Phil Mickelson didn't even trade in Clorox.
The New York Times walked back some of its initial reporting regarding Mickelson's involvement in an insider-trading probe which attached the five-time major champion to billionaire, activist investor Carl Icahn, betting magnate Billy Walters and Icahn's failed 2011 takeover bid for the consumer products maker.
The Times now reports Mickelson appears not to have traded Clorox, much less with information passed at long by Walter vis a vis Icahn. Walters and Icahn remain under investigation as it relates to Clorox, but Mickelson appears in the clear.
Mickelson remains under investigation with Walters for August 2012 trades into Dean Foods, when Mickelson made $1 million and Walter $15 million ahead of an announcement of surprisingly good quarterly earnings and that the company would be spinning off an IPO of a subsidiary. The Times reports Mickelson is not likely to be indicted, rather sought out as a source into the Walters' knowledge and trading patterns.
When FBI agents approached Mickelson at last month's the Memorial Tournament, they were seeking his cooperation to gather information about Walters. Mickelson referred the agents to his attorneys, issuing a statement declaring he had done nothing wrong and was happy to cooperate with any investigation.
What remains unclear is why news of this investigation was leaked to the press and why, without a plan to issue subpoenas or indictments, the FBI made such an aggressive show in approaching Mickelson at Muirfield Village.
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