Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - CELEBRITY: Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Ippei Mizuhara was the right-hand man to Japanese pitcher and baseball superstar, Shohei Ohtani. As his translator, Ippei did everything for Shohei -- which included having access to his bank accounts. And when Ippei found himself millions in the red from a gambling addiction, he turned to his trusted boss for the funds. Problem was... he didn't bother asking for permission. Money Crimes is a Crime House Original. For more true crime content, follow us on all social media, @crimehouse. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. Think about the person you trust most in the world. Maybe it's a parent, your spouse, a best friend, a sibling. You probably tell this person just about everything, right? They might have the key to your house, they might know the password to your cell phone, they might even have a copy of your living will. But could you also trust this person to speak for you in a foreign country where you don't know the language? And could you trust them if millions of dollars were at stake? Today I want you to ask yourself, how far does your trust go?

And could you forgive someone if they broke that trust, took your cash, and then told the world it was your decision? Those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. That's especially true when it comes to money. To protect your assets, you need to spot the traps before they happen. This is Money Crimes, a Crime House original. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Every Thursday, we uncover the world's most infamous financial crimes and how to avoid becoming a victim yourself.

Some even end in murder. Crime House exists because of you. Please rate, review, and follow Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. For early ad-free access and bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. And for even more true crime stories that all happened this week in history, check out Crime House The Show. Each episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme, so every week you get something a little different. This episode is all about Ipei Mizuhara, the former interpreter convicted of stealing

nearly $17 million from Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Otani. The massive betrayal which Ipei blamed on a gambling addiction shattered an 11-year friendship. And while the scandal came close to tarnishing Shohei's career, Ipei was the one who paid the price. So I've got some exciting news.

Crime House Studios is launching a brand new original show called Killer Minds. Hosted by licensed forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Ingalls and Crime House's Vanessa Richardson, each episode features a deep dive into the psychology of a notorious murderer. From serial killers to cult leaders, deadly exes and spree killers. Killer Minds is a Crime House Original. New episodes drop every single Monday and Thursday. podcasts. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot ash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced.

It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. Ipe Mizuhara probably never meant to be in the spotlight. Certainly not as someone facing bank fraud and tax evasion. But even for someone who saw himself as a behind-the-scenes kind of figure, Ipe played his cards unusually close to the chest, especially when it came to his own past. Throughout his career,

Ipe shared very little about his background, and what he did tell people wasn't always true. But here's what we are able to confirm. Ipe was born in Hokkaido, the second largest island of Japan, in 1984, specifically the city of Tomokomai, according to the Los Angeles Times. But Ipe's family moved from Japan to the United States in the early 1990s, when he was in elementary school. They found their new home in a town called Diamond Bar, California, about 30 miles east

of Los Angeles. The town was known for its thriving Asian-American community. And while they settled in nicely, there soon came a new chance for them to bond with their neighbors. In 1995, the LA Dodgers had just added a Japanese player to their team, famed pitcher Hideo Nomo. He was only the second player ever from Japan to play Major League Baseball and the first to become an All-Star. And 9-year-old Ippei was thrilled to see his new country falling in love with a Japanese player.

Unfortunately, when it came to playing sports himself, Ippei was a mediocre athlete at best. While he did dabble in soccer, he never got on the field much. Any dreams of him going pro quickly fell by the wayside, which seemed to be the one and only dream he really had. Because by the time he graduated high school in 2003, Y Pei was at a loss for what to do next. An old bio said he attended UC Riverside and graduated in 2007, but the university told the LA Times it has no record of his attendance. This is another one of those murky details about Ipe's past that could never be confirmed.

We do know that Ipe worked various odd jobs throughout his early adulthood, though mostly in the food and beverage industry. As the son of a chef, he probably knew his way around restaurants from an early age. But it didn't seem like he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. A former associate recalled Ipe trying to become a car dealer at casinos at one point. If true, this would be the first known link between e-pay and gambling, the habit that would eventually ruin his career,

destroy his closest friendship, and send him to prison. And soon, he would be obsessed. Laws or no laws, the reality is people are betting on everything, everywhere, all the time. One survey found that nearly 60% of 18-22 year olds have engaged in sports betting. And these days, you don't need to be anywhere near a casino to become a compulsive gambler. Online sports betting is live and legal in 38 U.S. states, and seven states allow online casinos. Experts say increased access to online gambling poses a serious risk to public health. An estimated 72 million people around the world are already

suffering significant harm from gambling addiction, And that number is expected to go up with continued adoption of betting apps and cryptocurrencies. We don't know exactly when Ipe's interest in gambling became an addiction, but we do know when his love of baseball became a career. In 2012, at the age of 27, Ipe was hired to interpret for Hideki Okajima. The left-handed Japanese pitcher had a great run with the Boston Red Sox,

but was sent down to the minor leagues in 2011 after several injuries. But now that he was feeling better, Hideki was invited to spring training with the New York Yankees, and he needed a trustworthy interpreter for the training camp. Ipei landed the gig. No one's sure how he got it in the first place, but it was short-lived either way. Okajima failed a physical exam and was cut by the Yankees before participating in the camp. He ended up returning to Japan to play, so he no longer needed Ipe services. Still, the experience sparked something in Ipe. It probably helped him make connections in the world of international baseball. By the next year, 2013, he was hired full-time as a translator.

Only now, Ipe would be translating for American players in Japan rather than the other way around. He'd be going back to his home island of Hokkaido to work with the Nippon Ham fighters. When Ipe joined the team, they weren't very strong. However, that was about to change. In 2013, the same year 28-year-old Ipe came to work for the fighters, he was so good he'd actually asked teams in Japan not to draft him. He wanted to play in the United States, and he was already fielding visits from major

league baseball recruiters. Still, the fighters requested him in the Japanese draft anyway. He could still refuse to sign the contract, but the fighters believed they could win him over. And they were right. Partly because they promised to help develop Shohei into a two-way player, which meant both pitching and hitting. That was something Shohei always wanted to do.

But there was no way an American team would ever let an unproven athlete play both positions. And because of that, the Nippon Ham fighters got to sign their number one prospect. When Shohei came to Hokkaido to meet his new team, he also met Ipei Mizuhara. And they hit it off right away. friend would eventually become his own worst enemy. Hey everyone, it's Nicole. With an exciting update, Crime House Studios is launching a new original show called Killer Minds. Hosted by licensed forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Engels and Crime House's Vanessa

Richardson, each episode of Killer Minds features a deep dive into the psychology of a notorious murderer. From infamous serial killers to ruthless cult leaders, deadly exes, and terrifying spree killers. Along with Vanessa's immersive storytelling full of high stakes, twists, and turns, Dr. Ingalls will be providing expert analysis of the people involved. Not just how they killed, but why. Killer Minds is a Crime House Studios original.

New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts. In 2013, 18-year-old Shohei Otani signed a rookie contract with the Nippon Ham fighters. The team had convinced him to play in Japan rather than go straight to the US to be drafted into the MLB. But it was clear that Shohei's time in Hokkaido would only be temporary. His stint with the Nippon Ham fighters was just a chance to prove to the MLB teams that he could be a valuable two-way player. And Shoei did nothing but impress.

He was so good, a lot of people thought he was destined to become the number one baseball player in the world, and Ipe Mizuhara was definitely one of those people. As the fighter's translator, Ipe was supposed to be focused on helping the American players communicate with the rest of the team, but he couldn't take his eyes off of Shohei. He was completely unique, not just in Japan, but in the sport of baseball. And somehow his overwhelming talents never went to his head. Shohei was as humble as professional athletes come. Apparently, his high school baseball coach made him scrub toilets to keep him from ever getting a big ego.

And now on his first pro contract, the rising star didn't even care how much money he made. In fact, Shohei asked his parents to take and manage his $2.4 million annual salary. Meanwhile, he lived in the team dorms on a $1,000 monthly allowance. And Shohei rarely even spent that. But that's because he had nothing to spend it on. He didn't like to party or date. His life revolved around workouts and practice. He only really spent time with his teammates and the people who worked with them, like

Ipei. Over the next four years, Ipei and Shohei developed a strong friendship. Besides baseball, they shared a love for video games. And Shohei must have enjoyed having a Japanese-American around who could chat American baseball and translate English for him. Especially because Shohei liked to keep up with MLB news. But come November of 2017, it was time for Shohei to become the news. The fighters announced they would make 23-year-old Shohei Otani available to U.S. teams through an international player transfer

process called posting. Basically, posting is a trade agreement between the Japanese and U.S. baseball teams. That's trade as in the economic sense, not in the trading baseball card sense. When a Japanese player requests to be posted, all 30 MLB teams get a chance to negotiate for his services. If an agreement is reached, the winning team must buy the Japanese player out of their old contract for a release fee. And of course, they have to pay the player the salary they negotiated. However, international player compensation is limited by complicated MLB rules. If he played just two more seasons in Japan, Shohei would have made himself much richer,

much faster. International players under 25 who join MLB teams in the U.S. are considered amateurs and have strict limits on compensation, unlike professionals whose pay is basically unlimited. But Shohei didn't care. He wanted to play in America, and that was that. As far as he was concerned, he already had enough money anyway. So in December of 2017, after meeting with seven major league baseball teams, Shohei decided to join the Angels in Anaheim, California. Like the Nippon Ham fighters, the Angels were a mediocre team overall.

They hadn't made the playoffs since 2014, and they could only offer Shohei a $2.3 million signing bonus. But the Angels had something, or someone, that the rest of the league didn't. Two-time American League MVP Mike Trout widely considered the best active player in the US at the time. Shohei was excited to have a teammate that shared his generational talent, someone who could challenge him and push him to the next level. On top of that, Shohei just liked the Angels. After making his decision, he told the press he felt a true bond with his new team.

So Shohei now had everything he'd been dreaming of. A new team, a new home, a top agent, and a legendary teammate to learn from. There was just one thing missing. A great interpreter. And he knew exactly who he wanted. Ipei Mizuhara, who the Angels agreed to hire. In early 2018, Ipei and Shohei made the move from Hokkaido to Los Angeles. With no experience living outside of Japan, Shohei leaned on Ipei for help with just about everything. Ipei even helped Shohei open his first American bank account.

Since the tellers only spoke English, Ipe translated for Shohei, including the details of his new account numbers and passwords. But interpreting during games was probably the most stressful part of Ipe's job. Not all words translate easily from English to Japanese, much less under pressure at the bottom of the night. Missing the slightest nuance in his coach's game plan could lead to a loss.

So whenever a coach or a player needed to speak to Shohei, even on the mound, Ipe was there with them. But Ipe was more than just an interpreter. Any English speaker who needed to reach Shohei had to go through Ipe first. Which meant he was the main point of contact for everyone, from team managers planning their new star's training regimen to brand sponsors arranging commercial shoots. As the only two-way player on his team, Shohei kept an unusual schedule that often left him practicing completely alone.

When that happened, Ipei stepped in to catch balls for him. After practice, he drove Shohei home. In fact, Shohei didn't get a U.S. driver's license until two years later in 2020. Wherever Shohei was, Ipei was right there beside him. And as Shohei attracted more and more attention, Ipei became famous in his own right, albeit on a much smaller scale. And yet, Ipe still somehow managed to find time for his own personal life. In 2018, at the age of 33, Ipe got married to a woman he'd met in Japan but now lived in the US with him.

Shohei reportedly threw the newlyweds a party and offered to pay for their honeymoon. But Ipe says they never took the trip because he couldn't get enough time off. That's because Ipe was the only translator Shohei really trusted. There was no backup. And the famously humble Shohei didn't want to hire a big staff to help him manage his day-to-day life, so there was no personal assistant or driver to lean on either. Not even after Shohei won the American League Rookie of the Year award his first season, or after he became the American League MVP in the 2021 season.

So while other translators got to go home after the games, Ipei served as an around-the-clock assistant. But Cho-Hae made sure to show his appreciation. He gave Ipei a Porsche to drive and reportedly supplemented his annual salary from the team with cash gifts. In return, Ipei never complained or asked for more money or time off. Which was odd, because unlike his superstar boss, Ipe did care about money, even if he was afraid to say so directly to Shohei. Ipe's wife still didn't have a green card,

which meant she had to leave the country every 90 days to renew her visa. And Ipe was on the hook for all of those flights, not to mention the legal expenses associated with immigration. So, by 2021, 36-year-old Ipe was feeling resentful, underpaid, and worn out. Yet he still didn't want to ask for a raise. He knew how many people would love to work for a player like Shohei, and he didn't want to risk being replaced.

But that's when Ipe came across an offer he couldn't refuse. He was told he could earn seven figures easy. Not by playing sports, but by betting on them. Sometime in 2021, eBay met a bookie named Matthew Boyer, reportedly at a poker game. Matthew specialized in taking illegal sports bets. A lot has changed about gambling recently, but the role of bookmakers or bookies has pretty much been the same for decades, if not centuries.

They calculate odds, circulate a list of betting opportunities, and take bets. Bookies also play a role in legal gambling, such as betting on horse races. But the word bookie is more often associated with people who take illegal underground bets. more often associated with people who take illegal underground bets. When players win, bookies have to pay up. So they'd better keep a lot of currency on hand. When the house wins, which is most of the time, bookies turn into collectors. They spend a lot of time getting losing gamblers to pay up, at least to the extent they can. To up the incentive, Matthew offered wealthy bettors a line of credit, essentially imaginary

money that they could gamble with. That way, if they lost, they wouldn't have to pay him immediately. E-pay wasn't rich in his own right, but he promised Matthew he could easily pay any debts he accumulated. So by September of 2021, Ypey was placing frequent sports bets with Matthew through an illegal betting website. At first, it seemed like he was just having fun. But things went downhill fast.

By November of 2021, eBay was deeply in the red. On the 15th, he wired $40,000 to his bookies via a PayPal subsidiary called Zoom. But he didn't wire it from his own funds. The money came from Shohei's bank account. But there was a big problem. He hadn't given Ipe permission to send it. On Christmas Eve, 1991, Dana Ireland was riding her bike on Hawaii's Big Island. Hours later, she was discovered brutally attacked.

Her murder sent shockwaves through the community, and under intense pressure, police accused not one, but three men. None of them committed the crime. I'm Amanda Knox. In season two of Three, we uncover the truth and explore how three families were forever changed by injustice. Listen to Three Now wherever you get your podcasts. On November 15th, 2021, 36-year-old Ipei Mizuhara stole from his boss and best friend, Shohei Otani, for the first time. He wired money from the 27-year-old baseball superstar's bank account to cover over $40,000

of gambling losses. But Shohei didn't even notice. He preferred for other people to manage his money. And he rarely even looked at his accounts. After getting away with that first theft, some people would have taken their paid-off losses and quit gambling altogether. But not Ipe.

He kept betting, and he kept losing, to the point where Ipe became obsessive about it, and soon his gambling habit spiraled out of control. On January 2, 2022, Ipe asked for a bump, gambling slang for more credit extended to a player already in the red. And it wasn't the only time. He sent a text message to his bookie's associate on January 15th asking for another $50,000 bump claiming quote, that will be my last one for a while if I lose it. Well he did lose it, and it wasn't even close to the last time. A little over a month later, on February 28th, E-Pay's bookie Matthew was so eager to get

E-Pay to stay in the game that he offered him a free play as an incentive. Free play is one of many psychological tricks used to keep losing gamblers in the game. Credit is imaginary money that gets added to your winnings if you win, and added to your debt if you lose. Free play is imaginary money that only becomes real if you win. If you lose, you don't have to pay up. Even if you swore five seconds ago

that you were quitting gambling forever, it would be hard to turn down a risk-free chance to make that money back, right? Which is why everyone in the gambling industry, from small-time bookies to Las Vegas casinos, hands out free play whenever a big bettor looks like they're about to walk away from the table. When Matthew offered E- Ipe that free play, Ipe already owed $200,000 that he hadn't paid

back yet. By May of that same year, his losses totaled over $1 million. By early 2023, Ipe was borrowing money from family and friends on top of stealing from Shohei so he could cover his debts. And he was doing it at breakneck speed. Yipei even changed the account information on Shohei's bank account to his own phone number and email. That way the bank would call Yipepe, not Shohei, to verify large wire transfers. And they were large. Approaching the millions by this point.

According to Ipe, he knew that he was playing with fire. He finally went to Shohei and asked him for some help in early 2023. Ipe says Shohei agreed to pay off Ipe's debts, $500,000 at a time. But there are two big problems with that story. First, an investigator reviewed thousands of pages of text messages between Shohei and Ipe. There wasn't a single mention of sports betting in there. Plus, eBay kept betting in between those supposed $500,000 transfers from Shohei's account to the bookie's account.

The second problem is, there's a recording of eBay impersonating Shohei to defraud him after that agreement allegedly took place. In a four-minute recorded call, Ipe introduces himself as Chauhey Otani and tells the bank he's transferring $200,000 to a friend for a car loan. So while it doesn't seem like Chauhey really did agree to pay Ipei's gambling debts, we know he did help him out with one thing. In September of 2023, Ipei somehow racked up a $60,000 dentist bill and Shohei offered to foot it.

He gave Ipei a check from his business account. Ipei accepted and then paid his dentist using Shohei's debit card. Meanwhile, he kept the check for 60,000 bucks for himself. He double-dipped and Shohei was none the wiser. By October of 2023, the total amount Ypey had stolen from Shohei was over $15 million. Even more worrisome, sports betting wasn't the only financial risk Ypey was taking. He admitted to his bookie that he was losing big on cryptocurrency too. Investigators would later learn that he also had a history with legal gambling websites

and casinos, including MGM, FanDuel, and DraftKings. Now it might be hard to believe that Shohei didn't notice 15 million dollars disappearing from his bank accounts, but to be fair, he also had some major distractions at the time. His contract with the Angels expired after their 2023 season. So Shohei was busy negotiating a new contract with the LA Dodgers. And Ipei was still doing his job, translating between Shohei and his agent during these incredibly high-stakes negotiations. When the deal finally closed in December of 2023, it was the biggest deal in baseball

history. A $700 million 10-year contract. Shohei didn't even want most of that money upfront. At his request, the Dodgers agreed to pay him just $2 million per year for the full 10 years of his contract. Then after retiring, he'd get a series of much bigger paydays. They also promised to use the savings from this deferred compensation to build a strong team around Shohei.

In celebration of the huge new contract, Ipei bought himself a little present. On his boss's dime, of course. In early 2024, he used Shohei's bank account to buy $325,000 worth of baseball cards. By now, the total amount stolen from Shohei was nearly $17 million. And it wouldn't be long until his scam was exposed. In October of 2023, federal agents raided Matthew Boyer's home and confiscated tons of documents related to his illegal gambling ring.

Unfortunately, Shohei was collateral damage. The feds found his name on a series of huge wire transfers, and initially they assumed Shohei was the one betting. At least that's the story that leaked to the press in early 2024. Fans went berserk. Their favorite overseas player was an illegal gambler? It might have been the most shocking baseball rumor of the time. Memes went viral, showing Shohei next to his teammate Muki Betts causing their jerseys

to spell out Otani Betts. Meanwhile, poor Shohei had absolutely no idea what was going on. He apparently never placed a sports bet in his entire life. Now he was suddenly being accused of the kind of gambling that gets people banned from the MLB for life? Which is why Shohei hired a crisis spokesperson to navigate all of these allegations. In his mind, this was all a big confusion that just needed to be cleared up. He had no idea that Ipe had a gambling problem and had been stealing from him and that's why his

name was found in the raid. The problem was Ipe, who was translating for Sho, 2024, the spokesperson talked to ESPN about the allegations. But he said that Shohei had transferred the money willingly to E-Pay to help him out of a tight spot, which obviously wasn't the case. But it wouldn't be long until Shohei learned how his name actually made it onto those documents. Two days later, on March 20th, the Dodgers owner hosted a team meeting while they were playing a game in Seoul, South Korea. It was there that Ip-Hae confessed to the team and Sho-Hae that he had a gambling addiction. The meeting was conducted in English, but Sho-Hae understood enough to start asking questions. And this time, he didn't ask through Ip-Hae. The Dodgers management realized Sho-Hae was completely out of the loop and were horrified to learn

that their star player had been robbed and misled by his most trusted associate. The Dodgers fired Ipei on the spot and left him to find his own way home from Seoul. Later that day, Ipei messaged his bookie to ask, have you seen the reports? The bookie replied that he had. But then he asked, Ipe had been borrowing the money, not stealing it, right? Only Ipe replied, quote, technically, I did steal it from him. It's all over for me." And there it was. A confession in writing to somebody already under federal investigation.

That text message played a starring role in the federal criminal complaint filed on April 11, 2024, when 39-year-old Ipe was formally charged with bank fraud and tax fraud. Under the circumstances, Ipe had no real choice but to plead guilty, which he did in June of 2024. Ipe did make one last ploy to save himself by blaming Shohei for underpaying and overworking him. In a letter to the judge asking for leniency, he complained about his low salary and being forced to do menial tasks like taking Shohei's beloved dog to the groomer.

He also claimed that the cost of rent in Shohei's expensive neighborhood, where Ipei had to live so he could always be nearby, had driven him to gambling. The judge was moved by Ipei's letter, just not in the direction Ipei was hoping for. On February 6, 2025, Ipei Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison. The judge said he chose to give the tough sentence partly because of Ipe's dishonest letter. If Ipe had kept his excuses to himself, he may have spent less time in prison. Ipe was also ordered to pay $18.1 million in restitution, though it's anybody's

guess how he plans to make that kind of money. While awaiting trial, he tried delivering food for Uber Eats, but due to his criminal history, he was promptly banned from the app. As for Shohei Otani, he was an innocent victim in all of this. Eager to clear his name, he voluntarily turned over anything law enforcement wanted to see, from his bank statements to his texts and emails. He was clean as a whistle. So federal prosecutors, along with the Dodgers, made sure the public understood that Shohei did absolutely nothing wrong.

It must have been devastating to be betrayed by such a close friend, but fans rallied around him. People wearing Ohtani jerseys packed the stands at Dodger Stadium to support him. He was more beloved than ever. And luckily, all the stress didn't throw off Shohei's game. In 2024, he finally got a World Series ring. If he keeps playing like he has been, it could be the first of many. He also married professional basketball player Mamiko Tanaka. The ultra-athletic couple announced in December of 2024 that they're expecting a baby.

And in his limited free time, it also appears Shohei is working on his language skills. After the Dodgers World Series win, he chose to thank his fans in English himself, rather than relying on an interpreter. So I guess one of the two main characters in this story has learned a valuable lesson. As for the other, he'll have plenty of time to think about his actions behind bars. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host Nicole Laban. Money Crimes is a Crime House original.

Join me every Thursday for a brand new episode. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support. If you like what you heard here today, reach out on social media at CrimeHouse. Don't forget to re-review and follow Money Crimes wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And for ad-free listening plus early access and bonus content, subscribe to CrimeH House Plus on Apple Podcasts. Money Crimes is hosted by me, Nicole Lapid, and is a Crime House original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Money Crimes team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex

Benedon, Natalie Prasovsky, Lori Maranelli, Sarah Camp, Yelena Warr, Joanna Powell, and Michael Langsner. Thank you so much for listening.