Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, who is serving a 57-month sentence for stealing money from the Los Angeles Dodgers star’s account to pay off gambling debts, had a $40-million credit line and owed $24 million to illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer.
Ippei Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges in 2024. He paid the bookie $16.2 million before the conspiracy was uncovered by federal authorities, Bowyer said during a recent interview on the “WiseKracks” podcast.
Key Takeaways
- Ippei Mizuhara had a $40-million betting credit line with illegal bookie Mathew Bowyer.
- Bowyer provided many details about Mizuhara’s account during a recent podcast interview.
- Bowyer is convinced Ohtani never placed any wagers.
Bowyer, who ran an operation with dozens of betting agents around the country and hundreds of clients, provided many details about his business relationship with Mizuhara – who was “by far” his biggest client – during the interview. Bowyer is awaiting a prison sentence after he was busted by the FBI and pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling business and money laundering.
Mizuhara, who placed more than 19,000 bets with Bowyer, had access to Ohtani’s bank account, and he was wiring Bowyer $500,000 at a time with a few million-dollar payments as well, to pay off his losses.
How it all began
Bowyer said the scheme began with just a $1,000 bet on a Turkish soccer game. Bowyer’s friend knew several Angels players when Ohtani played there. He introduced Bowyer to Mizuhara at a private poker game after he noticed Mizuhara was placing soccer bets on his phone and said that Bowyer could help him make wagers.
Mizuhara originally received an $8,000 credit line. After he blew through that, Bowyer eventually extended the betting credits to $300,000. It took until the third wire transfer for him to realize the money was coming directly from the MLB star.
“I didn’t think the interpreter for Shohei Ohtani was going to stiff me,” Bowyer said. “I extended his credit line to $300,000, and he paid it. Asked me for $500K, clearly he’s a bad gambler and greedy-wise I’m like, yeah, so I gave him $500K.”
Eventually, the credit line reached $40 million.
“As he’s losing, he’s like, ‘Look, I’m gonna always pay you. Just give me more credit because I can’t get access to the money instantly all the time to send a million dollars on wires.’ I didn’t care,” Bowyer said. “I didn’t ask who it was from.”
The “greedy side”
At some point, Bowyer began to believe that the funds were coming from a bank account where Ohtani’s Angels' salary was distributed, and that Ohtani was living off of his endorsement account. Bowyer said he thinks that’s why Ohtani didn’t know about the fraud for so long.
“The greedy side of me said, ‘I have the best customer on the planet. I will always get paid,’” Bowyer said. “The second part of me was like, ‘Oh, this is going to put eyes on me and this could be bad.’ And then I was like, ‘I better make sure he’s not betting baseball. I went and checked, and there were no baseball bets.”
Bowyer is convinced Ohtani never placed any of the wagers. He purposely attended an Angels game when Ohtani was pitching for the AL team. Bowyer checked his betting site and saw that soccer bets were coming in while Ohtani was on the mound, so he knew it was just Mizuhara wagering.
“It definitely was the interpreter,” Bowyer said. “This is the part that, in my opinion, is still in question. Did Ohtani know that the interpreter was gambling, and to the level that he was and did he steal his money or borrow it? That part to me is still in question. But clearly, he stole the money. That’s what he’s in prison for, and I feel terrible for it to be honest.”
Bowyer said Mizuhara is an “honorable guy,” and Bowyer was remorseful that he played a role in one of the wildest gambling scandals ever.
“I’m a greedy guy. I love money,” Bowyer said. “I’m not going to act like I don’t, but I definitely don’t want to be part of a fraud scheme. I didn’t want to affect baseball or Shohei Ohtani's tarnished name.”
Resorts World’s role
So what happened to the $16 million of Ohtani’s stolen money? Bowyer says most of it currently belongs to Resorts World Las Vegas, where he gambled away $13 million over a nearly two-year period.
The Vegas casino knew that Bowyer and his associates were illegal bookies and welcomed their business, which the Nevada Gaming Control Board fined Resorts World $10.5 million for earlier this year.
“The culture within Resorts World created the perception, or the reality in certain instances, that Resorts World is an avenue to launder funds driven from illegal activity,” the NGCB stated in an August 2024 press release.
Bowyer complains that while he’s headed to prison, nothing has happened to Resorts World at the federal level.
“The casinos are still fighting with the government right now in the case that I have, but I’m the one going to prison,” Bowyer said. “I take accountability for my own actions, but it’s kind of sad that the casino got away with all the money, and they have yet to have any accountability.”
Illinois recently made the decision to stop offering that funding method, five years after launching wagering. Regulators have cited studies that say limiting credit card funding helps lower the risk of compulsive gaming for problem gamblers.
