Bookie for Shohei Ohtani's interpreter on a mini-media tour before gambling, money-laundering, tax judgment
Mathew Bowyer, the California illegal bookie who had more than 700 clients and took hundreds of millions in illegal wagers, will be sentenced to prison Friday in a federal courtroom in Santa Ana, California. He’ll be sentenced by the same judge in the same courtroom where his star client, former Shoehi Ohtani interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, pled his case after stealing $17 million to bet with Bowyer.
The charges he pled guilty to: operating an unlawful gambling business, money-laundering, and subscribing to a false tax return.
Before learning his fate — federal prosecutors are recommending 15 months in federal prison — the 49-year-old San Juan Capistrano resident sat for two incredibly different interviews. Both sessions seemed by their content motivated by not only rehabilitating his image, but for selling a book Recalibrate, which was published Aug. 4 and is currently the Amazon No. 1 best-seller in the “gambling and addiction category.” There will be another book, he said. And he has a sizzle reel at Netflix for a possible documentary.
There was also remorse for his part in Mizuhara’s downward spiral to bank and tax fraud plea deals, leading to Mizuhara’s ongoing 57-month prison sentence. But the interviews inside his home got to these commonalities in difference ways.
Mercedes, millions, making book
One interview, with YouTube personality/gambler Bill Krackomberger, was very much a tales-from-the-baccarat table yarn of high stakes, crashes, and massive paydays. Bowyer did much of the talking in an 80-minute session on his spacious porch, wearing a sleeveless shirt and looking in his element. He didn’t so much have excuses as reasons, from his vantage point.
“My goal now is to get my story out, at least give a narrative of who I am as a person,” Bowyer said, “because I’m being judged as a predator for being a bookmaker. The evil side, all the sensationalized news makes me look bad, frankly. But I am who I am.
“You can judge me, hate me. You’re always going to have haters. I know who I am. I’m a good father. I’m a good person.”
“You can judge me, hate me. You’re always going to have haters. I know who I am. I’m a good father. I’m a good person.”
The Krackomberger interview revealed its level of sympathy quickly, when co-host Jon Orlando declared, “I haven’t been this excited to do a podcast in probably four years,” barely before Bowyer was posed a question.
“We felt so bad that this guy’s actually going to prison involving gambling, even though he gave up so much,” Krackomberger said, referencing Bowyer’s cooperation with investigators.
Countered Orlando: “The world’s going to be a better place with you being [sentenced] tomorrow? This is so crazy. What are we doing?”
Once upon a time … and Mizuhara
Bowyer weaves the narrative of his life in the Krackomberger interview, from his middle-class up-bringing in Southern California, where he ran a poker ring at 16, selling marijuana and eventually straightening out to making $700,000 a year as a retail broker by 21. Then he decided to become an illegal bookmaker.
It’s a chummy interview replete with stories of fortunes leveraged, lost, and regained, and Bowyer and Krackomberger facing each other over a card table in a Punta Cana, Dominican Republic casino. And it invariably dips into how a trip to spring training and hanging out at a poker game with baseball players led to an introduction to Mizuhara. And that he got greedy with a bad gambler.
Bowyer: “I extended his credit line. He got the $300,000, and he paid it. Then he asked for $500,000. Well, s***, he just paid me $300,000. He’s clearly a bad gambler, so greedy-wise, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll give him $500,000. …
“He’s losing and he’s like ‘Look, I’m going to always pay you. Just give me more credit because I can’t get access to the money instantly all the time to send million-dollar wires.’ I didn’t care. I didn’t ask who it was from. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was Shohei Ohtani until the third wire [transfer]. Once I saw that name, I was like, holy s***.”
Real talk in the living room
In the other interview with Dan Real, the founder and CEO of Exclaim Recovery center, Bowyer was business very casual, albeit almost wince-worthy in a Los Angeles Dodgers cap, but framed as if in a therapy session in a less-comfortable-looking chair.
There were some of the same war stories as in the Krackomberger video, specifically a scare with the Transportation Security Agency at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. But Real had done much of the talking through the fourth of an eventual 10 short video installments released on LinkedIn through Thursday.
“I definitely think I’ll bet again,” he said. “I’d be sitting here lying to you, otherwise. The reason I say that is because even though I know I have a gambling addiction, I still am not mentally at a point where I can sit here and say to you, ‘Well, I’ll never gamble again.'”
Bowyer said if he ever saw Mizuhara again he’d try to hug him, but because he’s greedy, he admitted, he’d be tempted to ask for some of the money he still says is still owed because, he said, “truthfully, I could use it.”
Category: General Sports
