⚾ Ippei Mizuhara: 57 months, $18M+ owed to Shohei Ohtani and IRS

Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter is now a federal inmate, doing time for stealing nearly $17 million from the man he worked for. Ippei Mizuhara, who translated for the Dodgers star and served as his Home Run Derby catcher, pleaded guilty on June 4, 2024 to bank fraud and filing a false tax return, and was sentenced on February 6, 2025 to 57 months in prison plus three years of supervised release.

The charge and the plea

Federal authorities in Southern California charged Mizuhara on April 11, 2024 with one count of bank fraud, accusing him of impersonating Ohtani in calls to the player's bank; prosecutors said he took almost $17 million. Less than two months later, on June 4, 2024, he pleaded guilty to that bank fraud charge and to one count of filing a false tax return.

"massive theft"

Berk Brettler, the law firm representing Ohtani, in a statement reported by the Los Angeles Times on March 20, 2024

The sentence and the restitution

A sentencing hearing that moved three times - originally set for October 25, 2024, then pushed to December 20, then to January 24, 2025 - finally landed on February 6, 2025. Judge John W. Holcomb gave Mizuhara 57 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered more than $18 million in restitution to Ohtani and the IRS, the US tax agency. The 57 months was exactly what prosecutors had asked for; Mizuhara's lawyer had requested 18. Holcomb said the interpreter's pre-sentencing letter was "filled with misrepresentations and omissions" and gave it "no credit."

The money trail

The fraud ran through a bookmaker. At least $4.5 million moved from Ohtani's bank account to associates of Mathew Bowyer, the target of a federal investigation in Southern California. 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, The Athletic reported; Ohtani's law firm, Berk Brettler, called that false, saying he was the victim of "massive theft" and that the matter had been referred to the authorities. A clubhouse account and a lawyer's statement didn't agree on who owed whom - the guilty plea settled it, and MLB afterward declared Ohtani a victim of fraud and closed its investigation.

What's still sealed

Mizuhara was originally ordered to report to prison by March 24, 2025. His attorney, Michael G. Freedman, filed a request on March 12 to move that surrender date; the judge granted it, but the request itself remains under court seal, ESPN reported from the unsealed filing. The reporting date slid twice more, to May 12 and then June 16, 2025, when Mizuhara began serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania. Both his lawyer and prosecutors expect him to be deported to Japan after his term, given the felony conviction - an outcome that, by their own account, won't be resolved until the sentence is served.