On the eve of the Dodgers starting the 2025 season in Japan, the scandal that broke while the team started its 2024 in South Korea comes to an ignominious end.
Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, on Thursday was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for stealing about $17 million to cover gambling losses.
Molly Knight was in the courtroom and broke the news of the sentencing. Per Judge John W. Holcomb, Mizuhara’s letter undermined his plea for mercy because it was filled with misrepresentations and omissions, damaging his credibility.
Per Sam Blum of The Athletic, Mizuhara will serve three years of supervised release and is ordered to pay Ohtani about $17 million in restitution and just over $1 million in restitution to the IRS. As Mizuhara is not a US citizen, he will very likely be deported back to Japan after serving his prison term.
Mizuhara was not remanded into custody, as he quickly left the courthouse after the sentence was handed down. He was ordered to surrender himself to federal custody on March 24.
We were not permitted to ask Mizuhara questions as maybe 60-80 reporters chased him to his car.
— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) 2025-02-06T22:55:38.874Z
News of the gambling scandal in the orbit of MLB’s biggest player and star, Ohtani, broke in the literal early hours of the Dodgers’ season, news broke that Ohtani’s long-time friend, translator, and confidant was embroiled in sports gambling.
What followed was the literal unraveling of a life and a web of lies that exposed the depth of Mizuhara’s misdeeds. In federal court, he admitted to stealing approximately $17 million from Ohtani by pleading guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return last year.
On February 6, this story reached its denouement in a southern California federal courthouse. Mizuhara had previously made a plea for mercy cutting a gambling addiction, which the government discounted as not credible in its last filings before sentencing.
Ohtani did file a victim impact statement under seal, and the government cited the damage to his reputation as a factor in imposing a harsher sentence on Mizuhara.
Acting U.S. Attorney McNally described this case as a high-profile example of someone taking advantage of someone’s finances. McNally reiterated that Ohtani was solely a victim and was taken advantage of by Mizuhara, calling his behavior “shameless.”
On that note, this matter comes to a close as Ohtani excelled in circumstances that would have found unfathomable, both in scope and betrayal. As for Mizuhara, he is now infamous for his betrayal and his crimes, and let us never speak of him again.