Former MLB star Yasiel Puig Valdés found guilty in connection with illegal sports gambling probe

• Yasiel Puig Valdés now awaits sentencing as the former MLB star has been found guilty of lying about sports betting with an illegal gambling operation
• The bookie responsible for operating the illegal gambling business that accepted Puig's bets is also due for sentencing this year
• Puig is said to have made hundreds, if not thousands, of bets, racking up debts, and lying to federal authorities

Former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and Los Angeles Dodgers player Yasiel Puig Valdés was found guilty of lying about placing bets with an illegal sports gambling operation on Friday, February 6, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced in a press release.

The player, who also played for the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds, as well as internationally in South Korea and Mexico, is tied to placing bets with an illegal bookie, who operated illegal gambling websites

According to court documents and the Department of Justice’s presentation of events, Puig began placing bets through one Wayne Joseph Nix, who would take the money and run them on the platform.

Initially, Puig denied wrongdoing, but the court has found him guilty. In the space of just several months, between May 2019, when the gambling began, and June 2019, Puig already owed Nix $282,900 in sports gambling losses.

The unraveling of the Yasiel Puig Valdés sports gambling case

Court documents indicated that Nix’s gambling business operated as a sort of brokerage where winners and losers would often wire money to each other instead of Nix or his associates.

In one such case, Puig was told to wire $200,000 to one Joseph Schottenstein, another person who had been using Nix’s gambling operation, and who was owed at least that much money by the bookie.

So, on June 25, 2019, Puig withdrew the amount from a Bank of America branch in Glendale, the Department of Justice said, and wired the money to Schottenstein. By this time, Puig was already stepping up the number of bets he was placing.

However, Puig also engaged in a betting behavior that went beyond excessive gambling, with the player said to have been placing bets at MLB ballparks and just before and after games in which he participated, eventually leading to 899 bets placed between July 4, 2019, and September 29, 2019, alone. This excludes previous bets placed by the player.

According to the Department of Justice, he racked up a debt worth at least $1m, which he never paid back to Nix.

Authorities catch up to Puig’s sports gambling behavior

However, by 2022, Puig was already under scrutiny by federal authorities, and he gave official statements, accompanied by lawyers. Puig was warned that any false testimony he gave could then be used against him.

A point of inquiry was Puig’s relationship with Donny Kadokawa, who worked for Nix and accepted bets on behalf of the gambler and other gamblers.

Puig was specifically asked how he came to know Kadokawa, to which he responded that he knew him from baseball and that he never discussed gambling or betting with the man.

The Department of Justice insisted that this was false - Kadokawa and Puig had talked about gambling and sports betting hundreds of times.

Investigators also found out that in 2019, Puig - who is a Cuban national - lied on the US government immigration form under oath as part of his naturalization process that he had never engaged in illegal gambling or received any income from such operations.

All the pieces are falling into place

Puig is now due to be sentenced on May 26, with the case presided over by US District Judge Dolly M. Gee. The former MLB ace could face a maximum sentence of 10 years for obstruction of justice, and another five years in prison for false statement charges.

As to Nix, he pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business as well as one count of filing a false tax return. Nix, too, is awaiting sentencing.

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