(NEW YORK) — Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz pleaded not guilty to several conspiracy charges accusing him of rigging pitches he through so sports bettors could take home a windfall.
Appearing in a Brooklyn court on Wednesday, Ortiz appeared in a leather jacket and his long dreadlocks pulled into a loose ponytail.
Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo ordered Ortiz released on a $500,000 bond secured by his wife and a second surety to be named by next week.
He must stay in Boston, where he has a residence, but is permitted to travel to New York for court and Ohio to meet with his attorneys there.
Ortiz is an “enormous risk of flight,” the judge said.
“The defendant has significant monetary resources and, importantly, has close connections in the Dominican Republic,” Marutollo, who imposed location monitoring, said.
Over the objection of the defense, the judge also imposed a gambling restriction, because, he said, “these allegations here relate to conspiracy to influence sports contests by bribery.”
Ortiz is due back in court on Dec. 2.
Emmanuel Clase, likewise a pitcher for the Guardians, was also indicted in connection to this sports gambling scheme, but is still not in custody. Clase is expected to surrender Thursday and appear for arraignment in Brooklyn federal court that afternoon.
According to the indictment, the pitchers started conspiring with sports bettors in 2023 on specific pitches they would throw during MLB games. The bettors then used that information to place prop bets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the indictment said.
The bettors wagered on the speed and type of Clase’s pitches based on information they knew in advance by coordinating with Clase, sometimes even during MLB games, prosecutors said. Clase often threw these allegedly rigged pitches on the first pitch of an at-bat, investigators said. To ensure certain pitches were called as balls, Clase threw many of them in the dirt, well outside the strike zone, according to investigators.
In exchange, Clase received bribes and kickbacks, prosecutors said.
The indictment includes numerous examples of pitches Clase allegedly rigged, including one in a game against the New York Mets. In total, by rigging pitches, Clase caused his co-conspirator bettors to win at least $400,000 in fraudulent wagers, according to investigators.
Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme this year, according to the indictment, and allegedly agreed in advance to throw balls instead of strikes on pitches in two games in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. Before an MLB game on June 15, Ortiz agreed with his co-conspirators to throw a ball on a particular pitch in exchange for bribes, the indictment alleges. The bettors agreed to pay Ortiz a $5,000 bribe for throwing the rigged pitch and Clase a $5,000 bribe for arranging the rigged pitch, also according to the indictment.
“Through this scheme, the defendants defrauded betting platforms, deprived Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Guardians of their honest services, illegally enriched themselves and their co-conspirators, misled the public, and betrayed America’s pastime,” the indictment said.
The criminal investigations into Clase and Ortiz began after betting platforms noticed unusual activity during certain games or moments and/or after referrals from various professional sports leagues, the source told ABC News.
The news of this MLB betting probe comes after the Department of Justice recently unsealed an indictment accusing three current and former National Basketball Association coaches and players of participating in an illegal sports gambling scheme.
A source familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the case against Clase and Ortiz is not connected to the NBA indictment, and is also separate from an NCAA disclosure about six former college basketball players accused of allegedly rigging games.
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