Central District of California | Orange County man agrees to plead guilty to illegally transferring nearly $17 million from his MLB Stars account and signing a false tax return

LOS ANGELES A Japanese language interpreter has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges for illegally transferring nearly $17 million from a Major League Baseball (MLB) player's bank account without the player's knowledge or without his permission to pay his own substantial gambling debts incurred with an illegal bookmaking operation and for signing a false tax return, the Justice Department announced today.

Ippei Mizuhara, 39, of Newport Beach, agreed to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison, and one count of underwriting to a false declaration of income, punishable by a prison sentence of 30 years. up to three years in federal prison.

Mizuhara, who is charged in a two-count information filed today, is expected to plead guilty to the charges in U.S. District Court in the coming weeks. His arraignment is scheduled for May 14.

The scale of the defendants' deception and theft is enormous, said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. He used his position of trust to take advantage of Mr. Ohtani and fuel a dangerous gambling habit. My office is committed to standing up for victims throughout our community and ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Our joint investigation with Homeland Security Investigations clearly showed that Mr. Mizuhara not only stole from Mr. Ohtani, but also lied to the IRS about his income, said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office. Mr. Mizuhara exploited his relationship with Mr. Ohtani to finance his own irresponsibility. In cases where we are able to identify them, we do everything we can to make things right for the victims, and this is one of those cases.

This investigation of Mr. Mizuhara and the subsequent plea highlight the threat posed by financial crimes in the Los Angeles area, said HSI Los Angeles Special Agent Eddy Wang. The El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force led by HSI is dedicated to protecting all victims of financial fraud from all walks of life.

According to his plea agreement also filed today, Mizuhara was the translator and de facto manager of a professional baseball player identified in court documents as Victim A, but who was actually MLB star Shohei Ohtani. As part of his duties, Mizuhara regularly interacted with Ohtani's sports agents and financial advisors who did not speak Japanese on behalf of Ohtani, who did not speak English. Although Mizuhara was an employee of the Los Angeles Angels MLB team, for whom Ohtani played from 2018 to 2023, and, later, the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom Ohtani played since 2024, Ohtani paid him separately for additional driving work. meetings and interpretation for non-baseball activities.

In March 2018, Mizuhara accompanied Ohtani to a Phoenix bank to help him open a bank account to deposit his MLB salary. Inside the bank branch, Mizuhara interpreted for Ohtani when the bank employee provided Ohtani with the login information for that bank account.

Starting in September 2021, Mizuhara began placing sports bets with an illegal bookmaker. Soon after, Mizuhara began losing bets and quickly fell into debt with the bookmaker. Unable to pay his gambling debts, Mizuhara orchestrated a scheme to deceive and deceive the bank in order to fraudulently obtain money from the account.

No later than November 2021 to March 2024, Mizuhara used Ohtani's password to successfully log into the bank account and then changed the account's security protocols without Ohtani's knowledge or permission. Specifically, Mizuhara changed the email address and phone number registered to the account so that bank employees would not call Ohtani when attempting to verify wire transfers from the account.

As part of this scheme, Mizuhara posed as Ohtani and used Ohtani's personal identifying information to deceive bank employees into authorizing wire transfers from the bank account. In total, Mizuhara called the bank and posed as Ohtani approximately 24 times.

During this time, Mizuhara regularly logged into Ohtani's bank account and initiated wire transfers from the account to the bookmaker and its associates as payment for gambling debts. For example, on June 20, 2023, Mizuhara accessed the account without Ohtani's permission and transferred $500,000 to one of the bookmaker's associates.

Additionally, in September 2023, Mizuhara needed $60,000 in dental work and Ohtani agreed to pay for it via a check drawn on a business account at another bank. However, Mizuhara provided his dentist Ohtani's debit card number for the bank account Ohtani had opened in Phoenix, charged $60,000 to that account, and then deposited the $60,000 check into the personal bank account by Mizuhara.

From January 2024 to March 2024, Mizuhara purchased approximately $325,000 worth of baseball cards from online retailers such as eBay from Ohtani's bank account with the intention of reselling them later and for his own personal benefit .

When Ohtani's sports agent and financial advisors asked Mizuhara for access to the bank account, Mizuhara lied and said Ohtani did not want them to access the account because it was private. In fact, Mizuhara didn't want them to know that he had stolen from Ohtani and fraudulently obtained over $16,975,010 from him.

Mizuhara also admitted in his plea agreement that in February 2024, he intentionally made and subscribed to a false federal individual income tax return for the 2022 tax year. In that tax return, Mizuhara falsely claimed that his total taxable income for that year was $136,865 when in fact he knew the amount was significantly higher and he knowingly failed to report an additional $4.1 million in income. The source of the unreported income was from his scheme to defraud the bank.

Mizuhara, under penalty of perjury, signed the false tax return and admitted in his plea agreement that he owed approximately $1,149,400 in additional taxes for the 2022 tax year, plus additional interest and penalties.

IRS Criminal Investigations and Homeland Security are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Jeff Mitchell of the Major Fraud Section and Dan Boyle of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section, along with Special Assistant United States Attorney Rachel N. Agress , are continuing this matter.

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