/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71628826/1054816606.0.jpg "Former Dodger Yasiel Puig pleaded guilty to lying to the feds about the sports betting chain.")
© Contributed by LA Times Yasiel Puig, who appeared during the 2018 NLCS run, has agreed to plead guilty to lying to federal law enforcement about betting he placed on athletes. Illegal Bets. (Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
for memory .
21:13, November 14, 2022 – An earlier version of this story stated that Yasiel Puig was not a US citizen. Became a citizen in 2019.
Former Dodgers pitcher Yasiel Puig has agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to federal authorities investigating an illegal bookmaker, court documents show on Monday.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Puig, 31, pleads guilty to one count of embezzlement, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. He agreed to pay a minimum $55,000 fine and is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Federal authorities were investigating an illegal sports betting operation run by Wayne Nicks, a former minor league baseball player living in Newport Beach, when Puig lied in an interview about his involvement under a plea agreement.
In 2019, Puig began betting through a third party working for the Knicks and soon accumulated more than $280,000 in debt under a plea agreement. After paying off some of his debts, Puig made hundreds of bets on tennis, football, and basketball through Knicks Ring-affiliated sites. The plea agreement did not say if Puig had bet on baseball.
Third, a former college baseball player and private coach identified in court documents as “Agent 1” placed and accepted bets on the Knicks business, whose client list includes current and former professional athletes, according to court documents:
Documents show that Puig, who was traded from the Dodgers to the Cincinnati Reds in December 2018 and from the Reds to the Cleveland Guardians in July 2019, met Agent 1 at youth baseball camp in January 2019.
“No later than May 2019, Defendant began betting on Nix Gambling Business sports events Puig called Dealer #1 and sent him a text message to bid according to the deal. After Customer 1 receives the bets from Puig, Dealer 1 forwards the bets to the Nix staking operation.
Documents show that Puig owed the Knicks $282,000 as of June 17 of that year.
Another special trainer who helped Puig in the fight, listed in the plea agreement as “Person B”, was with Agent 1 to collect Puig’s gambling debts. Between June 25 and July 3, Customer 1 and Individual B sent Puig text messages requesting a check or money order to another individual, Individual A, a Knicks customer owed at least $200,000 as of June 2019. states.
Puig withdrew $200,000 from Bank of America’s Glendale branch on June 25. The documents show that he wrote two cashier’s checks for $100,000 payable to individual A, but did not mail them immediately due to a dispute.
Between June 28 and July 4, Puig requested direct access to the gaming sites operated by Sand Island Sports, which the Knicks and Agent 1 used to set up customer betting accounts as part of a promotional contract. Nix refused, stating that he must pay his debts first. On July 3, Puig sent cashier’s checks to individual A, and the following day, Nicks gave Puig direct access to betting sites.
From July 4 to September 29, Puig placed 899 bets on tennis, football and basketball on Sand Island Sports, according to the documents.
When federal authorities questioned Puig with his lawyer on January 27, 2022, he made “several false statements to officers that were relevant to the investigation,” according to the plea agreement.
“For example, the agents presented the respondent with a picture of Client 1 and asked him if he discussed sports betting with Client 1. The respondent falsely stated that he had never discussed sports betting with Client 1 and only knew baseball with Client 1.”
When officers showed Puig a copy of one of the cashier’s checks he had sent to Individual A, Puig said that he made a bet online “with an unknown person at an unknown location and lost $200,000 under a plea agreement.”
“In fact, as defendant knew at the time, defendant made a number of bets directly through dealer 1, resulting in the loss of the game,” the lawsuit states.
Puig also lied that he did not know who told him to send $200,000 cashier’s checks to Person A and said that he never communicated with that person via text message, as per the plea agreement.
“On March 14, 2022, Defendant sent an audio message to person B via WhatsApp regarding an interview he conducted with [federal agents] in January 2022,” the documents state. “During the audio message, Respondent told Individual B that he was sitting and listening to what these people were saying, and I didn’t say anything, I didn’t speak. I said I only know [Agent #1] about baseball.”
The tax authorities said Nix, 46, pleaded guilty April 11 to one count of conspiring to operate an illegal sports betting business and one count of filing a false tax return. The sentencing date has been set for March 8.
Four other men also pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Nix case.
On Monday, authorities also reached a plea deal against former MLB player Eric Christian Helgus, 49, who “was an agent for the illegal Knicks gambling business but did not work with Puig,” prosecutors said.
Helgus has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of signing false tax returns and, if convicted, faces up to six years in federal prison.
According to the plea agreement, Puig says that “he wants to plead guilty to any immigration consequences that may result from his statement, even if it results in his automatic removal from the United States.” Puig, who left Cuba in 2012, became a US citizen in 2019. Puig last played for a major league baseball team in 2019. He has since played in the Dominican Winter League, the Mexican League and last season in Major League Baseball. South. Korea.
Puig’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment on the plea agreement.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
