While he was gambling away money from Shohei Ohtani, Ippei Mizuhara was also buying a boatload of baseball cards, according to federal investigators.
In a 37-page complaint filed Thursday charging him with bank fraud, federal prosecutors allege that the man who served as Ohtani’s translator and helped manage his day-to-day life, stole more than $16 million from Ohtani to pay massive gambling debts. Court documents also say Ippei Mizuhara also spent $325,000 of Ohtani’s money to buy cards, an average of about $325 per card.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Mizuhara, who lived in Newport Beach, used Ohtani’s bank account to buy cards on eBay and Whatnot beginning in January of this year and was still buying as late as last month. Prosecutors say he purchased about 1,000 cards, using an alias, “Jay Min.” At least some of those packages were mailed to him in care of the Dodgers after Mizuhara instructed a clubhouse employee who handles mail to set them aside.
IRS Special Investigator Chris Seymour stated in the affidavit that additional cards were found in boxes and briefcases stored in Mizuhara’s vehicle. They included cards of Ohtani, Juan Soto, Yogi Berra and others.
Seymour stated that some of the packages “had already been opened when I received them. Inside of these packages were baseball cards which appeared to be in protective cases for collecting.”
IRS investigators are still attempting to inventory the cards that Mizuhara purchased.
It’s believed Mizuhara planned to sell the cards “at a later date,” according to the affidavit.
Most of the money Mizuhara is accused of stealing from Ohtani’s accounts has to do with debts he incurred while gambling an average of 25 times each day. In all, Mizuhara is accused of placing 19,000 bets, with a net loss of $40.7 million between late 2021 and early this year. Investigators have uncovered no evidence that any of the wagers involved Major League Baseball games.
In 2018, when Ohtani first joined the Anaheim Angels after a arriving from Japan, prosecutors say Mizuhara accompanied Ohtani, who didn’t speak English, to a bank branch in Arizona to assist Ohtani in opening a bank account and translated for Ohtani when setting up the account details. Ohtani’s salary from playing baseball was deposited into this account and he “never gave Mizuhara control of this or any of his other financial accounts,” according to the affidavit.
“Mr. Mizuhara used and abused that position of trust in order to plunder Mr. Ohtani’s bank account,” said Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. “Mr. Mizuhara committed fraud on a massive scale.”
Mizuhara’s gambling, they say, began in the fall of 2021 through an illegal bookmaker. In one instance, he allegedly also telephoned the bank and falsely identified himself as Ohtani to trick bank employees into authorizing wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to associates of the illegal gambling operation.
In an interview last week with law enforcement, Ohtani denied authorizing Mizuhara’s wire transfers. Ohtani provided his cellphone to law enforcement, who determined that there was no evidence to suggest that Ohtani was aware of, or involved in, Mizuhara’s illegal gambling activity or payment of debts.
In the affidavit, Mizuhara appears to confess in one of the text messages recovered by investigators.
Mizuhara is expected to appear in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles for his initial appearance in the near future.
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