Phil Mickelson has again found himself in the crosshairs. This time, it’s insider trading, and the money in question is a whopping $200 million. A financial publication, Hunterbrook, has put forward serious insider trading allegations, stating Mickelson shared information tied to the Houston-based oil startup Sable Offshore with a private investor group. To make matters worse, there are receipts in the form of screenshots. Evidently, for Mickelson, staying silent was not an option.

“I spoke to Jim this morning. An announcement is coming today after the market closes,” one message read, preceding a company disclosure about regulatory filings with the state of California. “My plan is to sell and use the losses to offset other gains and buy back in after 30 days,” another message reads from a screenshot. The sender in question was Phil. Lefty has now denied the claims, describing these screenshots as nothing but “slanderous” and hinting that the real manipulation may lie elsewhere.

“So a company says I can’t say anything to you, but we will announce something at the close,” Mickelson wrote. “I don’t know if it’s a dilution and the stock goes down or a deal for the stock to go up. I have to wait to see what the info is; I make no trades whatsoever and am ultra, ultra careful given past history.”

“I don’t even share that information is coming till after the close. And you insinuate wrongdoing? This looks like stock manipulation on your part and is slanderous. I’m curious if these guys made any trades today, aren’t you?”

Mickelson has been this company’s most vocal public advocate. He has used his social media accounts to criticize California’s energy regulators and rally support for Sable’s cause. So riding on this, Hunterbrook suggests that Mickelson’s involvement may have gone beyond advocacy. It details instances where the LIV golfer appears to coordinate with Flores and others to boost sentiment around the struggling company.

The screenshots, shared by Hunterbrooks, are dated late September. If one goes by them, Mickelson seems to be relaying material, non-public information obtained through conversations with Sable’s CEO, Jim Flores.

Per the report, these chats could very well fall within the legal gray area of US insider trading law. The thing is, simply sharing non-public information is not inherently illegal. But if it is used to inform trading activity, or if the “tipper” gains a personal benefit from the act, then that’s a red zone. If those in Mickelson’s group used the information to make trades, as these screenshots suggest, the LIV golfer could be exposed to liability under federal “tipping” statutes.

Salt to the wound, there are also leaked phone calls shared in those threads. In one such call, Flores talks about a planned golf outing between “a certain left-handed golfer” and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The implication is a lobbying effort for political support for Sables. But it should be noted that Lutnick has denied any such meetings. He even claims that he has never heard of this company before.

Sable Offshore was launched less than two years ago to revive the shuttered Santa Ynez oil operation off California’s coast. That’s an infrastructure once owned by ExxonMobil and was closed after a 2015 pipeline spill. This startup, led by Flores, paid roughly $998 million to assume control of that site, claiming that it could restart production and make some profit. However, regulatory holdups and environmental pushback stalled the operations, and that subsequently dragged Sable’s stock down by more than 50% in the past year.

Now, it remains to be seen what steps Mickelson takes as these allegations cast a fresh shadow over his reputation. But longtime followers know this isn’t his first encounter with accusations of financial impropriety.

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Phil Mickelson’s history of financial controversies

Phil Mickelson’s reputation off the golf course has long been marred by such incriminating allegations. Although he has never been legally charged for these, they’ve done their part in defaming him as a financial defaulter and a gambling addict.

In 2015, ESPN’s Outside the Lines revealed that nearly $3M traced back to the LIV golfer was linked to an illegal gambling and money-laundering operation. Around the same time, certain documents from federal investigators showed that between 2010 and 2014, Mickelson had incurred gambling losses that exceeded $40 million. These matched roughly to his annual income during those years. The result of this was the eventual end of his long-time partnership with caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay in 2017.

But the most notable of the cases was in 2016, when the SEC named him a “relief defendant” in the Dean Foods insider trading case. That case involved professional gambler Billy Walters and former Dean Foods board member Thomas Davis. According to the SEC, the golfer was prompted to buy $2.4 million in the company’s stock after a tip from Walters. Nine days later, after the announcement went public, he sold the stock for a $931,000 profit. This money was allegedly used to repay gambling debts to Walters.

Phil Mickelson was never accused of intentionally breaking securities laws but agreed to return $1.03 million, including interest, to settle the case.

These are just a few of the many such allegations against the LIV golfer. In every instance, Mickelson has fallen short of evidence and has been saved from prosecution. But these patterns now color every new allegation, including his alleged role at Sable Offshore.