SentencedPhoto: Moto "Club4AG" Miwa from USA · CC BY 2.0
Mr.Scandal
Episode 02SportsThe Interpreter
Ippei Mizuhara, 2024. You translate for the most famous baseball player alive. You also have a bookmaker, a debt, and access to his bank account.WealthYour money. Hit zero and you are broke.
PR ShieldWhat the public still believes. Hit zero and you are cancelled.
ItemsOne-time aces. Play one when it fits and it is gone.
Ippei Mizuhara: what actually happened
Scandal Run plays 10 decisions inside Ippei Mizuhara, 2024. Your choices are invented; the record below is not. Each line quotes the MrScandal story and names its source, in the order it happened.
Show the real record (10 moments, spoilers)
- The early years Mizuhara was Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter and also served as his Home Run Derby catcher.
- Debt day At least $4.5 million moved from Ohtani's bank account to associates of bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, the target of a federal investigation in Southern California.
- Later that year Federal prosecutors accused Mizuhara of impersonating Ohtani in calls to the player's bank.
- Losing streak Prosecutors said Mizuhara took almost $17 million from Ohtani's accounts.
- March 2024, Seoul After the Dodgers' season opener in Seoul, Mizuhara told players in a clubhouse speech, and ESPN in an interview, that Ohtani had sent the money to cover his gambling debt.
- March 20, 2024 Ohtani's law firm, Berk Brettler, called Mizuhara's account false, said Ohtani was the victim of "massive theft" and said the matter had been referred to the authorities.
- April 11, 2024 Federal prosecutors in Southern California charged Mizuhara with one count of bank fraud on April 11, 2024, saying he took almost $17 million.
- June 4, 2024 Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return. MLB then declared Ohtani a victim of fraud and closed its investigation.
- January 2025 Judge John W. Holcomb said Mizuhara's letter was "filled with misrepresentations and omissions" and gave it "no credit." Prosecutors asked for 57 months; his lawyer asked for 18.
- February 6, 2025 Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison plus three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $18 million to Ohtani and the IRS. He began serving his sentence on June 16, 2025 at FCI Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania.