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The trial of Yasiel Puig heated up on Wednesday as an IRS agent testified that the former LA Dodgers star lost more than $1.5 Million in bets to an illegal California-based bookie.
At the heart of the case is whether Puig intentionally lied to federal investigators during a January 2022 interview in regard to his ties to an illegal sports betting ring.
In November 2022, Puig agreed to plead guilty to lying to federal law enforcement officers regarding bets that he placed with the sports betting operation. He faces up to five years in prison. He would go on to change his plea.
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.
Nix operated an illegal sports betting ring, primarily based out of Newport Coast, California, targeting clients throughout the United States. He operated the business for nearly 20 years starting around 2002, utilizing a Costa Rica-based website, Sand Island Sports.
Joseph Castelao of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, was named in an indictment against Nix as the owner of Sand Island Sports. He pleaded guilty on March 15, 2022 to operating an illegal gambling business.
In January 2023, the government filed a superseding indictment, adding obstruction of justice to Puig’s charges.
“Defendant Puig knowingly and willfully made … materially false statements and representations,” according to the government’s 2023 superseding indictment, “knowing these statements and representations were untrue.”
Last week, an individual testified that he had placed bets on behalf of Puig. Within weeks the one-time MLB star amassed debts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the witness, Hawaiian baseball coach Donny Kadokawa. Puig also allegedly had a tough time making payments.
IRS Special Agent Christen Seymour told a jury Wednesday that he based his estimate of losses on $500,000 in wire transfers from Puig’s checking account that went to shell companies affiliated with Nix’s illegal gambling business and the $980,000 Puig owed Nix by the end of September 2019 when Nix cut him off.
The estimate dd not include cash payments Puig made or received from Nix and two cashiers’ checks of $100,000 each that Puig purchased on June 25, 2019, to settle an outstanding debt with Nix, Seymour told the jury.
Seymour claims that Nix told investigators in 2021 that dealing with Puig had been “disaster,”. Nix would later cut ties with Puig because “he simply wasn’t worth the headache” given that he was continually unwilling to pay his losses, according to prosecutors.
The trial was expected to conclude in the coming days.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
