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Former Major League Baseball outfielder Yasiel Puig was convicted by a jury in a federal gambling case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
The verdict followed a weeklong trial that included testimony from MLB officials and Donny Kadokawa, a Hawaii baseball coach linked to Puig and the illegal gambling operation.
Puig played for three major league teams, spending most of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has not appeared in an MLB game since 2019. Puig, 35, now faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
His sentencing is scheduled for May 26.
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Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig reacts after the third inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the 2017 NLDS baseball playoff series at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on October 9, 2017. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports)
Puig’s attorney, Keri Curtis Axel, argued that the government had failed to prove key elements of her case and that she planned to make motions after the trial.
“We look forward to clearing Yasiel’s name,” Axel said.
Puig initially pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to federal agents investigating an illegal gambling operation.
He admitted in an August 2022 plea agreement that he suffered more than $280,000 in losses over a few months in 2019 by betting 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.
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Nix pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gaming business and filing a false tax return. Authorities said Puig placed at least 900 bets on betting sites controlled by Nix and through a man who worked 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 mind a few months later, announcing he was pleading not guilty due to “significant new evidence,” according to a statement from his lawyers 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.”
Yasiel Puig of Tiburones de La Guaira of Venezuela reacts after leaving a game due to an injury in the fourth inning during a game against the Dominican Republic at LoanDepot Park in the 2024 Serie del Caribe on February 9, 2024, in Miami, Florida. (Luis Gutierrez/by Norte Photo/Getty Images)
The government argued he intentionally misled federal investigators. They played audio clips of Puig speaking English in court and brought in expert witnesses to testify about Puig’s cognitive abilities, The New York Times reported.
His lawyers said Puig, who was a third-grader, had untreated mental health issues and did not have his own interpreter or criminal lawyer with him during the interview with federal investigators in which he allegedly lied.
Yasiel Puig of Venezuela’s Tiburones de la Guaira reacts during the fifth inning of a match against the Dominican Republic at LoanDepot Park in the 2024 Serie del Caribe on February 1, 2024, in Miami, Florida. (Luis Gutiérrez/Norte Photo/Getty Images)
Puig made his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 2013 and finished his major league career with 132 home runs and 415 RBIs. He was selected to the MLB All-Star team in 2014. Last year, he played for the Kiwoom Heroes, a professional baseball team based in Seoul.
