Two Cleveland Guardians pitchers were charged in an indictment unsealed Sunday with rigging bets on their pitches. Luis Ortiz was arrested Sunday at Boston Logan International Airport, while Emmanuel Clase remained at large, ESPN reports. The charges against both include wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Clase and Ortiz are accused of deliberately throwing pitches outside the strike zone so that specific bets on those pitches—whether they would be balls or strikes—would pay off. They agreed with bettors on what to throw in advance, per the New York Times.
The indictment says the scheme began in May 2023 with Clase and was later joined by Ortiz. Prosecutors said Ortiz was paid $5,000 for an intentional ball on June 15, with Clase receiving the same amount for his role. They're accused of doing the same thing on June 27, for which they received $7,000 each. Ortiz is due in federal court in Boston on Monday, per the AP. If convicted on all counts, Clase and Ortiz could face up to 65 years in prison. Major League Baseball put them on leave in July after gambling monitors raised suspicions. MLB said it's cooperating with the federal investigation.
The bettors, who were not named in the indictment, collected at least $450,000 from wagers on the pitches of Clase and Ortiz, the indictment says. It was brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, the office that's behind the illegal gambling case involving the NBA. The allegations against Clase and Ortiz represent the most serious illegal gambling accusations for baseball since Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban for betting on games in 1989, per ESPN.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
