“Just sorry they were caught”
In asking the court for lenience, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara claimed that gambling addiction was a significant factor in his theft of $17m from the L.A. Dodgers’ star. On Thursday, federal prosecutors filed documents stating that he did not have an addiction and there was “only minimal evidence” of any sort of legal gambling history.
In a letter to the court last week, Mizuhara said that he was “committed to devote my life so Shohei can be the best version of himself on the field” and that “I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me.”
they are just sorry they were caught”
Prosecutors aren’t buying it. “All defendants claim to be remorseful at the time of sentencing,” they wrote. “The question courts must answer is whether the defendant is truly remorseful or whether they are just sorry they were caught.”
Scant legal gambling history
According to prosecutors, the government only found that Mizuhara spent $200 at the Mirage in Las Vegas in 2008. They added that he did create a FanDuel account in 2018 but never used it. He opened a DraftKings account in 2023 and began placing bets, but that was already after he had “stolen millions of dollars from Mr. Ohtani,” thus debunking the gambling addiction defense in the minds of prosecutors.
Mizuhara’s bets ranged from $5 to $1,400.
In his letter to the court, Mizuhara also said that his living expenses, namely rent and his wife’s travel between Japan and US, were too great, especially considering the overall cost of living in the L.A. area.
Prosecutors dispute that, as well. When he made the first illegal wire transfer from Ohtani’s account for $40,000, Mizuhara had $34,000 in his own checking account. In March 2023, he had more than $30,000 in his account and a year later, he had over $195,000.
he was using Mr. Ohtani’s debit card to pay his rent”
“He had no expenses,” the prosecutors claim. “He had no loans, car payments, or rent expenses,” adding that “he was using Mr. Ohtani’s debit card to pay his rent” without Ohtani’s permission.
Mizuhara did admit that Ohtani gave him a Porsche.
But what about illegal gambling history?
Ippei Mizuhara has already pleaded guilty, so his letter to the court and the prosecution’s subsequent filing are aimed at influencing the sentence. Prosecutors want the judge to hand down a 57-month sentence, while Mizuhara’s lawyer has asked for an 18-month stint in prison.
So, the existence or lack thereof of Mizuhara’s gambling problem is not necessarily important. It just depends on what the judge wants to consider. But interestingly, in its letter on Thursday, the prosecution opted to focus on Mizuhara’s legal gambling.
Of course, what’s missing here is any of Mizuhara’s illegal gambling. It is well known that Mizuhara placed thousands of wagers with Mathew Bowyer, who ran his bookie operation for at least five years and had hundreds of clients. Bowyer pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling business in August of last year.
The 40-year-old Mizuhara did claim that his alleged gambling addiction goes back to when he was 18, so it is entirely possible that prosecutors cited his lack of legal gambling history to illustrate that Mizuhara exaggerated about the extent of any gambling problems.