los angeles — A jury has found former NFL player Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials investigating an illegal gambling operation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
The ruling came after a trial that lasted several weeks and featured testimony from Major League Baseball officials and Donnie Kadokawa, the Hawaiian baseball coach through whom Puig placed the bets. Puig now faces up to 20 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26.
Puig, 35 years old, He initially pleaded guilty On a felony charge of lying to federal agents investigating an illegal gambling operation. He admitted in an August 2022 plea agreement that he incurred more than $280,000 in losses over a few months in 2019 while betting on tennis, soccer and basketball games through a third party who operated an illegal gambling operation run by Wayne Nix, a former minor league baseball player.
Nix pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and engaging in a false tax return. He is still awaiting sentencing.
Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets through betting sites controlled by the Knicks and through a man who worked for the Knicks.
During an interview with federal investigators in January 2022, Puig denied knowledge of the nature of his bets, with whom he was betting, and the circumstances of the repayment of his gambling debts, prosecutors said.
But he changed his tune months later, declaring that he was Change his claim He was found not guilty due to “significant new evidence,” according to a statement issued by his lawyer in Los Angeles.
“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in the statement. “I should never have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”
The government alleged that he intentionally misled federal investigators. The New York Times reported that they played audio clips in court of Puig speaking English, and brought in expert witnesses to testify about Puig’s cognitive abilities.
His lawyers said 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 allegedly lied.
Puig’s former lawyer, Steven Giblin, testified that during a January 2022 interview, Puig tried to be helpful in answering investigators’ questions and the translator struggled with Puig’s Spanish accent, according to the New York Times.
Puig hit .277 with 132 home runs and 415 RBI 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 a “wild horse” for his talent and on-field antics at a young age, and he joined MLB at 22, a year after fleeing his native Cuba.
He played for the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians in 2019 before becoming a free agent. Then he played in the Mexican League and last year I fell A one-year, million-dollar connection with Kiwoom Champions in South Korea.