In the glamorous yet gritty world of Major League Baseball, a startling breach of trust has emerged, casting a shadow over the sparkling career of one of its brightest stars, Shohei Ohtani. Ippei Mizuhara, the man trusted not only with translating his words but also with managing his day-to-day needs, stands accused of turning this responsibility into an opportunity for grand theft baseball card style.
Pitching and batting his way into the hearts of fans, Ohtani has remained unaware that his interpreter was playing a different kind of game, one that involved high stakes and high betrayals. Federal prosecutors have laid out a 37-page complaint, painting Mizuhara as a man who misappropriated more than $16 million from Ohtani’s bank accounts. The money, they claim, wasn’t used for mundane expenses but to cover cavernous gambling debts and to amass a collection of about 1,000 baseball cards, shelling out an average of $325 per card.
The chase for these collectibles wasn’t a low-key affair. Mizuhara reportedly maneuvered behind the scenes under the alias “Jay Min,” trawling through eBay and Whatnot to lay his hands on these paper treasures. Some of these parcels found their way to the Dodgers, carefully set aside by an unwitting clubhouse employee. The plot thickens as authorities discovered more cards hidden away in Mizuhara’s vehicle, with names that resonate in baseball lore like Juan Soto and Yogi Berra, and intriguingly, cards of Ohtani himself.
Each card, protected and preserved in cases, spoke of a collector’s passion, a stark contrast to the chilling calculation with which they were acquired. IRS Special Investigator Chris Seymour noted these protective measures, suggesting they were earmarked for future sale, a planned return on a nefarious investment.
Mizuhara’s descent into this quagmire of deception was fueled by an alarming gambling habit. In a staggering revelation, it emerged that he placed approximately 19,000 bets, resulting in a net loss of a whopping $40.7 million. Thankfully, his bets steered clear of Major League Baseball games, sparing the sport from potential scandal.
The deceit began to unravel when Mizuhara assisted Ohtani, then new to the U.S. and grappling with English, in opening a bank account in 2018. Despite Ohtani’s trust, he never intended for Mizuhara to have control over his finances. Unbeknownst to Ohtani, Mizuhara exploited this trust, using his access to funnel funds for personal gains, even posing as Ohtani to wire money to associates entangled in his gambling web.
The U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada didn’t mince words when condemning the breach, underscoring the profound betrayal of trust at the heart of this scheme. As the legal gears grind into motion, Ohtani has distanced himself from the debacle, cooperating with authorities and denying any knowledge of or consent to the nefarious transactions.
Mizuhara now faces the music, with a court appearance looming in downtown Los Angeles. As the curtain rises on this judicial act, one can only wonder about the ripple effects of his alleged duplicity, not only on his future but also on the trust inherent in the roles that bind players and their closest aides in sports.
