Ex-Dodgers interpreter Ippei Mizuhara implicates Shohei Ohtani in newly released audio confession

In 2024, shortly after making his professional debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani relayed an urgent message to the press regarding accusations that he had paid off a sports gambling debt with a bookmaker.

"In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities," Ohtani's lawyers told ESPN as reporter Tisha Thompson prepared to share an initial confession from his long-time interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.

Mizuhara first told Thompson that Ohtani knew about a $4.5 million gambling debt he had accrued with an underground bookmaker and helped him pay it off in increments. He later admitted to stealing money from Ohtani's bank account without his knowledge.

Federal investigators eventually cleared Ohtani of any wrongdoing. However, Mizuhara's initial statements about the crime — made to Thompson over the phone with a paid Ohtani spokesperson listening in — generated unresolved intrigue, even though he recanted them shortly afterward.

Now, Thompson and ESPN have released the exclusive audio from that conversation in the "The Betrayal Of Shohei Ohtani" podcast, providing access to Mizuhara's only extensive discussion about the scandal for the first time.

Los Angeles Dodgers' Former Interpreter Explains Shohei Ohtani-Linked Gambling: 'Hard For Me To Make Ends Meet'

In the second episode of the podcast, Thompson shares extensive audio clips from a 2024 phone conversation with Mizuhara, detailing how and why he began wagering through Matt Boyer, the operator of an illegal gambling business.

Boyer extended Mizuhara an initial line of credit, the former interpreter said, and he quickly accrued a significant debt.

"At the time, I couldn't share this with Shohei, but it was hard for me to make my ends meet," Mizuhara told Thompson in the newly released audio, shared in advance with Forbes. "I was kind of going paycheck to paycheck because I kind of had to keep up with his lifestyle… I didn't want to go to him for help financially, stuff like that. So I was just trying to make ends meet on my side and I was in debt a little bit and stuff with, like, my parents and some friends."

Mizuhara added that, at the time, he earned $85,000 per year as Ohtani's interpreter with the Los Angeles Angels. In addition to linking his original money troubles to his work with Ohtani, Mizuhara told Thompson that Ohtani agreed to pay off the debt in $500,000 increments via wire transfer, which were marked from his bank account as "loans."

"He knew the whole amount and he knew we had to make several payments because we couldn't send more than $500,000 at a time," Mizuhara told Thompson. "I would do it with him every time."

As Thompson noted in the podcast, Mizuhara appeared to implicate Ohtani with direct knowledge of the payments to Boyer. The Ohtani-paid spokesperson sitting in on the confession did not chime in to refute the claim. However, as she prepared to report the details of Mizuhara's initial confession, Ohtani found out about the interview and quickly offered his side of the incident through a legal team.

Mizuhara was later found guilty of transferring nearly $17 million from Ohtani's bank account without the player's knowledge and is now serving a prison sentence.

Bombshell Ippei Mizuhara Confession Briefly Implicated Los Angeles Dodgers Superstar Shohei Ohtani in Illegal Sports Bets

The newly released audio of Mizuhara's confession is notable, if only for the bizarre twists and turns that followed. Just hours later, Ohtani would...