John Haas

John A. Haas (born c. 1903) was American No-Maj man who worked as a bookkeeper for the Columbia Bank in New York in the 1920s.

On 6 December 1926, Haas was arraigned in Centre Street Police Court for the crime of defrauding the Columbia Bank of $121,000 along with his alleged accomplice, William Friend. Mayer and Brown, the detectives in charge of the case, stated they had never seen such a "slovenly, almost unbelievably simple" system of forging accounting records to hide fraud as that used by Haas and Friend. Another man, Joseph H. Friend, was also sought by police in relation to the case, having disappeared soon after hearing of Haas' dismissal from the Columbia Bank on December 2. The case was reported in the 6 December 1926 issue of the New York Chronicle.

Behind the scenes

 * The text of the article mentioning John A. Haas in the prop issue of the New York Chronicle featured in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was taken from the real 21 November 1922 issue of The Evening World. This represents an anachronism, as the film is set in 1926, but the actual events referenced occurred in 1922.