Brandon Brown
Shohei Ohtani is getting the Hollywood treatment, but not like he or the Dodgers dreamed of when he signed a $700 million contract in the off-season. Instead, the two-way star will be the subject of a scripted TV series about his friend and former performer, Ippei Mizuhara, who stole from him nearly $17 million to pay off illegal gambling debts, Lionsgate Television announced Thursday. fair.
Tony Award winner and producer Scott Delman, who has credits on Broadway shows from “Mean Girls” to “The Book of Mormon” as well as serving as executive producer on “Station Eleven,” and former Sports Illustrated reporter Albert Chen, author of the sports gambling book “Billion Dollar Fantasy,” is behind the untitled project.
“This is Major League Baseball’s biggest sports betting scandal since Pete Rose – and at its center is its biggest star, the one MLB latched on to,” Chen said in a statement. “We will get to the heart of the story – a story of trust, betrayal and the pitfalls of wealth and fame.”
The announcement comes a day after the Justice Department announced that Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. Mizuhara, who served as Ohtani’s interpreter with the Angels and Dodgers before being fired on the first day of the 2024 MLB season, used his access to Ohtani’s bank accounts to pay off millions of dollars owed to an illicit California bookmaker, where sports betting is illegal. According to prosecutors, after going to a Phoenix bank with Ohtani to open a bank account, Mizuhara changed the account’s security protocols so that bank employees would call him, rather than Ohtani, with any questions. Mizuhara impersonated Ohtani in calls to bank employees at least 24 times, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Mizuhara also used Ohtani’s accounts to purchase $325,000 worth of baseball cards from eBay and other online retailers in order to sell them for a profit. In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara’s $60,000 dental treatment and provided him with a check. Instead, prosecutors say, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani’s debit card and deposited the check into his personal account.
Prosecutors labeled Ohtani a victim and said he had no role in Mizuhara’s game.
“The extent of this defendant’s deception and theft is enormous,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement Wednesday. “He took advantage of his position of trust to take advantage of Mr. Ohtani and fuel a dangerous gambling habit. My office is committed to vindicating victims throughout our community and ensuring that offenders face justice.”
Mizuhara faces a maximum sentence of 33 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a $1,250,000 fine. He will also be required to pay full restitution to his victims, which includes $16,975,010 to Ohtani and $1,149,400 to the IRS for lying on his 2022 tax return.
