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Major League Baseball pitcher Emmanuel Clase was arrested by FBI agents upon his arrival at JFK airport in New York on Thursday. The three-time All-Star was returning to the United States from his home in the Dominican Republic.
Clase, 27, and his teammate on the Cleveland Guardians, pitcher Luis Ortiz, have been charged with multiple counts. Listed among the charges are wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy.
Ortiz already pleaded not guilty to the charges made against him and was released from custody on a $500,000 bond. Clase is expected to be arraigned by the same judge as Ortiz in Brooklyn on Thursday.
Emmanuel Clase claims this is all some sort of misunderstanding
Despite the indictment citing several very specific pieces of evidence against him, Emmanuel Clase is also expected to plead not guilty. His agent has already stated publicly that his client is innocent.
Alleged text conversations between Clase and others about the scheme are included among the evidence that led to the indictment. Prosecutors also claim to have evidence that he received bribes or kickbacks from his co-conspirators when they won. The evidence also contains a photo of an alleged receipt for a wire transfer that Clase sent to Ortiz. Additionally, bank security footage allegedly shows him withdrawing $50,000, of which he allegedly gave $15,000 to one bettor.
“Journalist Luis Hernandez, a close friend of Emmanuel Clase and native of Río San Juan, clarified that the baseball player personally explained to him that the phone calls he made about his fighting roosters were possibly misinterpreted by federal authorities as conversations linked to sports betting,” MLB insider Hector Gomez wrote on X (Twitter) on Tuesday. “According to Hernández, Clase directly told him that his messages and calls about ‘the rooster play’ were possibly mistakenly taken ‘as coded calls’ related to sports betting.”
Gomez added in a follow-up post, “Guardians Emmanuel Clase stated that the calls intercepted by the FBI were for rooster fighting and not related to illegal bets.”
Prosecutors allege that the scheme involving Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase netted around $450,000 for gamblers. They are each now facing up to 65 years in prison.