Shohei Ohtani made headlines after signing the most lucrative deal in sports history a few months ago, now he’s in the news for one of the biggest betting scandals of recent times, though it’s probably through no fault of his own.
The Los Angeles Dodgers star is being described as the victim of a “massive theft,” with his former interpreter and close friend Ippei Mizuhara accused of stealing $4.5 million from his bank account to cover gambling debt.
Mizuhara, though, has made claims of the player sanctioning the payments.
Also Read: BREAKING: MLB Makes Major Announcement Concerning Serious Accusations Involving Shohei Ohtani
The scandal also involves an illegal California bookmaker, Mathew Bowyer, who is now at the center of a criminal investigation.
Meet The Bettor At The Center Of The Shohei Ohtani Gambling Scandal
According to the Washington Post, Bowyer has gone from being a bankrupt bettor to someone who has been able to set up a major sportsbook on the West Coast and profit from millions in illegal gambling.
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The bookie first came under scrutiny when a package containing $108,000 in cash was mailed to him from an illegal bookmaking ring with connections to the Colombo crime family’s “South Florida Crew.”
Bowyer is said to have filed for personal bankruptcy in 2011, claiming to have lost $425,000 gambling in Vegas over the past two years. A divorced father of four, he saw his company, Teapot Exterminators fail before becoming a commodities trader.
Per court records, he continued to bet at casinos and was in court battles with various Vegas resorts. Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino also opened a line of credit to him amounting to $1.2 million that he was sued for not paying back.
Bowyer is reported to have also been involved in a real estate scam targeting retirees the Federal Trade Commission branded “the largest overseas real estate investment scam the [agency] has ever targeted.”
He invested $1 million in a company linked to the scheme in 2018 which was later alleged to have misappropriated investor funds to buy a 424-acre plot of land in The Bahamas. While he was deposed in the litigation, Bowyer was not named as a civil defendant, nor was he charged. His lawyer claimed he was not involved and wasn’t implicated.
When Bowyer became a bookie is unknown. He founded a company branded Picks Enterprises LLC from a lawyer’s office in Vegas in 2019 before opening a Brazilian jiu-jitsu studio called RYSK.
He’s now the focus of one of the biggest gambling scandals involving one of the most popular athletes in the country.
