A Southern California bookmaker who took thousands of sports bets from the former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani was sentenced to just over a year in prison Friday.
Mathew Bowyer, now 50, had pleaded guilty a year ago to running an illegal gambling business, money laundering and filing a false tax return. He was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.
The case against Bowyer is part of a broader federal probe into illegal sports gambling that led to the arrest of Ohtani’s former Japanese language interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who is currently serving a nearly five-year sentence for bank and tax fraud after stealing nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player.
“The bottom line is, I am remorseful. I have made many poor choices in my life,” Bowyer told the court before sentencing, his voice trembling.
Bowyer will later be subjected to two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, which his lawyer said he’s already paid.
Federal prosecutors wanted Bowyer sentenced to 15 months in prison for running the scheme that placed hundreds of millions of dollars in bets and netted thousands of dollars each day. They said Bowyer could have faced a longer sentence but shouldn’t thanks to his significant assistance in their investigations.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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