Whenever I hear the name “Phil Mickelson,” the knee-jerk reaction I always have is “Good Guy/Lucky Guy.” He is an amazing golfer; a consistently great golfer who always manages to finish in the money. He has been excelling in the professional circuit 
since the early 1990s; he seems to have a beautiful family life and he is an endorsement machine. If you don’t care one whit about golf, chances are you may have seen one of his many television or magazine advertisements.
In fact, in 2011 alone he earned more than $62 million dollars; $53 million of it came from endorsements.
It is a charmed life to be sure, however Phil Mickelson has a little problem. He plays it loose with his money. In a story for NBC Golf by Nick Menta (June 29, 2015) entitled: “Report: Mickelson tied to illegal gambling case,” we learn:
“Phil Mickelson wired nearly $3 million to an intermediary who was part of ‘an illegal gambling operation which accepted and placed bets on sporting events…the report states that Mickelson has not been charged with a crime and is not under investigation, but that $2.75 million worth of his money was transferred to an individual, Greg Silveira, who has since pleaded guilty to three counts of money laundering.”
If you have heard of the term “money laundering” but were unsure of what it meant (and I am guilty of greatly simplifying), it means you take funds that you illegally gained, and through a series of razzle dazzle accounting maneuvers they come out looking as honestly earned as newly fallen snow.
What makes money “dirty” in the first place? It is how it is derived; for example, from gambling or drugs or a theft or a business accumulating a large amount of cash that was never reported for taxes. Sometimes the money is put “off-shore,” the Bahamas, perhaps where the rules are a little more slick and relaxed. The money then finds its way back to where the rules are more tight and presumable ethical.
No charges and no crime
The article points out that Mickelson was not named in the official court documents, and Mickelson claims to have never heard of the illegal gambling operation, though all inquiries are now routed through his lawyers who still have nothing to say. To quote from the article:
“The closest Silveira allegedly came to naming Mickelson, according to OTL (ESPN), was in his initial plea agreement, which included a note in his book that said: ‘money laundering of funds from P.M.’”
In addition, and again quoting Menta’s piece:
“ESPN’s legal analyst Lester Munson explains that the likely reason Mickelson hasn’t been charged is that ‘federal gambling laws are directed at gambling enterprises and not at individual bettors.’” It’s not that Mickelson’s $2.75 million is small potatoes to the government, it’s only that they are after the people who cultivate the whole potato farm.
This is not quite Mickelson’s first financial “dance.” In the past he has been associated with insider stock trading scandals. He got off, but not before his sterling reputation received a few scratches and dents.
What is an athlete’s greatest asset?
It is the same as your greatest asset: your reputation. Whether you are an executive, physician, teacher or auto mechanic, what you ultimately desire is a good reputation.
That Phil Mickelson is an incredible golfer is secondary to the fact that he does not fully realize how fragile a thing that a reputation may be. After his brush with the SEC in terms of the insider trading scandals, he should have understood that the public is fickle – and the public can turn on you in a moment.
It is difficult to determine if the “P.M.” in Silveira’s sports book is definitively related to the golfer. Even if it were a completely different individual, and the illegal operation was “against the wall” here, there would be nothing preventing the illegal operation from revealing identities. This could be especially true if a jail sentence was about to rear its ugly head. Trust me, if a person is threatened with a jail sentence, he or she is likely to name names.
For a man who derives most of his huge income from endorsements, an eroding reputation may also mean an eroding paycheck.
Why would a person “with all of the money in the world” want to play it loose? It may be nothing more than the thrill of it all. Gambling is a powerful addiction and whether it is illegally gambled on stocks or the ponies, there is truly little difference in how dirty it may be. Close to $3 million is a lot of money for you and me, but it is not so much to a man who earns upwards of $50 million each year. Still, if the $3 million has been unethically manipulated, it will come back to haunt a person worth multiples of that amount.
You can lose your money, but a loss of reputation is another matter. It is a lesson that “P.M.” had better learn fast.
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