MLB

Former MLB player Yasiel Puig was found guilty of obstruction and lying to league officials

ballervisions 2026年2月7日

Los Angeles – A judge found former major leaguer Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials investigating illegal gambling, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday.

The ruling came after a weeks-long trial that featured testimony from Major League Baseball executives and Donny Kadokawa, the Hawaii baseball coach Puig bet on. Puig now faces up to 20 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26.

Puig’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Puig, 35, initially pleaded guilty to a felony count of lying to federal agents investigating illegal gambling. He admitted in an August 2022 plea agreement that he made more than $280,000 in losses over a few months in 2019 while betting on tennis, football and basketball games through a third party that 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 filing a false tax return. He is still awaiting sentencing.

Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets through betting websites controlled by Nix and a man working for Nix.

Prosecutors said that during a January 2022 interview with federal investigators, Puig denied knowing 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 changing his case because of “some new evidence,” according to a statement from his lawyers in Los Angeles.

“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in a statement. “I should not have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”

The government argued that he deliberately misled government investigators. They played courtroom audio clips of Puig speaking English and brought in expert witnesses to testify about Puig’s comprehension skills, the New York Times reported.

His lawyers said Puig, who has a third-grade education, had mental health issues and was without an interpreter or legal counsel during the interview with federal investigators when he allegedly lied.

Puig’s former attorney, Steven Gebelin, testified that during a January 2022 interview, Puig tried to be helpful in answering investigators’ questions and a translator struggled with Puig’s Spanish, according to the New York Times.

Puig hit .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 a “wild horse” because of his on-field antics and talent at a young age, joining MLB at age 22, a year after escaping his native Cuba.

He played for the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians in 2019 before becoming a free agent. He then played in the Mexican League and last year signed a one-year, $1 million deal with South Korea’s Kiwoom Heroes.