MIAMI – A guilty plea is scheduled for a South Florida businessman accused of helping to finance the smuggling of Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig out of Cuba.
U.S. District Judge Robert Scola set a Tuesday plea change hearing for Gilberto Suarez, who had previously pleaded not guilty to an alien smuggling conspiracy charge. The charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
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Investigators say Suarez, 40, was one of the Miami-based financiers of the 2012 smuggling venture in which Puig was taken by boat from Cuba to Mexico. The financiers were to receive a cut of the seven-year, $42 million contract Puig later signed with the Dodgers.
Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of any money Suarez got from Puig's contract, in addition to a house, a condominium, a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz.