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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend, Ippei Mizuhara, 39, has been fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers following allegations of illegal gambling and "massive theft" of the Japanese baseball superstar's funds.
Reports began surfacing that Mizuhara had ties to an illegal bookmaker. Mizuhara was in Los Angeles’ dugout during their season-opening win with Ohtani making his Dodgers debut.
Mizuhara, who has translated on Ohtani's behalf to the press since 2017, was let go from the team Wednesday. He was in LA as Ohtani made his Dodgers debut, and Mizuhara was in Los Angeles’ dugout during their season-opening win.
“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 Wednesday.
The Dodgers said in a statement they were “aware of media reports and are gathering information.
“The team can confirm that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara has been terminated,” the statement said. “The team has no further comment at this time.”
Though sports betting in California is not yet regulated, offshore sportsbooks and local bookies using Pay Per Head software are still readily available in the state.
On Tuesday, Mizuhara told ESPN that his bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. MLB rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball and also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.
“I never bet on baseball,” Mizuhara told ESPN. “That’s 100%. I knew that rule ... We have a meeting about that in spring training.”
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Mizuhara had previously worked as an interpretor for the Boston Red Sox on behalf of Japanese pitcher Hideki Okajima. In 2013, he returned to Japan to translate for English-speaking players on the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. That’s where he first met Ohtani, who joined the team that same year.
ESPN said it spoke to Mizuhara on Tuesday night, at which point the interpreter said Ohtani had paid his gambling debts at Mizuhara’s request. After the statement from Ohtani’s attorneys saying the player was a victim of theft, ESPN says Mizuhara changed his story Wednesday 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.”
It would be the biggest gambling scandal for baseball since Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation for MLB by lawyer John Dowd found Rose placed numerous bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985-87 while playing for and managing the team.
The MLB gambling policy, posted in every locker room, prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball and also ban 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.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
