After receiving two continuances, Ippei Mizuhara started a 57-month jail sentence on Monday for embezzling thousands and thousands from the MLB star.
Ippei Mizuhara reported to federal jail on Monday, closing one of many closing chapters within the prison playing case of the disgraced former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
Mizuhara started serving a 57-month sentence on Monday within the Allenwood federal jail in Pennsylvania. Mizuhara acquired the prolonged sentence for embezzling some $17 million from the reigning Nationwide League MVP. The previous interpreter arrived on the minimum-security facility about 75 miles north of Harrisburg round midday, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson advised iGB.
Mizuhara admitted to embezzling funds from Ohtani to repay playing money owed to an unlawful sports activities betting enterprise operated by Matt Bowyer. Reputed to be one of many nation’s largest bookmakers, Bowyer is himself awaiting sentencing on federal cash laundering costs.
Removed from dwelling
Born in Tomakomai, a port metropolis on Japan’s second-largest island, Mizuhara relocated to Southern California as a baby. He later returned to Japan to function an interpreter for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, a Japanese skilled baseball group. There, he met Ohtani, then a teenage baseball prodigy.
Lengthy earlier than the scandal broke, Mizuhara grew to become an in depth confidant of the worldwide star. The son of a chef, Mizuhara continuously ready meals for the pitcher-outfielder. The 2 additionally engaged in frequent online game battles and frolicked usually on the street. Consumed by a crippling playing behavior, nonetheless, Mizuhara, with out Ohtani’s data, positioned greater than 19,000 sports activities wagers with Bowyer, amounting to an general quantity of round $325 million.
Whereas Mizuhara acquired again at the very least $140 million from the Bowyer enterprise, he additionally incurred losses of round $180 million, resulting in a reported internet debt of $40.2 million. Based on federal prosecutors, Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani on calls with financial institution officers roughly two dozen instances. On one name launched by prosecutors, Mizuhara falsely claimed a wire switch can be used to cowl a automotive fee. In February, a contrite Mizuhara apologised to US District Courtroom Choose John Holcomb for betraying Ohtani’s belief.
“Thanks, your honour, for the chance to talk at sentencing,” Mizuhara stated. “I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve executed and I urge your mercy.”
Mizuhara petitioned Holcomb to advocate a California facility that will permit him to be near his household. Initially scheduled to report in March, Mizuhara received two extensions from the courtroom. As of Tuesday, courtroom filings on the extensions remained sealed.
Notable inmates
Mizuhara isn’t the primary notable defendant to reach at FCI Allenwood to serve a sentence for a white collar crime. Jeb Magruder, an aide to former US President Richard Nixon, went to jail within the Nineteen Seventies for his function within the Watergate scandal, and spent three months on the facility.
Extra just lately, the jail served because the short-term dwelling of Martin Shkreli, a convicted pharmaceutical government. Nicknamed “pharma bro”, Shkreli was convicted in 2017 on two counts of securities fraud and one depend of conspiracy.
Initially assigned to FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, Shkreli acquired a switch to Allenwood amid allegations that he continued to run his firm by way of a contraband cellphone. The Bureau of Prisons granted Shkreli’s launch in Might 2022.
Martin Shkreli, who grew to become the face of company greed in 2015 by mountaineering the price of an AIDS drug by greater than 4,000%, was launched from the Federal Correctional Establishment Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania https://t.co/kmRkxs1ukr
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 18, 2022
Mizuhara reported to jail on the identical day Ohtani made his first pitching begin as a Dodger, some 643 days after he underwent surgical procedure on his elbow. MLB cleared Ohtani of any wrongdoing within the playing investigation.
On the Bureau of Prisons web site, Mizuhara is listed beneath BOP register quantity 09459-511. Mizuhara could face deportation to Japan upon the completion of his sentence. Efforts to contact Michael Freedman, Mizuhara’s lawyer, have been unsuccessful on Tuesday.
