New York Post Asks if Phil Mickelson Will be Charged With Insider Trading

The Sunday New York Post reports that golfer Phil Mickelson could be looking at a lengthy prison sentence if found guilty of insider trading.

The FBI, Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission continue their investigation into suspicious trading in the public stock of two companies: Clorox and Dean Food with possible involvement of Mickelson, professional sports bettor Billy Walters and Tropicana Casino magnate Carl Icahn.

From the Post:

The Feds have been investigating whether Mickelson and Walters illegally traded on non-public information from activist investor Icahn, a probe that initially centered on Clorox and later expanded to Dean Foods.

“Certainly regulators are looking for scalps,” said Jeff Smith, a partner at DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole who has defended corporate clients in a wide range of cases brought by federal regulators.

“Still, the inquiry is reasonable and could have some importance in extending the regulators’ reach to those not clearly within the traditional insider definition,” Smith said.

In early June, claims were dismissed that Mickelson traded in Clorox back in 2011 — just as Icahn commenced his $10.2 billion offer for Clorox.

That unsolicited takeover bid resulted in a huge spike in the price of Clorox and it drew attention from regulators who’d electronically uncovered a related spate of suspicious trading, say people familiar with the matter. And it also unleashed the investigation that persists.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com