The relationship between PGA star Phil Mickelson and gambler Billy Walters has always felt like a missing jigsaw puzzle piece.
Once assembled, the puzzle told the story of the remarkable rise and fall of America’s biggest sports bettor on insider trading charges. Walters, a Kentucky poor boy who built a business empire worth many millions, was convicted on 10 counts of federal securities fraud and related charges in a federal insider trading case involving stock in Dallas-based Dean Foods Co. Walters was convicted of reaping $43 million in profits and avoided losses. He was sentenced in July 2017 to five years in prison and was also hit with a $10 million fine.
Mickelson’s country club friendship and business relationship with Walters briefly made headlines, then became a sidebar to the main story. Mickelson, enormously popular on the PGA Tour and a pitchman for a variety of products, made approximately $1 million in 2012 on Dean Foods stock after acting on a tip from Walters.
Unlike Walters, Mickelson wasn’t charged with a crime, but was pursued in a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mickelson named as a “relief defendant” for the purposes of enabling the SEC to recover “alleged ill-gotten gains in their possession from schemes perpetrated by others,” according to a government statement.
The fact Mickelson, the professional athlete, used his Dean Foods stock profits to repay gambling debts he owed Walters wasn’t often mentioned during the months the case was in the headlines. And it appears Mickelson suffered no consequences for his participation in the scheme.
You’d be wise to wonder what would have happened if the athlete in question had been a Major League Baseball star.
Mickelson might have been able to put Walters’ dealing in a softer light, but he didn’t testify at trial. He was, I suspect, like a lot of people in Walters’ life these days as he quietly does his time at a Pensacola, Fla., Federal Prison Camp: a fair-weather friend.
Now we’re learning a little more about the Walters-Mickelson connection thanks to investigative reporter Mike Fish at ESPN.com. Fish based some of his article on an October interview with Walters prior to the gambler’s entry into the Florida prison.
In one of many compelling moments, Fish writes, “He lamented not testifying in his own defense. He groused about how his one-time friend and gambling partner, golfer Phil Mickelson, left him high and dry and might be most responsible for him being in prison. And he spoke about finding perspective in recent years and how he had prepared to contend with the loss of luxury, freedom and adrenalin-inducing challenges that defined him for decades.”
Mickelson twice told the FBI he knew nothing of Walters’ insider trading activity. Through an attorney, Mickelson said he wouldn’t testify at trial and if forced would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But, Fish reports, Walters’ side believes that if granted immunity Mickelson’s could have put the facts in context.
“Here is a guy that all he had to do was come forward and tell the truth. … That is all he had to do,” Walters told Fish. “The guy wouldn’t do that because he was concerned about his image. He was concerned about his endorsements.
“My God, in the meantime a man’s life is on the line. He’s going to go to prison. And you got prosecutors up there during the entire trial, the entire month — all they talked about over and over was me giving my friends insider information. That is all they talked about. And they knew those jurors were all up on the internet reading that stuff about Phil (profiting from the Dean Foods stock purchase).”
Mickelson’s name was mentioned more than 100 times during the trial, but his public image remained untarnished despite the fact he bought more than 200,000 shares of Dean Foods stock for his personal benefit.
That polished image could take a hit if more damaging information about Mickelson ever became public.
As he sits in prison these days, it’s hard to imagine such a development would make Billy Walters lose any sleep.
Contact John L. Smith at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
