The Los Angeles Dodgers have terminated interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, a close friend of Shohei Ohtani, following allegations of illegal gambling and theft involving the Japanese baseball star.
Mizuhara, 39, was dismissed from the team on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN regarding his alleged connections to an illegal bookmaker. This decision came as the team was in Seoul, South Korea, for Ohtani's debut with the Dodgers, with Mizuhara present in the Los Angeles dugout during their season-opening victory.
Mizuhara, who was often seen conversing with Ohtani over a tablet computer, has been a familiar face to baseball fans. He has been interpreting for Ohtani with the media and at public events since Ohtani's arrival in the U.S. in 2017. Mizuhara even acted as Ohtani's catcher during the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All-Star Game. When Ohtani signed a $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December, Mizuhara was also hired by the club.
"In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities," law firm Berk Brettler LLP said in a statement on Wednesday.
While sports gambling is illegal in California, Mizuhara reportedly told ESPN that his bets were placed on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL, and college football. Major League Baseball (MLB) rules prohibit players and team employees from betting, even legally, on baseball and also forbid betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.
Mizuhara was born in Japan and moved to the Los Angeles area in 1991. He attended Diamond Bar High School in eastern Los Angeles County and graduated from the University of California, Riverside, in 2007.
After college, Mizuhara worked as an interpreter for the Boston Red Sox, translating for Japanese pitcher Hideki Okajima. In 2013, he returned to Japan to interpret for English-speaking players on the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, where he first met Ohtani.
Following Ohtani's signing with the Los Angeles Angels in 2017, the team hired Mizuhara to work as his personal interpreter. ESPN reported that Mizuhara claimed Ohtani had paid his gambling debts at his request. However, after a statement from Ohtani's attorneys stating that the player was a victim of theft, Mizuhara changed his story and claimed Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.
Mizuhara said he incurred more than $1 million in debt by the end of 2022 and his losses increased from there.
"I'm terrible (at gambling). Never going to do it again. Never won any money," Mizuhara said. "I mean, I dug myself a hole and it kept on getting bigger, and it meant I had to bet bigger to get out of it and just kept on losing. It's like a snowball effect."
The MLB gambling policy prohibits players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball and also bans betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers. Betting on baseball is punishable with a one-year ban from the sport. The penalty for betting on other sports illegally is at the commissioner's discretion.
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