Yasiel Puig fights charges of lying to federal investigators in trial

Aug 2016 photo of Yasiel Puig swinging at his helmet after a ground ball out against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, Ariz.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

In January 2022, federal investigators interviewed Puig on a video conference with his lawyer present for 90 minutes. Puig denied knowledge of the Nix gambling business. He was warned by investigators that lying to them was a crime.

“The government privately advised defendant’s then-counsel that defendant’s statements were contrary to evidence the government had already obtained during the Nix Gambling Business investigation,’’ prosecutors wrote in the trial memorandum. “Counsel conferred with his client outside the presence of the government, but defendant did not change his prior statements.’’

In a recorded message to a friend two months later, Puig allegedly described his interview with investigators, saying in English: “I no said nothing, I not talking.” The recording was entered into evidence by prosecutors.

Nix and associates Edon Yoshida Kagasoff and Howard Miller pleaded guilty in April 2022 to charges of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business. Nix, who also pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return, is awaiting sentencing. Kagasoff, an Agoura Hills accountant, was sentenced to six months of probation and ordered to forfeit $3,164,563 in illicit gains.

Puig was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles in August 2022 with one count each of making false statements and obstruction of justice. He quickly agreed to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal authorities and pay a $55,000 fine. He would serve no jail time and be placed on probation.

Weeks later, however, he decided he wanted to back out of the agreement, and a judge ruled that he could do so because he had not yet entered his guilty plea in court.

“I want to clear my name,’’ Puig said in a statement at the time. “I never should have agreed to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit.’’

Keri Axel, one of Puig’s lawyers, discovered numerous messages that a person named “Agent 1” in court documents had sent to her client. Agent 1 — who was revealed in court Wednesday as Donny Kadokawa — asked Puig several times to speak about the federal investigation, but he declined, she said.

Until Axel saw the messages, she said in court, she did not realize how often Agent 1 and an associate contacted Puig for information on the investigation, how often Puig refused to tell them about the investigation, and the potential that her client was entrapped.

Of the video interview in which Puig is alleged to have lied to investigators, Axel said: “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.”

Puig made his feelings known on social media.

“I don’t know why people like to say bad things about me and believe it,” he wrote on Twitter on Nov. 20, 2022. “They like makings me look like a monster because of way I looks maybe. All my life’s I been told to be quiet and do what I was told. No mores.”