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Golf great Phil Mickelson has been tied to a $2.75 million gambling case, according to ESPN. Mickelson has not been charged with any crime and is not under investigation.
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
Citing two unnamed sources and court documents, ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported that in March 2010, Gregory Silveira of La Quinta accepted a $2.75 million wire transfer from Mickelson, and after several transfers of the money between Silveira’s bank accounts, Silveira placed bets with an offshore gambling operation.
In Silveira’s plea agreement document with the U.S. Department of Justice in Riverside, the bettor is identified only as a “gambling client.” Outside the Lines reported that two sources indicated the client was Mickelson.
According to the tour, it has no rules that prohibit players from gambling, other than betting with other players during their competitive rounds.
The Union Tribune was able to court documents that illustrated, on March 26, 2010, Silveira accepted a wire transfer of $2.75 million into his own Wells Fargo Bank account. Three days later, in two separate moves, Silveira transferred $2.475 million and $275,000 to another Wells Fargo account. The following day, Silveira transferred $2.475 million into a JPMorgan Chase Bank account. As a result, prosecutors charged that Silveira “initiated these three transfers with the intent to promote the carrying on of an illegal gambling operation.”
Last year, the SEC launched a probe to determine what, if any, Mickelson’s role may have been in an alleged insider trader scheme with ties to billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Las Vegas gambling pro Billy Walters. – Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
