Phil Mickelson Made Almost $1M Thanks To An Insider Trading Scheme

Harrison Lee9 years ago

A Thursday morning SEC filing names Phil Mickelson as a beneficiary of an insider trading scheme between Billy Walters, a sports bettor who Phil placed bets with, and Thomas Davis, the former chairman of Dean Foods. The scheme between the two involved Davis feeding Walters insider information on the company, which netted nearly $40M in profits between 2008 and 2012.

How did Phil get involved? Well, after receiving some pretty exclusive information that Dean Foods would be spinning off one of their divisions, Walters gave that info to his pal Phil, who owed Billy money at the time, and told him to jump in.

From Securities And Exchange Commision:

In July 2012, Walters called professional golfer Philip A. Mickelson. Mickelson had placed bets with Walters both before and after July 2012 and owed Walters money at the time of the telephone call. At a time when Walters was in possession of material nonpublic information regarding Dean Foods, Walters communicated with Mickelson and urged Mickelson to trade in Dean Foods stock, which Mickelson did the next trading day in three brokerage accounts he controlled.

What happened to Dean Foods’ stock? Well, it rose 40% over the next week and Phil took in a good $931K. Now, Phil had no idea that the two were involved in this little scheme, which is why he’s only named as a relief defendant. All Phil knew was that a trusted friend told him to act and he did. It worked out for Phil.

The downside for Phil is that he will have to return the profits from the trade depending on the outcome of the case..

[via Securities And Exchange Commision]

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