Former Dodger Yasiel Puig will plead guilty to lying to feds about sports gambling ring, including illegal marketing of stolen and counterfeit baseballs.
Puig, 26, is being sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to charges he conspired to launder more than $1 million in criminal proceeds with associates and associates’ parents. He is also being sentenced to five years’ probation.
The plea agreement calls for Puig to be sentenced to two years’ probation, pay a $10,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service. If he violates these conditions, he could face up to five years in prison.
“Yasiel has taken responsibility for his misdeeds,” prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement.
Puig was arrested July 15. He pleaded guilty five days later. He is expected to be sentenced July 31.
According to the plea agreement, in 2011 and 2012, Puig and others conspired to launder money and fraudulently obtain sports gambling licenses and marketing and advertising materials.
Over the years, they sold fake and stolen baseballs and other merchandise and used the profits to buy real and fake baseballs and a $250,000 home.
Puig’s conduct was in violation of federal bribery and money laundering statutes and the LAD, which prohibits illegal sports gambling, and state racketeering statutes.
In the plea agreement, Puig admitted that through his company, Puma Marketing, he unlawfully obtained licenses for fake and stolen baseballs. Puig and his associates and parents knew they did not have a valid license.
Puig’s parents were the owners of a company that manufactured and distributed counterfeit sports gear. He personally sold counterfeit baseballs and other sports merchandise for Puma Marketing. In some advertisements, he falsely claimed to be the baseballs’ official distributor.
In 2011
