WASHINGTON: A south Florida businessman has been sentenced to a month in prison plus five months’ house arrest for his role in smuggling Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig out of Cuba.
LA Dodgers star Yasiel Puig at centre of kidnapping and gangster drama
US district judge Robert Scola on Friday gave Gilberto Suarez less than the one-year maximum sentence, partly because his smuggling role was limited to getting Puig to the Mexico-Texas border in 2012.
Suarez was one of the Miami-based financiers of the venture, in which Puig was taken by boat from Cuba to Mexico. The financiers were to receive a cut of the seven-year, $42m contract Puig later signed with the Dodgers.
Court documents show Suarez got $2.5m from Puig’s contract, but he has now agreed to forfeit a house, a condominium and a Mercedes-Benz.
