California bookie pleads guilty to running illegal gambling business used by ex-Ohtani interpreter WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio [Video]

SANTA ANA, Calif. — (AP) — A Southern California bookmaker who took thousands of sports bets from the former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani pleaded guilty Friday to running an illegal gambling business.

Mathew Bowyer, 49, entered the plea in federal court in Santa Ana. He also pleaded guilty to money laundering and subscribing to a false tax return. He’s due to be sentenced Feb. 7.

“I was running an illegal gambling operation, laundering money through other people’s bank accounts,” Bowyer told the judge.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.

According to prosecutors, Bowyer ran an illegal gambling business for at least five years in Southern California and Las Vegas, and he took wagers from more than 700 bettors, including Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.

Operating an unlicensed betting business is a federal crime. Meanwhile, sports gambling is illegal in California, even as 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of it.

Mizuhara pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from a …