Bookmaker tied to ex-Ohtani interpreter gets 1-year sentence - ESPN

SANTA ANA, Calif. — An illegal bookmaker who took thousands of bets from the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani was sentenced Friday to just over a year in prison.

U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb gave Mathew Bowyer a prison sentence of 12 months and one day and two years of supervised release. He also ordered Bowyer to attend gambling addiction counseling and to surrender to authorities by Oct. 10. Bowyer paid $1.6 million in restitution before the sentencing.

Bowyer, 50, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to running an illegal gambling business, money laundering and filing a false tax return.

The tax-related crime «is significant and needs to be taken into account,» Holcomb said. «Justice demands there be some custody time.»

Prosecutors said in a court filing before the sentencing that they sought a lighter sentence of 15 months for Bowyer because of his assistance in securing convictions against Ohtani's ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, and another Southern California bookmaker.

Bass asked Judge Holcomb to sentence Bowyer to home confinement, arguing that Bowyer's crime has no victims beyond the government and that he is in recovery from a gambling addiction. She said that Bowyer did not know that Mizuhara was stealing from Ohtani to pay his gambling debts and that she was concerned that the media interest in the case would work against her client.

«He did not think he was taking advantage of anyone,» Bass said. «We didn't know it was going to be a high-profile case… then all of a sudden there is this huge media interest.»

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Williams pointed to the societal harm of Bowyer's crime and that his case was not «simply about an addict who got into trouble.»

«He's going