Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, two Dominican nationals of the Cleveland Guardians of MLB, a baseball league in the United States, were indicted on Sunday in a sports betting and money laundering case. They were accused of “improving their pitches during professional baseball games, so that a limited group, and sometimes themselves, could secretly collect winnings,” according to Christopher Raia, deputy director of the FBI’s New York office, quoted in the press release.
According to prosecutors, Emmanuel Clase began cheating starting around May 2023, allowing his accomplices to win at least $400,000 through fake bets. Luis Ortiz joined them around June 2025, earning at least $60,000 for his accomplices. Clase has a contract worth $6 million per year, while Ortiz makes $744,000 per year.
A similar scandal occurred in the NBA a few weeks ago
Both players were placed on leave by MLB for the summer while the league investigates. If they are found guilty by a court, each of the two men faces up to 65 years in prison, prosecutors explained.
This scandal comes a few weeks after the scandal that impacted the NBA. Chauncey Billups, 49, who was crowned NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and is a former Portland coach, was arrested in late October – like about thirty people – for his alleged participation in a nationwide ring of rigged poker games linked to the Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra. Terry Rozier (31 years old) was arrested in a sports betting fraud case based on sharing confidential information.
