Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, pleaded guilty last spring to charges for bank and tax fraud after stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani, in part to pay off gambling debts he accumulated.
On Thursday, The Athletic published audio of Mizuhara impersonating Ohtani to push through a $200,000 wire transfer from one of Ohtani's accounts, a recording obtained by the Department of Justice.
During the audio, the bank representative asked who she was speaking with, to which Mizuhara could be heard saying in response, "Shohei Ohtani."
While impersonating Ohtani, Mizuhara claimed that the wire transaction was for a car loan for a friend. When asked by the bank representative if there would be future loans to the same friend, Mizuhara responded, "Uh, possibly."
NEW: The Athletic has obtained the audio recording of Ippei Mizuhara impersonating Shohei Ohtani in a phone call to the bank.
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 24, 2025
Full phone call in the link ⤵️https://t.co/l0ueS1uz0M https://t.co/1X5aH6Sd0i pic.twitter.com/plwsV6IGbV
In the court filing the audio was obtained from, prosecutors are reportedly recommending a sentence of almost five years for Mizuhara. Mizuhara is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6. His sentencing date has been postponed multiple times previously.
The U.S. Attorney’s office is expecting Mizuhara to pin the blame for his theft on an addiction to gambling, but U.S. attorney Jeff Mitchell refutes that notion.
“Even if defendant is addicted to gambling, it cannot fully explain defendant’s conduct because defendant used the stolen funds for numerous personal expenses that had nothing to do with gambling,” Mitchell wrote in a court filing Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, via The Athletic. “Ultimately, the government submits, the motivating factor behind defendant’s crimes was not a gambling addiction but rather greed.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as New Audio Shows Shohei Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Impersonating Dodgers Star, Trying to Wire $200,000.
