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The trial of former Major League Baseball player Yasiel Puig continued with Hawaiian baseball coach Donny Kadokawa testifying for a second consecutive day on Thursday.
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In November 2022, Puig agreed to plead guilty to lying to federal law enforcement officers regarding bets that he placed with an illegal sports betting operation.
In 2025, a federal appeals court agreed with a trial court ruling that Puig's plea deal had not been accepted by a court.
The government claims Puig lied to federal agents in 2022 when he denied he had been involved with the underground gambling organization that the bookmaker, former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix, operated in Southern California.
On Wednesday, Kadokawa testified how had had befriended Puig in early 2019 and, as a favor, agreed to place one or two bets on Puig’s behalf with Nix’s illegal gambling ring.
According to Kadokawa, Puig went on to demand that he place bets with Nix's group on tennis, football and basketball games on a nearly daily basis while slow paying on gambling debts that grew in only a matter of weeks. Kadokawa expressed concerns that Nix's group would hold him personally responsible for Puig's mounting debts, described in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It was getting too out of hand for me,” Kadokawa said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan Rodriguez. “I didn’t know where this was going.”
Kadokawa referenced the $237,000 Puig allegedly owed Nix in June of 2019.
On Thursday, Kadokawa detailed how the former Dodgers star allegedly bet thousands of dollars on tennis matches involving Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic back in 2019.
Puig’s trial is expected to last into next week. His agent, Lisette Carnet, told The Post on Wednesday she anticipated prosecutors would try to use a witness like Kadokawa to paint Puig “as this very savvy gambler.” But she claimed in reality, it was Kadokawa who was the one taking advantage of Puig.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
