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How Lenny Dykstra used TV's Cramer: Update

"Cramer, I am sure, had no knowledge of Dykstra's 'pay to plug' scheme—an arrangement that could well lead to a Securities & Exchange Commission investigation. He was just a dupe..."

UPDATE: I asked Jim Cramer's office at CNBC about the allegations, by Lenny Dykstra's former publisher, that Dykstra was taking money to promote stocks on Cramer's show and TheStreet.com. Cramer's reponse: "I haven't read the book but as the author, Randall Lane, points out, I knew nothing about this issue. Of course it is terribly disappointing." No reply from Dykstra so far.

EARLIER: TV investor Jim Cramer's "star pupil, ex-baseball star Lenny Dykstra, secretly sold access to Cramer and stock endorsements on TheStreet.com," writes failed financial publisher Randall Lane, in his book,  The Zeroes.

From Lane's Daily Beast summary:

"Cramer single-handedly created the concept of Dykstra-as-financial genius.... The former New York Met and Philadelphia Phillie became an investment columnist for TheStreet.com in 2005, after sending Cramer an unsolicited email. For the next four years, Dykstra made stock picks, focusing on 'deep-in-the-money calls'—a way to buy leveraged options—for tens of thousands of followers on Cramer's website...

"Cramer, I am sure, had no knowledge of Dykstra's 'pay to plug' scheme—an arrangement that could well lead to a Securities & Exchange Commission investigation. He was just a dupe...

"Helped by the marketing muscle of TheStreet.com, Dykstra quickly sold roughly $1 million in newsletter subscriptions," while leaving Lane with "hundreds of thousands in unpaid bills" from their prior magazine venture. "In the course of our ensuing legal fight—and then doing reporting for my book The Zeroes—I stumbled across his Cramer-for-sale scheme."  More at Daily Beast here.