Ippei Mizuhara on Thursday received his official prison sentence for his crimes committed against Shohei Ohtani.
Mizuhara, who formerly served as Ohtani’s interpeter, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion. The 40-year-old had been seeking a prison sentence of 18 months, but the government was pursuing a 57-month sentence and was granted it by a judge.
In addition to his prison sentence, Mizuhara will have three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $17 million in restitution. The restitution includes around $16 million to Ohtani for money stolen from the Los Angeles Dodgers star, and about $1.1 million to the Internal Revenue Service.
Mizuhara admitted that he was a gambling addict. He had racked up a huge gambling debt with an illegal bookmaker who happened to be under investigation by the federal government. Mizuhara stole funds from Ohtani’s bank accounts to help pay off his gambling debts. Audio emerged last month showing Mizuhara impersonating Ohtani during a phone call with a bank.
Mizuhara pled guilty last May to federal tax and bank fraud charges related to his theft of roughly $17 million in total from Ohtani. He was awaiting his sentence, which also involved a possible deportation. On Ohtani’s end, he recently scored a legal victory over Mizuhara in an issue tangentially related to the fraud case.
“Technically I did steal from him. it’s all over for me,” Mizuhara wrote last year when the scandal broke.
Now, he will be heading to prison.
