Bookie for Shohei Ohtani’s jailed interpreter details his ‘bananas’ betting: ‘Never seen anything like it’

Even the bookie couldn’t believe the bets that Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter was throwing down.

In the latest episode of a “30 for 30”-style documentary, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” the bookie for Ippei Mizuhara, who pled guilty to stealing millions from Ohtani, admitted to ESPN that even he was dumbfounded by the vast wagers that were being placed.

“He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making,” bookie Matthew Boyer told ESPN in the podcast. “He was trying to dig out a hole, and that hole made him even poorer of a gambler because he’s betting big payout stuff.”

Mizuhara is facing federal charges for wagering roughly $325 million across about 19,000 bets between December 2021 and January 2024.

This averages out to an obscene $320,000 in daily bets.

For a big-time black-market betting shop, Bowyer admitted that his client, Mizuhara, was perhaps the wildest he’s ever had.

“Listen, I gambled bigger than most, right? I sleep, you know, I have a life too. He definitely was betting all night long, all the time,” Bowyer admitted. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Bowyer allegedly gave Mizuhara $20,000 in startup credit despite making just $87,000 while employed as Ohtani’s translator.

As the bets increased, Bowyer admitted that he had assumed that the bets were either on Ohtani’s behalf or that the two were wagering together given the size.

Mizuhara is serving 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return, which was handed down in February, and he is serving his sentence in a Pennsylvania facility.

He’s also on the hook to pay Ohtani back $17 million.

Bowyer was ordered to pay $1.6 million to the IRS and received a one-year prison sentence, though he was released to a halfway house on March 9, less than six months into his sentence.

Bowyer would also use casinos to launder money.

“Sometimes I would gamble solely to turn a cashier’s check into cash, so that I could wash money,” he said. “Let’s say I lost 70 grand, but  I brought $500,000. I got $430,000 coming to me, right?”

Multiple casinos were forced to pay fines in the seven or even eight figures for allowing this kind of money laundering.

“The casino licensees allowed Mr. Bowyer to wager without adequately verifying his source of income as required by the Bank Secrecy Act,” the Las Vegas Gaming Commission wrote.