Feds Hit Ohtani Scandal-Linked Bookie to 366 Days in Jail

A US District Decide has sentenced Mathew Bowyer, the bookie linked to the Shohei Ohtani betting scandal, to 12 months in jail. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Bookie jail sure

United States District Decide John W. Holcomb has handed a comparatively mild sentence to the bookie who took unlawful sports activities bets from the ex-interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star, Shohei Ohtani.

12 months and someday

Decide Holcomb on Friday sentenced Mathew Bowyer, 50, to 12 months and someday in federal jail.

The US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Central District of California (USAO-CDC) took to X with information of the Orange County native’s sentence:

Bowyer in August 2024 confessed to 1 depend apiece of working an unlawful playing enterprise, cash laundering, and submitting a false tax return.

Bowyer admitted to accepting hundreds of bets from Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who stole nearly $17m from the Dodgers’ star to cowl playing money owed with Bowyer.

Decide notes effort

Bowyer ran an unlicensed bookmaking enterprise for 5 years in a state the place sports activities betting is unlawful, and at one stage had over 700 bettors utilizing his providers in California.

gamble and dwell an extravagant way of life

In keeping with a USAO-CDC press launch, the prosecuting Feds summed up Bowyer’s crimes as feeding a longtime operation that made hundreds of thousands of US$, enabling the bookie and his associates “to gamble and dwell an extravagant way of life.”

The prosecutors added that the unlawful operation usually exploited individuals the bookie “acknowledged have been addicted and lengthening themselves past their means.”

Whereas prosecutors sought an extended sentence, Decide Holcomb expressed being impressed by Bowyer’s latest efforts to handle his playing dependancy and assist others in the identical boat.

Whereas acknowledging Bowyer’s “vital” effort to reform, Holcomb said the tax crime component made it essential for the California man to serve a while in jail.

“There are penalties for committing these crimes.”

Coming clear

Bowyer’s lawyer shared a letter by Bowyer to the courtroom wherein the daddy of 5 took duty for his actions, stating it’s “really easy to gamble all the pieces away and fall into despair.”

“I’m very sorry and embarrassed that I facilitated such harmful risk-taking.”

Decide Holcombe additionally ordered Bowyer to pay restitution of $1,613,280.