02/06/26 04:43:00
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02/06 16:42 CST Ex-MLB player Yasiel Puig found guilty of obstruction and lying
to federal officials
Ex-MLB player Yasiel Puig found guilty of obstruction and lying to federal
officials
By JAIMIE DING
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) --- A jury has found former major league outfielder Yasiel
Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials
investigating an illegal gambling operation, the U.S. Attorney's Office said
Friday.
The verdict came after a multiweek trial that featured testimony from Major
League Baseball officials and Donny Kadokawa, a Hawaii baseball coach that Puig
placed bets through. Puig now faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Puig initially pled guilty to a felony charge of lying to federal agents
investigating an illegal gambling operation. He acknowledged in an August 2022
plea agreement that he wracked up more than $280,000 in losses over a few
months in 2019 while wagering on tennis, football and basketball games through
a third party who worked for an illegal gambling operation run by Wayne Nix, a
former minor league baseball player.
Nix pled guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business
and subscribing to a false tax return. He is still awaiting sentencing.
Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets through Nix-controlled betting
websites and through a man who worked for Nix.
Prosecutors said that during a January 2022 interview with federal
investigators, he denied knowing about the nature of his bets, who he was
betting with, and the circumstances of paying his gambling debts.
But he changed his tune months later, announcing that he was switching his plea
to not guilty because of "significant new evidence," according to a statement
from his attorneys in Los Angeles.
"I want to clear my name," Puig said in the statement. "I never should have
agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit."
The government argued that he intentionally misled the federal investigators.
They played in court audio clips of Puig speaking English and brought expert
witnesses to testify on Puig's cognitive abilities, the New York Times reported.
His attorneys said that Puig, who has a third-grade education, had untreated
mental-health issues and did not have his own interpreter or criminal legal
counsel with him during the interview with federal investigators where he
purportedly lied.
Puig's former attorney Steven Gebelin testified that during the January 2022
interview, Puig tried to be helpful in answering the investigators' questions
and the interpreter struggled with Puig's Spanish language dialect, according
to the New York Times.
Puig batted .277 with 132 home runs and 415 RBIs while appearing in seven major
league seasons, the first six with the Dodgers, where he earned an All-Star
selection in 2014.
Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully called Puig the "wild horse" for his on-field
antics and talent at a young age, joining MLB at 22, a year after escaping his
home country of Cuba.
He played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians in 2019 before
becoming a free agent. He then played in the Mexican League and last year he
signed a one-year, $1 million contact with South Korea's Kiwoom Heroes.
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