A jury on Friday found former Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators.
The two-week trial in Los Angeles federal court ended with the jury deliberating for nearly two days. Puig, 35, could face up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 26.
Puig faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in federal prison for obstruction of justice and five years in prison for two counts of making false statements. He is always comfortable with his identity.
Puig’s defense team said it plans to appeal. “Obviously we are disappointed with this decision,” said attorney Keri Curtis Axel. “… We believe we have good reasons to reverse this decision and we will continue to fight.”
The charges stem from a January 2022 videoconference with federal investigators in which Puig allegedly lied about his sports betting. Investigators – led by Assistant US Atty. Jeff Mitchell – they were gathering information at the time about an illegal gambling ring led by Wayne Nix of Newport Coast.
Investigators allege Puig denied betting on Nix despite evidence showing he made 899 wagers with the former minor leaguer on football and basketball games and tennis matches from July to September 2019.
Puig — who was accused of betting on baseball — lost more than $1.5 million in sports betting, Internal Affairs Special Counsel Christen Seymour testified, and owed Nix $282,900.
Nix pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and one count of filing a false tax return. He is awaiting sentencing.
Mitchell will soon be best known for overseeing the investigation and sentencing of Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who was sentenced last year to 57 months in federal prison for bank fraud and filing false tax returns after stealing $17 million from Ohtani to pay off his illegal gambling debts.
But Mitchell’s interest in Puig centered on what he knew about Nix, who was slated for a federal investigation in 2022. According to a court filing reviewed by the Times, Mitchell told Puig’s attorney that he did not believe it was a federal crime to make payments to an illegal bookie. Investigators were after an “illegal sports gambling organization,” Mitchell said.
But when Mitchell concluded Puig lied about betting on Nix spokesman Donny Kadokawa, he quickly charged the outfielder with making false statements and obstruction of justice.
Puig agreed in August 2022 to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities and would not be jailed while paying a $55,000 fine. However, weeks later he backed out of the deal, and the judge ruled that he could do so because he had not yet filed his case in court.
“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in a statement at the time. “I should not have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”
It took another three years of litigation before a trial, but Puig finally got his day in court in January. Assistant US Attys. Juan Rodriguez and Michael Morse served as prosecutors after Mitchell resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in May.
Puig’s defense focused on issues of Mitchell’s 2022 interview with investigators representing the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS.
Defense attorneys Brian Klein and Axel argued in court that Puig, who is of Cuban descent, was confused because of his language barrier and dual diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Investigators misinterpreted his answers, lawyers said.
Steven Gebelin, who represented Puig in 2021 and 2022, testified at his trial that his then-client tried to help during the interview but, because the interpreter’s Spanish was different from Puig’s, his answers were not translated correctly. Puig did not testify at trial.
Axel countered in his closing statement that Puig did not lie about his interactions with Nix and his associates, which occurred two years before the interview with investigators.
Investigators thought Puig was lying when he was confused by the question and felt pressured to accurately remember the details of his gambling activity, Axel argued, telling the judge that “opinions and guesses are not evidence, and you shouldn’t rely on them.”
Prosecutors also alleged during the interview that Puig lost $200,000 in 2019 betting on a website he could not identify and that an unidentified person directed him to buy $200,000 in cashier’s checks from another Nix customer to pay off his gambling debt. Investigators considered Puig’s inability to recall the name to be a lie.
Kadokawa revealed that he was the one giving Puig’s instructions. Axel disputed that Puig told investigators later in the interview that he bet on Kadokawa, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Puig also lied when he applied for US citizenship in 2019, testifying in his application and interview that he had never gambled illegally.
“We are filing a strong case, and we believe the facts are ours,” Axel said after the verdict. “The government presented incredible resources in this case; putting a nine-day case into an interview that lasted a few hours and had absolutely nothing to do with anything.”
After growing up in Cuba, Puig came to the United States in 2012 and signed with the Dodgers. His lawyers called an expert who testified that Puig’s difficult journey from his home country caused PTSD.
UCLA psychology professor Marcel Pontón, the prosecution’s neuropsychology expert witness, denied that diagnosis. And Morse countered the argument that Puig couldn’t understand English by playing audio of Puig demonstrating in English about his interview.
The power hitter quickly became a Dodgers fan favorite, finishing second in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2013. Nicknamed “The Wild Horse,” Puig remained a formidable presence in the lineup for six years and helped the Dodgers to the World Series in 2018 when he hit a three-run homer in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
