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Former Dodgers star found guilty on two charges in California court
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- Former Dodgers star found guilty on two charges in California court
Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was found guilty of obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators Friday in Los Angeles court.
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Puig, 35, was accused of lying to investigators about his role in participating in an illegal sports gambling ring. He reneged on a pre-indictment plea agreement with federal prosecutors in 2022.
Sam Blum of The Athletic, who reported the guilty verdict Friday , reports it is unclear whether Puig's punishment will include prison time.
Puig initially agreed to plead guilty about making a false statement to a federal investigator about placing hundreds of bets with an illegal sports bookmaker through an intermediary in 2019 — the last of his seven-year career in MLB with the Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Guardians.
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But Puig later withdrew his agreement to plead guilty. At issue during the 12-day trial: whether Puig was honest when Department of Justice investigators questioned him in 2022 about the bookmaker, Wayne Nix.
Writes Blum : "Puig's defense argued that he attempted to cooperate fully, but that the government wasn't interested in his answers. Defense attorneys also suggested that the interpreter for the interview struggled to understand his dialect of Spanish, and that Puig had cognitive issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, which impacted his ability to fully understand the line of questioning."
Sentencing is scheduled for May 26, according to NBC Los Angeles . Puig faces up to 10 years in federal prison on the obstruction of justice charge and up to five years in prison for the false statement charges.
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