SAN DIEGO/EWORLDWIRE/Feb. 25, 2009 --- James H. Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC, which owns seven percent of all outstanding Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. (NYSE:PPD) shares as of Dec. 31, 2008, is profiled today by the Wall Street Journal as recommending Bernie Madoff to StonyBrook College ('http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123553339326867241.html?mod=testMod').An article released today by the Wall Street Journal details how James H. Simons advised New York University at Stony Brook to invest with Bernard Madoff. Eventually, the university invested on a large scale, but then Simons advised the school to get out, which led to the withdrawing some of the money - but not before the school suffered a $5 million loss.
Simons appears to have met with Madoff, and it was on the strength of "Simons' recommendations," which, according to the story, was initiated by a contact with a feeder fund, that led the university to invest with Madoff.
The Fraud Discovery Institute Inc. (FDI) has been demonstrating the points of similarity between the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. ('http://www.ponzipluspyramidequalsprepaid.com/MadoffPrepaid.pdf') endless chain recruitment and compensation plan.
"What are the odds of this timing?" asks Barry Minkow, co-founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute Inc. "FDI rolls out evidence of points of similarity between Mr. Madoff and Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., and within a week, a story breaks showing Pre-Paid's largest institutional holder pointed investors to Madoff."
Simons' Renaissance Technologies LLC owns seven percent of Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., holding 817,300 shares at a value of over $30 million as of Dec. 31, 2008.
Renaissance is supposedly guided by Simons' math models, which, until recently, were showing strong returns. "The problem is that in this post-Madoff, post-Stanford world, math models do not go below the surface and therefore are unreliable," added Minkow. "Applying certain math models to Pre-Paid Legal Services might signal a strong company, but when one delves below the surface, something else is found - an endless chain, doomed-by-design money transfer game that brilliant people like Mr. Simons ought to recognize."
To learn more about the Fraud Discovery Institute, visit 'http://www.frauddiscovery.net'.
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