By FRED SHUSTER | City News Service
A jury was selected Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles for the trial of former Dodger Yasiel Puig, who faces federal charges for allegedly lying to investigators about his suspected involvement in illegal sports betting.
Puig, 35, is charged with obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators.
The right fielder spent six seasons with the Dodgers and last played Major League Baseball in 2019, splitting time between Cincinnati and Cleveland. He later played in South Korea, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
The case stems from a 2017 probe of an illegal gambling business run by ex-minor league pitcher Wayne Nix, 49, of Newport Coast. An investigation of Nix’s actions to launder illicit proceeds and hide income from the Internal Revenue Service led to Puig, prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Puig began placing bets on games in May 2019 through an intermediary of Nix’s. By the following month, Puig owed the Nix gambling business $282,900 for sports gambling losses, court papers allegedly show.
Between July and September of 2019, Puig placed 899 bets on football and basketball games and tennis matches through a Costa Rica-based website associated with Nix, federal prosecutors allege.
Puig’s defense counsel disputes the government’s summary of their Cuban-born client’s alleged betting activity.
In January 2022, federal investigators interviewed Puig in the presence of his lawyer via video conferencing. During the 90-minute interview, despite being warned that lying to federal agents is a crime, Puig denied all knowledge of the Nix gambling business and persons participating in it, authorities said.
“During a final break, the government privately advised defendant’s then-counsel that defendant’s statements were contrary to evidence the government had already obtained during the Nix Gambling Business investigation,” prosecutors wrote in the trial memorandum. “Counsel conferred with his client outside the presence of the government, but defendant did not change his prior statements.”
In March 2022, according to court records, Puig allegedly sent a recorded message to a friend via WhatsApp.
“I no said nothing, I not talking,” the Cuban player said in English, of his conversation with federal prosecutors two months prior. “I said that I only know (Puig’s alleged bookie, a former player) from baseball.”
Prosecutors contend Puig lied to the government as part of his naturalization process in 2019, denying on an application that he had ever gambled illegally or received income from illegal gambling and during an in-person interview when he told the interviewer that he had never gambled illegally.
Puig was charged with one federal count each of making false statements and obstruction of justice and in August 2022 reached a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles in which he promised to plead guilty to a single count of lying to federal authorities and agreed to pay a fine of at least $55,000.
He reneged on the deal weeks later. A Los Angeles federal judge determined the plea deal was not binding because he had not yet formally entered his guilty plea in court.
“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in a statement at the time. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”
Before he withdrew from the plea deal, Puig was eligible for probation along with the fine.
In January 2023, prosecutors charged Puig with obstruction of justice in addition to two charges of making false statements to federal officials. The case was held up during an appeal regarding the admissibility of the facts of the withdrawn plea agreement. The case is now ongoing before U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee.
Each count of making a false statement carries up to five years in prison, while the obstruction of justice charge carries up to a 10-year term of imprisonment should Puig be convicted at trial.
In August 2025, Puig posted a statement on X that included: “This story isn’t over yet, and you weren’t told the full story the first time.”
Nix pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business and filing a false tax return. He is awaiting a sentencing date.