New book: Dykstra was secretly paid to tout stocks on TheStreet.com

Maybe it's true. It wouldn't be completely surprising. But Randall Lane, the guy who wrote that column, has a serious bone to pick with Len Dykstra. Lane was in business with Dykstra to do that magazine for athletes that ended up with stacks of unpaid bills because Dykstra was a deadbeat. And the two of them ended up suing and countersuing each other.

The thing is, though, there are plenty of people who think Randall Lane is as much of a fraud as Dysktra. Lane was an editor and then a wannabe publisher, whose former company did a bunch of magazines for wealthy people and traders, which he mentioned. What he doesn't mention is that Lane has bankrupted two publishing companies and lost a few millions of dollars for his investors before ending up with people suing him too. He left a lot of writers for Trader Monthly unpaid and dozens of creditors and lawsuits in his wake. He discloses his side of the mess of his Dykstra lawsuits in that column, but Randall Lane is not all roses, as I am sure the book he's trying to plug makes it seem.

Lenny Dykstra is obviously a joke, but do I really need a guy who near as I can tell has never done anything successful, weighing in with his "Wall Street is corrupt," book at this point, which I suspect is only getting published because Lane's wife is actually a successful writer with publishing contacts? For all I know Lenny Dykstra and Jim Cramer were doing pump and dump schemes. I'd believe it with any amount of evidence from someone who was not actually tangled in law suits with the guy he is now "exposing." I wish someone a bit more credible, and a little less self-interested when it comes to Dykstra than Randall Lane was writing the guest expose about it.

 

That O'Connor guy had a business relationship with Dykstra, too. Given Dykstra's penchant for stiffing people, it's probably even money that O'Connor has some sour grapes, too. His heresay and some stock certificates aren't any more proof that it was a pump and dump scheme than the Illingworth guy's denial is proof that the allegations aren't true. It's all he said/he said without anything more convincing than that.