ESPN: Phil Mickelson linked with illegal $3 million gambling scheme

An ESPN Outside the Lines report on Monday linked Phil Mickelson with a nearly $3 million sports-betting scheme with an "illegal gambling operation" based outside the United States.

Mickelson has not been charged for his alleged involvement, but the report found that the man who reportedly handled his money pleaded guilty last week.

From the ESPN report:

Mickelson, a five-time major winner and one of the PGA Tour's wealthiest and most popular players, has not been charged with a crime and is not under federal investigation. But a 56-year-old former sports gambling handicapper, acting as a conduit for an offshore gambling operation, pleaded guilty last week to laundering approximately $2.75 million of money that two sources told Outside the Lines belonged to Mickelson.

Gregory Silveira of La Quinta reached an agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to three counts of money laundering of funds from an unnamed "gambling client" of his between February 2010 and February 2013. Sources familiar with the case said Mickelson, who was not named in court documents, is the unnamed "gambling client." Silveira is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5 before U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips and faces up to 60 years in prison, though the sentence will likely be far shorter.

[ESPN]