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Mutual fund managers continue to get the benefit of the doubt even when they violate the law!

Ron Baron, of Baron Capital, has just been hit with a $2 million fine for marking the close. He deliberately and repeatedly bought the stock of Southern Union (SUG - commentary - Cramer's Take), of which he owned a giant chunk, in order to influence illegally the pricing of a tender offer SUG was conducting, according to investigators. He plainly manipulated the stock.

Yet, other than a small mention in the Financial Times, this horror has been given no publicity at all. I fully expect that Baron will continue to appear on respectable places like "Wall Street Week" and will continue to be one of the more respected managers.

But should he be? Baron's style is to take outsize positions in stocks and get long and loud. We now know he also moves the stocks he owns in the direction that he needs them, to report better results.

There was a time when I used to do a column about Buzz and Batch, two feckless managers who routinely manipulated stock prices for their benefit. Here's Baron doing the same and it's just a yawn?

What the heck is it about mutual fund managers that they can get away with this stuff. If Baron were a pure hedge fund manager, every newspaper in the country would be talking about this huge scandal. But Baron's one of the protected folks.

This mark-up stuff of Baron's was a total outrage. I urge you to go to the SEC's site and look up Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-11096 or the release number 47751 from April 29, 2003. I am sure you will be as outraged as I am.

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James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS by clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Click here to buy Cramer's latest book, "You Got Screwed!" Click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict."