Federal prosecutors recently asked a judge to sentence the ex-interpreter of a Major League Baseball player to 57 months in prison for his numerous attempts to defraud his employer of millions of dollars.

Ippei Mizuhara, the ex-interpreter for LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, impersonated the baseball player while trying to illegally wire money from the player’s bank account. The prosecutors say he tried to defraud Mr. Ohtani out of $16 million, and they are seeking a 57-month sentence.

The prosecutors say the ex-interpreter attempted to defraud the MLB player 24 times. In mid-January, they released audio evidence where Mr. Mizuhara can be heard trying to defraud Mr. Ohtani by impersonating him on a call with a bank employee.

The audio files, said the prosecutors, are part of the evidence against Mr. Mizuhara. The federal prosecutors redacted the name of the bank and bank employee in their audio release.

The audio evidence includes a call made on February 2, 2022. The audio shares the voice of a bank employee asking the caller, identified by prosecutors as Mr. Mizuhara, to identify himself. In response to the bank employee’s request for who is calling him, the prosecutors say that the person answering is Mr. Mizuhara, who says "Shohei Ohtani.”

At the time of the call, prosecutors say Mr. Mizuhara, in his own voice, told the bank employee that he could not log into his online account. He said on the call, "I tried to make a wire transfer a couple of days ago. They told me that's probably the reason they transferred me to this number.” The bank teller then texted Mr. Mizuhara a six-digit code for his proof of identity as part of a two-factor authentication set up on the account.

Mizuhara told the bank employee he wanted to send $200,000 for a car loan. However, the agent could not reach the payee for the requested $200,000. In the audio evidence, the bank employee can be heard asking Mr. Mizuhara what his relationship was to the payee, and if he had ever met the friend in person.

Mr. Mizuhara replied that yes, “He’s my friend” and that he met him “many times.”

The bank employee then asked the ex-interpreter posing as Mr. Ohtani if was planning to send any wires in the future to his “friend.” Mr. Mizuhara replied, “Possibly.”

ESPN broke the story in May 2024, reporting that Mr. Mizuhara wired money to an associate of a bookmaker. At the time, prosecutors told Mr. Mizuhara to pay almost $17 million to Mr. Ohtani, plus another $1.1 million to the IRS.

In court documents, the attorney for Mr. Mizuhara said he had a gambling addiction and had gambling debts of about $40 million.

Federal prosecutors replied in a filing that having a gambling addiction does not excuse the defendant’s behavior.

In the legal filing, the federal prosecutors wrote that addiction "cannot fully explain defendant's conduct because defendant used the stolen funds for numerous personal expenses that had nothing to do with gambling…Ultimately, the government submits, the motivating factor behind defendant's crimes was not a gambling addiction but rather greed.”

Recently, Mr. Mizuhara wrote a letter to U.S. District Court Judge John W. Holcomb, saying he never had time off and was not paid well for always working.

In his letter, he wrote, “Usually when a Japanese baseball player makes the move to the United States, they would bring over multiple staff members to take care of various tasks such as a driver, trainer, chef, off the field interpreter/support member, etc. but I was the only person Shohei brought along so naturally I had to support him on most of the above mentioned tasks.”

At his sentencing, he also apologized to former boss Mr. Ohtani, saying "I want to say I am truly sorry for violating his trust in me."