Once revered as the right-hand man and go-to interpreter for Major League Baseball’s phenom Shohei Ohtani, Ippei Mizuhara, now finds himself behind bars for what amounts to more than just a game misconduct. Instead of taking his cues from the dugout, he’s taking them from behind cell doors—57 months’ worth to be precise. It’s a veritable strikeout for the man once sitting comfortably in Ohtani’s VIP section but now judged guilty of the grand slam of illegal activities: bank and tax fraud.
Mizuhara’s fall from grace was anything but a slow burn. His schemes unraveled in a crescendo of deceit, beginning with the March 2024 exposé that headlined ESPN’s sportscasting: insider fraud, gambling, and bank security breaches. The Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom Mizuhara offered his linguistic services, sent him packing faster than a hot dog through a ballpark bleacher.
The play-by-play of Mizuhara’s con-game used creativity one might admire if it weren’t so explicitly criminal. The court documents unfold a tale both thrilling and appalling. Our former interpreter morphed into a chameleonic impersonator of Ohtani, smoothing over security protocols as though they were sticky notes on his desk. With deft fingers, banking transactions were approved, unknowingly under Ohtani’s unwitting nod, siphoning off a gobsmacking $17 million.
By Mizuhara’s own admission, much of the pilfered fortune fueled his gambling jones, akin to throwing his fortune down the drain faster than you could scream “home run.” Not content with straight-up fraud, Mizuhara diversified his criminal portfolio by snatching up sports cards like a kid in a candy store—allegedly ringing up some $325,000 in purchases on platforms like eBay. An unintended silver lining perhaps; among these were treasures emblazoned with the icons of baseball lore—Ohtani himself, Yogi Berra, and Juan Soto, giving this tale a sprinkling of memorabilia magic gone sinister.
Ohtani—with his poise as composed as his curveball—didn’t let Mizuhara’s antics soil his reputation or deplete his bank of sports nostalgia. In November 2024, he leveraged the arm of justice by filing a petition to reclaim his stolen collectibles. Like a pitcher victorious at the World Series, a judge granted him the legal ownership of his prized sports cards just weeks later.
As the gavel fell, Mizuhara faced court-ordered hits that belonged on a star player’s stat sheet: $17 million back to Ohtani, an additional $1.1 million to the IRS for dodged taxes, a judicial decree of supervised release post-prison, and—as a cherry on top—the potential boot back to his homeland of Japan.
The mosque of deception Mizuhara constructed didn’t just seek to ensnare one superstar’s fortune; its ripples spread across Major League Baseball and the sports world at large. Where once the game was a gentleman’s pursuit directed solely toward the thrill of athleticism, it now simmers with concerns about financial vulnerability and safeguarding the earnings of those whose talents lure millions of fans from around the globe.
Shohei Ohtani, maintaining an image of quiet dignity, hasn’t let this scandal color his public persona with anything but accolade-worthy reticence. The incident, though, has brought a magnifying glass to the financial navigations of athletes, whose contracts often eclipse those of Fortune 500 CEOs.
In an age where money speaks louder than ever, Mizuhara has seen to it that others might hesitate before leaning too heavily on trusting relationships without stringent checks and balances. The game may be baseball, but the lesson learned echoes far beyond the diamond. The hope is that as Mizuhara counts his time away from the field, future generations of interpreters and associates within sports will keep the score honest and straight.
As the curtain falls on this chapter, the discourse it generated sparks important considerations in both the sports and greater financial communities. It’s a resounding call to shore up protective measures, ensuring star athletes can swing for the fences in comfort—knowing their finances are as secure as their place in sports history.
