LOS ANGELES — The baseball star went into his first conversation with federal investigators assured he was "not a target."

The lead prosecutor on a sprawling sports betting case, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeff Mitchell, told the player's attorney that he didn't believe it was a federal crime to make payments to an illegal bookmaker, as the player was suspected of doing. Investigators were after "an unlawful sports gambling organization," Mitchell said, according to a court declaration reviewed by The Los Angeles Times.

In other words: The feds wanted the bookies — not the betters.

Despite those assurances, the player — former Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig — is currently staring down two federal charges for obstruction of justice and making false statements, after allegedly lying during his initial conversation with Mitchell.

The highly contentious case, involving a one-count plea deal Puig accepted and then backed out of, is still pending. But it is already a warning for other professional sports players — including Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani, a current Dodger who now finds himself in the middle of a betting scandal.

Puig's case shows how witnesses in federal investigations can become targets themselves if they are suspected of veering from the truth, and how foreign athletes — accustomed to other people talking, handling finances and negotiating unfamiliar cultural situations for them — can face additional pitfalls within the U.S. legal system.

Ohtani, speaking Monday for the first time, reiterated his claim from last week that his former interpreter and close friend Ippei Mizuhara had stolen millions of dollars from him to pay off illegal gambling debts, including by allegedly accessing Ohtani's financial accounts behind his back.

Without offering specifics, Ohtani also said he and his attorneys have reached out to law enforcement authorities in the matter, with whom he intends to fully cooperate.

According to legal experts, that's the right move for someone who is a victim.

"If that's his story and he's sticking to it, he better hope and pray that's the truth," said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who now has a white-collar criminal defense practice.

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