The former Los Angeles Dodgers player is accused of perjury and obstruction of justice in the United States
14ymedio, Havana, February 8, 2026 – Yasiel Puig, also known as El Caballo Salvaje (The Wild Horse), was found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury in an illegal betting case. The Cuban ballplayer faces up to 20 years in prison, with his sentencing scheduled for May 26.
The charges against Puig stem from a videoconference interview with investigators in January 2022, during which he allegedly lied about his involvement in sports betting.
“Authorities say that he denied having bet with Wayne Nix, the ringleader of an illegal gambling network, despite evidence showing that he placed 899 bets on American football, basketball, and tennis events between July and September 2019,” journalist Francys Romero reported.
“It’s sad. From a sporting standpoint, Puig is among the 10 most talented ballplayers of the last 10 or 15 years,” Romero said. The player had “an innate ability to make things happen” on the field. “It shouldn’t have ended this way,” he lamented.
During the trial, which lasted 13 days in a Los Angeles court, Puig’s lawyers tried to prove his innocence, arguing that there had been “a misunderstanding during the interview, poor handling of the language, and issues of attention deficit disorder,” emphasized the journalist, who has closely followed the case.
However, testimony from Major League Baseball officials and from Donny Kadokawa, a baseball coach in Hawaii through whom Puig placed his bets, proved decisive in determining the guilt of the native of Cienfuegos.
In addition, the court considered Puig’s breach of a plea agreement with prosecutors from August 2022. The ballplayer had agreed to one count of making false statements and to pay a fine of at least $55,000. Puig acknowledged a total of $280,000 in losses from illegal bets placed through a third party, former minor-league pitcher Wayne Nix.
“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in a statement months later. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I didn’t commit,” he added at the time. Three years later, the defendant posted a statement on the platform X asserting: “This story is not over yet, and they didn’t tell you the whole story the first time.”
Authorities clarified during the trial that Yasiel Puig’s name emerged from a 2017 investigation into Wayne Nix for money laundering and concealing income from the Internal Revenue Service.
Nix pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports betting business and one count of filing a false tax return. He is awaiting sentencing.
Puig played seven seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Guardians, and also spent time playing baseball in South Korea, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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