Shohei Ohtani makes headlines for his incredible skills on the baseball field; recently, however,  he has been in headlines for other reasons. 

Whenever you see Shohei Ohtani in any media, his English translator is seen right by his side. Ippei Mizuhara, not only Shohei’s translator, but one of his closest friends. 

On Mar. 20, 2024 media outlets, such as Los Angeles Times, began to report Ohtani’s lawyers were accusing Mizuhara of massive theft. Mizuhara was being accused of secretly transferring huge amounts of funds from Ohtani to feed into Mizuhara’s extreme gambling addiction. At the time, the Los Angeles Dodgers were staying in Seoul, South Korea for a special series versus their SoCal rivals the San Diego Padres. Mizuhara has since been fired from the Dodgers organization. 

According to Ohtani himself during a press conference following the reports on March 25, Mizuhara addressed the whole team, including Ohtani, after the first game of the Seoul series. Making them aware of the charges against him before they found out from the media. Mizuhara’s confession to the team was also the first time Ohtani was hearing about the charges as well. To watch the full press conference

click here. 

“The allegations against Mizuhara centered specifically on wire transfers from Ohtani’s account — totaling at least $4.5 million, made in at least nine payments of $500,000 — to a bookmaking operation in Southern California that is currently under federal investigation,” said NBC NEWS in an article addressing the scandal. These wire transfers were the beginning of Mizuhara’s downfall.

Mizuhara met Ohtani in 2013 while Ohtani was still playing in his hometown of Japan. Mizuhara was working as an English Translator for an English-speaking player on the same team as Ohtani. Ever since then, they were inseparable. Ohtani brought him along when he eventually signed to play with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018. Wherever Ohtani went, Mizuhara was right by his side, as Ohtani had yet to learn the English language.

Now in the present day, Ippei Mizuhara is being charged with stealing 16 million dollars from Ohtani’s bank account to compensate for his extreme gambling addiction. Many were skeptical as they were wondering how Mizuhara even obtained access to Ohtani’s bank account. Some baseball fans even began to speculate the ordeal was orchestrated by Ohtani’s legal team to keep him out of trouble as they believed it was actually Ohtani with the betting addiction. 

“I never bet on baseball or any other sports. I have never asked anybody to do that on my behalf. I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know this was happening,” said Ohtani to reporters during a press conference amid the allegations of March 25. 

Fortunately, these accusations have been debunked as Mizuhara is now in Federal Custody as of Friday, Apr. 12. He is expected to plead guilty to his crimes as there are heaps of incriminating evidence including text messages to the bookmaking operation.  

As for Ohtani, following a required MLB investigation he has been found innocent of any wrongdoing