“It just wasn’t as good a Gulfstream as I wanted.”

This report on what specific acts of fraud led to Lenny Dykrsta’s arrest is a good read.

It’s kind of amazing that it took this long. As was already clear in this story from 2009, Dykstra wasn’t exactly a subtle con artist, using such techniques as “charging stuff to other people’s credit cards and not paying them back.” Compare with this entertainingly credulous Ben McGrath profile detailing Dykstra’s “success story.” A story, it must be noted, that at that time involved not only being touted by Jim Cramer as a stock guru but a business plan that involved producing a glossy magazine with no advertising revenue or subscriber fees. Plainly, nobody could have predicted that this venture would collapse as soon as any creditors wanted payment.

Of course, in some ways it made perfect sense for Dykstra to be presented as a stock picking genius. He had, after all, exactly as much ability to pick stocks as anyone else touted by Jim Cramer — i.e. none. The whole business is premised on the ability “to turn your clients’ net worth into your own.” Dykstra’s mistake was not sticking to the legal con.