Jury finds Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying

Summary

A jury 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 followed a multiweek trial that included testimony from Major League Baseball officials and from Donny Kadokawa, a Hawaii baseball coach identified in the case as part of the network through which Puig placed bets.

Puig’s conviction stems from evidence prosecutors said showed he participated in a betting operation run through intermediaries connected to Wayne Nix, a former minor league player. Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets through Nix-controlled betting websites and through a man who worked for Nix.

The case also focused on Puig’s statements to investigators. 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 gambling debts.

Puig initially entered a felony guilty plea in the matter, acknowledging in an August 2022 plea agreement that he wagered—through a third party affiliated with the illegal gambling operation—on tennis, football and basketball games in 2019 and racked up more than $280,000 in losses over a few months. Nix later pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and to subscribing to a false tax return; he remained awaiting sentencing.

After prosecutors presented evidence and testimony at trial, Puig’s attorney said the government failed to establish key elements of its case and that she will seek relief after the verdict. Keri Curtis Axel told the court she “plans to raise post-trial motions,” and she said, “We look forward to clearing Yasiel’s name,” according to testimony reported by the Associated Press.

Puig faces sentencing May 26 and could receive up to 20 years in federal prison, the AP reported. In a statement tied to earlier proceedings, Puig had said he wanted to clear his name and that he “never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit,” language prosecutors and defense later treated as central to disputes over what he knew and when.

The trial featured competing accounts of the January 2022 interview. Prosecutors argued Puig intentionally misled investigators. They played audio clips from the interview and presented expert testimony on Puig’s cognitive abilities, the Associated Press reported.

Puig’s defense took a different tack. The defense said Puig had untreated mental-health issues and argued he did not have his own interpreter or criminal legal counsel during the interview where he was said to have lied. Steven Gebelin, Puig’s former attorney, testified during the trial that Puig tried to be helpful during questioning and that the interpreter had struggled with Puig’s Spanish dialect, according to the AP report.

Puig, 35, is a former All-Star who batted .277 with 132 home runs and 415 RBIs across seven major league seasons, with the first six coming with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He previously played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians in 2019 before becoming a free agent, later playing in the Mexican League and signing a one-year, $1 million contract with South Korea’s Kiwoom Heroes, the AP reported.

The conviction caps a case that began with Puig’s acknowledged wagers and moved through shifting pleas, courtroom testimony, and questions about what Puig understood during the federal interview at the heart of the obstruction and lying charges.