Matthew Bower pleads guilty: Illegal bookmaker trial in US to be sentenced in February
Date: 2024-08-12 Author: Leon Pierce Categories: PEOPLE
Matthew Bower, who ran an illegal bookmaking operation in California for at least five years, pleaded guilty to three federal charges on August 9. Among his more than 700 clients was Shohei Otani’s former translator, Ippei Mizuhara.
At a hearing in US federal court in Santa Ana, California, Bower told Judge John H. Holcomb: “I was engaged in illegal gambling, laundering money through other people’s bank accounts.” It was in this court that Mizuhara had previously pleaded guilty to stealing $17 million from Otani to bet with Bower. Mizuhara faces up to 33 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.
Holcomb set Bowyer’s sentencing for Feb. 7, 2025. He faces up to 18 years in prison, three years of probation, and a fine of $750,000 or twice the “aggregate gain or loss resulting from the offenses,” whichever is greater.
Operating an illegal business is a federal crime, and sports betting is illegal in California.
Bowyer is the fourth person charged in the sportsbook scandal
Bowyer is charged with operating an illegal sportsbook, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. The charges are the result of a lengthy investigation that began last year.
Bowyer is the fourth person to be charged in connection with the Southern California sportsbook scandal. The main defendant in the case, Wayne Nix, was indicted in 2022 and was scheduled to be sentenced last March, but the date was pushed back to September 25.
Mizuhara is scheduled to be sentenced on October 25.
To date, only Scott Sibella, the CEO of the Las Vegas casino, has been convicted.
Sibella and the illegal bookmakers: The scandal details
Sibella, while working at the MGM Grand, failed to file a suspicious activity report when he gave Wayne Nix, a known illegal bookmaker, $120,000 in exchange for a cashier's check. At the time of the investigation, Sibella was president of Resorts World, where he was fired in 2023 after his ties to the investigation were revealed.
All of the defendants in the bookmaking scandal have pleaded guilty. In Sibella's case, this resulted in a reduced sentence: he was given 12 months of probation and a fine of $9,500.
Two Baseball Players Among Bowyer’s Clients
Court documents show that Bowyer, now 49, had at least two professional athletes among his clients.
“Person B was a professional baseball player from Southern California. Person C was a former minor league player,” the documents say. The two players were “close friends.”
While the baseball players are not named in the documents, they are likely David Fletcher, who played infielder for the Los Angeles Angels, and former minor leaguer Cody Schultz. Fletcher currently plays for the Atlanta Braves. He is under investigation by MLB, but has not yet been charged by the league or federal agents.
Schultz, according to previous reports, is considered an illegal bookmaker, although he has not been charged. He spent at least one season in the Pioneer League.
