal charges.
Matthew Bowyer, who ran a gambling operation in Southern California, is scheduled to plead guilty on Aug. 9 to money laundering, committing money laundering and filing false tax returns.
Mizuhara admitted to stealing about $17 million from the Dodgers superstar and pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax evasion in June.
His gambling habits were astonishing.
“From September 2021 through January 2024, Mizuhara placed at least 19,000 bets on Bowyer’s illegal gambling operation through one of the gambling websites utilized by Bowyer. During this period, Mizuhara’s winning bets totaled at least $142,256,769 and losing bets totaled at least $182,935,206, resulting in Mizuhara’s liabilities of approximately $40,678,436. During this period, Bowyer periodically increased the limits on Mizuhara’s betting amounts,” the Department of Justice said in a release.
“From February 2022 through January 2024, Bowyer directed Suwon to transfer at least $16.25 million to bank accounts controlled by Bowyer, all of which were proceeds from Bowyer’s illegal gambling operations. Of these illegal proceeds, Bowyer transferred or directed the transfer of at least $9.3 million in the form of wire transfers to casinos as payments for markers for Bowyer and his associates.”
Bowyer faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison on the money laundering charge and up to eight years on the other charges.
When the scandal first came to light in March, Ohtani was adamant that Mizuhara was not making these bets on his behalf and denied knowing about the extent of his gambling activities.
“I want to make it clear that I have never bet on sports or knowingly sent money to a bookmaker,” Ohtani said through a new translator.
Mizuhara has repeatedly denied ever betting on baseball.
