Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed a brief reiterating a 57-month sentencing request for Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter convicted of defrauding Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, in response to a filing by Mizuhara that had argued for a lighter sentence.
In the brief, the government stated that Mizuhara, through his pre-sentencing brief filed last week, made numerous “unsupported claims” in arguing for leniency.
“(The) defendant claims he is remorseful and wants to accept full responsibility for his actions, but his letter to the court suggests otherwise,” the prosecution argued.
“All defendants claim to be remorseful at the time of sentencing, but the question courts must answer is whether the defendant is truly remorseful or whether they are sorry they were caught.”
Mizuhara’s attorney, Michael Freedman, declined to comment on the government’s filing.
Mizuhara has requested an 18-month prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return in May, after stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. He will be formally sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Feb. 6.
The government went through Mizuhara’s brief, filed last week, and pushed back on numerous statements that were made.
Prosecutors said that Mizuhara did not have a “long standing” gambling addiction, as he had claimed, citing their investigation, which they said reviewed evidence from more than 30 casinos across the country. The result of the investigation only found Mizuhara spending $200 at a Las Vegas casino in 2008. He registered with the betting site FanDuel in 2018 but never placed a bet, and his only bets through fellow betting site DraftKings began in 2023.
The government also disputed Mizuhara’s claim that his debt forced him to steal from Ohtani. In this instance, they cited an initial $40,000 theft and wire transfer to a bookie in 2021, when Mizuhara had $34,000 in his bank account, which the government suggested could have been used to repay the bookie.
Among the other claims the government argued against was Mizhuara’s assertion that he intended to repay Ohtani. But the filing noted that Mizuhara often pocketed his winnings, while taking from Ohtani to pay off the losses. That led to him always having money in his bank account, the prosecution said, including nearly $200,000 when the fraud allegations first came to light in March of 2024.
Generally, the government contended that Mizuhara was not living paycheck to paycheck, as he’d stated, given that he had earned $250,000 in salary in 2023, and had almost no expenses. The government alleged that Mizuhara used Ohtani’s debit card without his authorization to pay for rent.
Lastly, the government said Mizuhara was incorrect in asserting that Ohtani dissuaded him from leveraging his fame to make money through book deals and commercials.
“Instead of showing true remorse,” the government said in its filing, “defendant appears to try to justify stealing millions of dollars from Mr. Ohtani.”
In addition to the 57-month sentence, the government is requesting three years of supervised release and a restitution of the near-$17 million that Mizuhara stole.
In the brief, the government acknowledged that serving his sentence in Los Angeles might lead him to “increased scrutiny” from the prison population, “but he is likely to receive a different welcome if assigned to a facility in Northern California, or any facility outside of Los Angeles.”
(Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images)
