Bookmaker to Plead Guilty in Gambling Case Tied to Baseball Star Shohei Ohtani’s ex-Interpreter

The Associated Press

10:26 JST, August 2, 2024

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California bookmaker who took thousands of sports bets from the ex-interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani has agreed to plead guilty to running an illegal gambling business, U.S. authorities announced Thursday.

Mathew Bowyer’s business operated for at least five years in Southern California and Las Vegas and took wagers from more than 700 bettors, including Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement.

Bowyer has agreed to plead guilty to running an illegal gambling business, money laundering, and subscribing to a false tax return, the statement said. He is expected to enter the pleas in court Aug. 9.

“Mr. Bowyer is looking forward to accepting responsibility for his actions,” said Diane Bass, Bowyer’s attorney.

The prosecution against Bowyer follows several sports betting scandals that emerged this year, including one that prompted Major League Baseball to ban a player for life for the first time since Pete Rose was barred in 1989.

Operating an unlicensed betting business is a federal crime. Meanwhile, sports gambling is illegal in California, even as 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of it.

Bass said in March that she’d been working with federal prosecutors to resolve her client’s case and confirmed an October raid at his home. She said Mizuhara was placing bets with Bowyer on international soccer but not baseball.

“Mr. Bowyer never had any contact with Shohei Ohtani, in person, on the phone, in any way,” Bass told the AP in March. “The only person he had contact with was Ippei.”

Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account.

Federal investigators say Mizuhara made about 19,000 wagers between September 2021 and January 2024. While Mizuhara’s winnings totaled over $142 million, which he deposited in his own bank account and not Ohtani’s, his losing bets were around $183 million — a net loss of nearly $41 million.

Still, investigators did not find any evidence Mizuhara had wagered on baseball. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

Prosecutors said there also was no evidence Ohtani was involved in or aware of Mizuhara’s gambling, and the player is considered a victim and cooperated with investigators.

Federal prosecutors said Bowyer’s other customers included a professional baseball player for a Southern California club and a former minor league player. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to name either of the alleged bettors or say whether they faced criminal charges.

Last May, the AP reported MLB was expected to investigate former Los Angeles Angels player David Fletcher for gambling on sports through Bowyer. The information came from a person familiar with the situation who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t at liberty to discuss such impending matters.

MLB didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a query about whether the Fletcher investigation had been launched. Fletcher and Ohtani were teammates on the Angels for six years. Ohtani now plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Separately, the league in June banned San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for life and suspended four others for betting on baseball legally. Marcano became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling.

Rose agreed to his ban in 1989 after an investigation found that he’d placed numerous bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985-87 while playing for and managing the team.

The league’s gambling policy prohibits players and team employees from wagering on baseball, even legally. MLB also bans betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers. The penalty is determined at the discretion of the commissioner’s office.