The Cuban baseball player Yasiel Puig He was on the verge of going to jail when this Friday a jury found him guilty of lying to federal authorities and obstructing the investigation of an illegal sports betting ring.
After several weeks of the trial held in the city of Los Angeles, the jury considered it proven that the Cienfuegos player and player of the Dodgers For six seasons he had committed the crimes that prosecutors accused him of, report the sports portal ESPN.
Former Dodger Yasiel Puig found guilty of lying to investigators in gambling scandal https://t.co/t4Wa2JdNWY pic.twitter.com/RAEUhtsrMC
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At the trial, testimonies were heard from officials of the Major Leagues (MLB, for its acronym in English) and Donny Kadokawa, a coach that Puig used to make almost 900 bets that generated a debt of more than 280 thousand dollars.
According to what was stated, these operations were carried out in an illegal betting network controlled by Wayne Nix, a former minor league player.
Nix pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and filing a false tax return, but is still awaiting the judge’s sentencing.
It was during that investigation that federal agents interviewed Puig in January 2022. He then denied knowing the details of how the betting network worked, who ran it, and how the gambling debts he had acquired since 2019 were paid.
wrong play
Months after the interview with investigators, Puig came to the conclusion that it was worth pleading guilty for lying, and admitting his illegal bets through third parties in sports such as tennis, American football and basketball.
However, some time later his lawyers issued a statement in which the player changed his mind and announced that he would plead not guilty, supported by “significant new evidence” in his favor.
“I want to clear my name… I should never have agreed to plead guilty to a crime that I did not commit,” he stated at that time.
That movement led to the recent trial of the player who dazzled with his emergence into the Big League at the age of 22, shortly after his irregular departure from Cuba.
His performance and election to an All-Star Game seemed to mark the beginning of a successful career, but he was devoured by his controversial, often violent, behavior that ended up marginalizing him from the circuit.
failed defense
During the trial, the defense tried to dismantle the theory that Puig intentionally deceived federal investigators, and to do so argued that the player had a low educational level, suffered from untreated mental health problems, in addition to not having legal advice and his own interpreter during the interview with investigators.
In that sense, one of his lawyers at that time testified that in his statements to federal agents, Puig tried to collaborate by answering questions and that the interpreter had difficulty understanding his then client’s way of speaking Spanish.
The information indicates that at the trial the prosecution provided audios of Puig speaking in English and presented experts to accurately specify the cognitive abilities of the accused, something that ended up convincing the jury.
dark future
According to legal experts, Puig could face a sentence of between 15 and 20 years in prison for the crimes he is accused of, something that will be known at a hearing scheduled for May 26.
The fact that prosecutors also pointed out that the player lied when, in the process of obtaining US citizenship, he was asked if he had made illegal bets, could imply his deportation, according to some analysts.
To attend the trial in which he was found guilty, Puig interrupted his actions with the Navegantes de Magallanes, in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LPVB), the most recent destination of his career.
After his seven seasons in the MLB, in which he hit .277, with 132 home runs and 415 runs batted in, the southerner spent two years in the South Korean professional league.
