After arriving in the major leagues in 2018, Shohei Ohtani’s ascent as an MLB star was nothing short of meteoric. And Ippei Mizuhara was there every step of the way.
At the 2021 All-Star game, Ohtani made history by starting in the lineup and starting the game on the mound for the American League. Mizuhara was there.
That off season, when Ohtani received the MLB commissioner’s award for his historic performance as a pitcher and a batter … Mizuhara was there.
And when Ohtani made his Los Angeles Dodgers debut in front of the media before the 2024 season after signing a record-breaking $700 million contract … Mizuhara was there.
Unless Ohtani was on the field, you never saw one without the other. Mizuhara summed up their relationship this way: “brothers.”
Together, these two brothers were living the life of global celebrities. They drove Porsches, they traveled the world, and they kept apartments in glitzy Newport Beach.
But all the while, Mizuhara was spiraling downward, farther and farther into a tangle of gambling debt and lies.
More than a decade after they first met in Japan, as Ohtani was starting his first season as a Los Angeles Dodger, Mizuhara’s betrayal would tear these brothers apart, with Ohtani disowning his former bestie Mizuhara in his last public statement on the matter.
“I’m very saddened and shocked that somebody I trusted has done this,” Ohtani said in the statement. “Ippei has been stealing and has told lies. I didn’t know Ippei had a gambling addiction. All of this has been a complete lie.”
Today Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $18.1 million in federal court, after he pled guilty to stealing more than $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account while gambling with an illegal bookmaker in Southern California.
Because he pled guilty to felony charges, in addition to a prison sentence and owing restitution, Mizuhara may face deportation to his native Japan.
When Mizuhara was growing up, you wouldn’t necessarily guess that he would be an interpreter, let alone for a big star.
According to a federal court filing in the embezzlement case, Mizuhara’s mother said that after the family moved to Southern California from Japan, when Mizuhara was in first grade, “her son had a very hard time with the English language.”
But eventually Mizuhara became fluent.
In 2013, Mizuhara moved to Japan to work as an interpreter for the Hokkaido Ham Fighters — the same team a teenage phenom named Shohei Ohtani was also playing for. Shortly thereafter, Mizuhara began working as an interpreter for Shohei, who was already a big star in Japan, as he gained attention in the West.
In 2018, Ohtani moved to the U.S. to play in the major leagues. Mizuhara came with him.
By 2021, Ohtani was reaching his prime. During the first of his three Most Valuable Player Award-winning seasons, he was toppling records set by Babe Ruth (the last player who, like Ohtani, both pitched and hit at the major league level simultaneously) 100 years before that.
By the All-Star break, Ohtani had 33 home runs and a 3.49 earned run average (ERA) as a pitcher. He made history that year by starting in the All-Star game both in the lineup and on the mound for the American League. Ippei was there with him, participating as Ohtani’s catcher during the Home Run Derby.
Outwardly, it was a new peak for these two brothers. But just beneath the surface, things were unraveling.
Mizuhara’s defense paints a portrait of financial and mental stress as a result of being overworked and underpaid, while trying to keep up with his superstar buddy’s high-profile lifestyle during this time.
Ohtani’s 2021 salary was $2 million. He was earning many more millions in endorsements, estimated by some to near $50 million annually.
Mizuhara, on the other hand? The Angels paid him $87,000 in salary in 2021.
In a court filing, Mizuhara’s lawyer says he'd been a gambling addict since the age of 18. And that while Ohtani’s career was taking off as a player, Mizuhara’s addiction got out of control.
One night after a ballgame in September 2021, Mizuhara met a bookie at a card game at a hotel that included other baseball players. Mizuhara started placing bets with the bookie using credit. It all started with a credit of $20,000 from that bookie.
Over the next two-plus years, things would fall off a cliff for Mizuhara.
According to a federal investigation by the IRS, Mizuhara made “approximately 19,000 wagers between December 2021 and January 2024.” That’s “nearly 25 bets per day,” every day, for more than two years straight.
And where did he get the money for all that gambling?
To gain access to Ohtani’s bank account — which Mizuhara had helped Ohtani set up when he first moved to the U.S. in 2018 — Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani to bank employees on multiple occasions, as you can hear in an audio clip prosecutors released to the New York Times last month.
“Who am I speaking with?” a bank agent asks in the clip.
“Shohei Ohtani,” Mizuhara answers.
Ultimately, Mizuhara stole more than $17 million from Ohtani to fuel his gambling — and he was still in the hole $40 million when this all came crashing down on Opening Day of the 2024 baseball season.
ESPN, which had been investigating the situation for months, had seen wire transfers with Ohtani’s name on them made out to the illegal bookie, who was by then under investigation by the IRS. Mizuhara had told an ESPN reporter that Ohtani had loaned him the money. At a clubhouse meeting following the Dodgers’ first game of the season, Mizuhara had told the team and top executives the same thing.
But later that night at the team hotel, Mizuhara confessed what he had done to Ohtani, finally caught in his lie by his best friend.
The Dodgers fired Mizuhara that same night.
Since then, the two former best friends have gone in very different directions.
Ohtani won the National League MVP Award in 2024. He became the first player in baseball history to steal 50 bases and hit 50 home runs in the same season. He helped lead the Dodgers to a World Series title and celebrate with a World Series parade in the streets of Los Angeles for the first time since 1988.
As for Mizuhara?
“The press has so hounded Mr. Mizuhara that he could not leave his house for weeks,” his lawyer wrote in a court filing.
“He tried to support himself by delivering for Uber Eats, but his photo was published and his employment was terminated.”
The two have not spoken or seen one another since this news broke. But coincidentally, they might be headed in the same geographical direction.
By pleading guilty to felony charges, Mizuhara could face deportation to his native country of Japan.
Ohtani and the Dodgers are also headed to Tokyo, where they will open the 2025 baseball season with a series against the Cubs next month.