Former MLB player Yasiel Puig withdrew from an agreement to plead guilty to a charge of lying to federal investigators and will be changing his plea to not guilty, according to a statement from his attorney that was released Wednesday.
Puig originally planned on pleading guilty to a felony charge for lying to federal agents about bets on sporting events that he placed with an illegal gambling operation. The guilty plea of making a false statement to federal agents carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
ALL I HAVE TO SAY is that I am very proud to have renowned civil rights attorney Lawrence Middleton come on board. @YasielPuig pic.twitter.com/pxgORkOYlg
— MLB Player Agent Lisette Carnet (@lisettecarnet) November 30, 2022
According to his original plea agreement, Puig began placing bets in May 2019 on sporting events through a third party. This third party — identified in court documents as “Agent 1” — worked on behalf of an illegal gambling business conducted by Wayne Joseph Nix, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
In January 2022, federal investigators interviewed Puig and his lawyer. Puig allegedly lied several times, falsely stating that he only knew the third party from baseball and not through gambling. According to the US Attorney’s Office, Puig discussed sports betting with the third party hundreds of times via phone and text message.
“I want to clear my name,” Puig said in the statement released Wednesday. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.”
According to Puig’s attorney, Keri Axel, “significant new evidence has come to light that prompted this change in plea.”
“At the time of his January 2022 interview, Mr. Puig, who has a third-grade education, had untreated mental-health issues, and did not have his own interpreter or criminal legal counsel with him,” Axel said. “We have reviewed the evidence, including significant new information, and have serious concerns about the allegations made against Yasiel.”
Axel added that renowned civil rights attorney Lawrence Middleton has joined Puig’s legal team. Middleton was part of the legal team that prosecuted the civil rights trial of LAPD officers in the Rodney King case.
Per the initial charges, Puig allegedly lied about not knowing the person who instructed him to purchase $200,000 worth of cashier’s checks to be wired to one of Nix’s gambling clients. Puig falsely said that he placed a bet online through an unknown person on an unknown website, according to the US Attorney’s office. In March 2022, Puig admitted in a WhatsApp audio message that he lied to federal agents in January, per the US Attorney’s Office.
In a statement following his initial guilty plea, his agent Lisette Carnet issued a statement saying Puig “came to the interview feeling rushed, unprepared, without criminal counsel with him, and also lacking his own interpreter. Given his history growing up in authoritarian Cuba, government interviews are triggering and only worsen his ADHD symptoms and other mental health struggles, for which he is in treatment.”
Wednesday, Puig took to Twitter and Instagram following his lawyer’s statement.
I don’t know why people like to say bad things about me and believe it. They like making me look like a monster because of the way I look maybe. All my life’s I have been told to be quiet and do what I was told. No mores. https://t.co/qnp0LlGtfq
— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) November 30, 2022
“I thank (Lis Carnet) so much for believing in me and giving me strength to stand up and say the truth,” he wrote in an Instagram caption. “I am happy everyone will see the truth now. I am honored that Mr. Lawrence Middleton has come to help because he knows what happens with people like me and how things can go bad because of the way I look and maybe no speak right. I am not guilty. I never want this trouble. I just want to play baseball. I was finally happy.”
Puig, 31, played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (2013 to 2018), Cincinnati Reds (2019) and Cleveland Guardians (2019) in his MLB career. On Dec. 8, 2021, Puig signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Kiwoom Heroes in South Korea’s KBO League.
(Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
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