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The Shohei Ohtani betting story shook the city of Los Angeles, and the sports world. It was one of the first major scandals to break out once the legal sports betting industry was on good footing nationwide.
We don’t have to repeat all the details, but Ohtani’s translator with the Dodgers was caught illegally betting on sports. Illegally because there’s no California sports betting allowed, and also, he was stealing money from Ohtani to make the wagers. That translator is now in jail, and another person connected to the Dodgers could soon join him.
Remember Yasiel Puig? He played on the Dodgers from 2013 to 2018, and left a real mark on the fanbase with his big bat and boisterous personality. It’s why we’re surprised his looming prison time is flying under the radar with most fans and media members. Keep reading, and we’ll tell you how Puig got himself into hot water over illegal sports betting.
Sentencing Awaits For Puig
May 26 — that’s the day when Puig will know his prison fate. It’s the day of his sentencing and he’s staring at 20 years in prison max.
The verdict was already set back in February. The ex-Dodger was found guilty of obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators after a two-week trial in Los Angeles. Take out all the legal language, and Puig was caught lying to investigate.
The lying was in regard to a videoconference interview with federal investigators back in 2022. The topic of conversation? An illegal betting ring. In that interview, Puig lied about his sports betting activity. Puig was making the bets with Wayne Nix, who was the person of interest for lead investigator, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell. In an ironic twist, Mitchell led the investigation over the Ohtani incident, which broke afterward.
Per prosecutors, Puig lied about placing bets with Nix. In fact, there’s evidence that Puig made 899 wagers with the former minor league pitcher between July and September of 2019. Football, basketball, and tennis, Puig was gambling on it all — except baseball betting.
It wasn’t going well for Puig either. IRS Special Agent Christen Seymour testified that he dropped more than $1.5 million on those wagers and still owed Nix $282,900. See? Sports betting is hard for all of us, whether you’re an everyday Joe or a pro athlete with millions like Puig.
Puig Dug His Own Grave
Look, we don’t expect Puig to be sentenced for the full 20 years. That’s the worst-case scenario, but it almost never gets to that point — certainly not for something like lying. But he’s still likely going to serve some time in a California prison. Ironic, because Puig could’ve avoided it all.
Get this, in August 2022, he initially agreed to plead guilty to a single count of lying to federal investigators. The deal would have kept him out of jail and required him to pay a $55,000 fine. Weeks later, though, Puig backed out of the plea deal. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit,” said Puig in a statement at the time.
Welp, a little over three years later, the courts ruled that Puig did, in fact, commit the crime.
The government’s case against Puig centered on one simple claim: he lied about how he placed his bets. Investigators say the wagers weren’t just with Wayne Nix directly. They were routed through an intermediary named Donny Kadokawa. When Puig denied that connection during the 2022 interview, prosecutors quickly charged him with making false statements and obstruction of justice.
Puig’s defense focused on how the interview was handled in the first place. Because Puig grew up speaking Spanish in Cuba, they argued their client was confused and things simply got lost in translation. They also brought up Puig’s ADHD and supposed PTSD from immigrating away from Cuba as reasons for why investigators misread several of Puig’s answers.
Prosecutors, however, saw it differently. They pointed to moments where Puig said he lost $200,000 on an unidentified betting site and claimed he couldn’t remember the name of the person who instructed him to buy cashier’s checks to pay off the debt.
At trial, Kadokawa testified that he was the one giving Puig those instructions. Prosecutors also brought up a separate issue from Puig’s 2019 U.S. citizenship application, where he reportedly stated he had never gambled illegally. Of course, that shows a pattern of lying, which a jury looks for, as they did with the ruling here.
Nix Awaits Sentencing Too
Puig was caught in the middle of this investigation, but the real person of interest is Nix. He pleaded guilty to operating the illegal betting ring back in 2022, but he’s still waiting for proper sentencing, believe it or not.
Others in Nix’s orbit haven’t been so lucky. Former MGM Resorts president Scott Sibella pleaded guilty to failing to file a suspicious transaction report tied to activity involving Nix. Sibella was sentenced in May 2024 to one year of probation and a $9,500 fine.
After leaving MGM, Sibella joined Resorts World Las Vegas, which later agreed to pay a $10.5 million fine after regulators said the casino allowed bookmaker Matt Bowyer to gamble there. Bowyer had ties to Nix and is the same bookie who was taking bets from Ohtani’s interpreter.
Kinda funny how inter-connected these betting rings become, huh? It’s a few power players at the top (Nix and Bowyer) and a lot of fallout damage everywhere else.
Online betting sites 