Phil Mickelson Abandoned Friend and Partner in time of Need

Voice over: Michael Robles
Writer: Jay Busbee
Video editor: Lance Keller

Billy Walters spent years in the company of Phil
Mickelson, two gamblers bound by a love of action and
high risk. But when Walters found himself in severe legal
trouble and Mickelson had the opportunity to lend a hand,
according to Walters’ new book, “Gambler: Secrets from a
Life at Risk,” Mickelson remained silent.
Yahoo Sports obtained a prepublication copy of the book,
and
The Fire Pit Collective has run excerpts
documenting
Walters’ highly charged business relationship with
Mickelson. Walters and Mickelson spent much of the
2010s wagering together, often in astronomical terms.
Mickelson, Walters says, has
wagered more than $1
billion and lost $100 million
. In the book, Walters recounts
an incident in which Mickelson wanted to wager on the
2012 Ryder Cup — while he was on the team — and
Walters refused to help him make the bet.
However, Walters was involved in other enterprises
besides sports wagering. In April 2017, he was found
guilty of insider trading and sentenced to five years in
prison. Mickelson made nearly $1 million trading the same
stock Walters was accused of accessing via inside
information, but he returned the profits from those trades
and, as a “relief defendant,” was not charged.
Walters
further indicated
that Mickelson managed to avoid
charges not just in the insider trading case but also in a
separate money-laundering case in which he wired
several million dollars to a gambling associate, who in turn
wired that money to an offshore sports book to pay off
Mickelson’s gambling losses. That associate later was
sentenced to a year and a day in prison for money
laundering.
In the weeks before sentencing, Walters, through an
intermediary, wanted Mickelson “to publicly declare what
he told the FBI — that [Walters] never gave him inside
information.” Mickelson agreed to make a statement on
Walters’ behalf … but never made any public statement.
Walters was sentenced to five years in prison but was
released after serving 31 months because of COVID
concerns.
“To this day, after countless hours of reflection, I still
wonder whether I would have walked out of court a free
man had Phil testified or spoken out on my behalf. We
knew the prosecution would not call Phil to testify because
he’d already told FBI agents in two separate interviews
that I had never provided him with insider information on
Dean Foods or any other stock,” Walters wrote. “But Phil
did not do it … He refused to simply tell the truth when it
could have meant the difference between prison and
exoneration.”
Mickelson is legendary for his ability to wriggle out of
trouble on the golf course. Walters
contends in the book
that his elusiveness extends off the course as well, as
evidenced by the fact that he managed to avoid prison
from two separate investigations in which others ended up
behind bars. “Phil, the man in the middle of all the alleged
wrongdoing,” he wrote, “walked away scot-free.”
Throughout “Gambler,” which goes on sale Aug. 22,
Walters recounts a Scorsese-level array of gambling-
industry tales — wins, losses, busts and jackpots. He also
spends two chapters discussing his own complex
gambling strategies and techniques. Mickelson makes up
a relatively small portion of the book, but Walters is
unsparing in his assessment of his former friend.
“When push comes to shove, Phil doesn’t care about
anyone except himself,” Walters wrote. “Time and time
and time again, he never stood up for a friend.”

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