A former Major League Baseball (MLB) player, Yasiel Puig, has been found guilty of obstructing justice and giving false information to federal officials as part of a wider gambling investigation.
Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force and officers from the IRS Criminal Investigation wing investigated a suspected flag of irregular betting linked to the former star.
Puig found guilty
Puig is best known in MLB for his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians), and teams in Mexico and South Korea.
As part of a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California, he has now been found guilty on the charges and faces sentencing in May.
HSI and IRS respond to gambling red flags
In 2022, the LA Times reported that Puig had been working with federal investigators and had agreed to a plea deal to provide information about numerous cases linked to former minor league player Wayne Joseph Nix.
The minor league name Nix was reported to have operated a million-dollar illegal sportsbook with the help of Edon Kagasof, Howard Miller, and the businesses Celebrity Financial LLC and Sherman Oaks Check Cashing.
He was a target of federal investigators for alleged ties to major stars in sports betting and was part of a broader investigation into his actions. Puig then spectacularly withdrew from the plea deal, and investigators turned their attention to the star and his testimony.
Nix pleaded guilty in 2022 and is awaiting sentencing on one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business and one count of filing a false tax return.
Puig’s role in the gambling scheme
Following a 13-day federal trial, Puig was found to have been interwoven with the work of Nix and a handler, Donny Kadokawa, and another associate, Benny Bonilla, to place bets.
In 2019, court documents showed that Puig owed Nix $282,900 in sports gambling losses and that he was instructed to wire money to another bettor, Joseph Schottenstein.
Puig withdrew $200,000 and issued two cashier’s checks for $100,000 each, payable to Schottenstein, on June 25, 2019.
He was then given access to bet again with Nix and his websites and was found to have placed 899 additional bets on tennis, football, and basketball games, either near or on MLB sites.
Lying under federal investigation
As part of the 2022 investigation, Puig was warned by federal investigators that lying under questioning was an offense.
He did so regardless, with the report underlining “Puig lied several times. During the interview, he falsely stated that he ‘only’ knew Kadokawa from baseball and that he never discussed gambling with him, when in fact Puig discussed sports betting with Kadokawa hundreds of times on the telephone and via text message.”
Puig was also found to have lied about the cashier’s cheques and connections to Nix’s associates, despite agents showing the former star the physical cheques.
The agents also found a WhatsApp message sent in March 2022 to Bonilla, “in which he admitted to lying to federal agents and to obstructing their grand jury investigation during his interview two months earlier.”
A court date has been scheduled for May 26 for a sentencing hearing, overseen by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee.
Puig faces a possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison on the obstruction of justice charge and up to five years in prison for the false statement charges.
Featured image: Arturo Pardavila III via WikiCommons / CC BY 2.0
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