New Haven’s Jared Flagg Launches One of the First Ponzi Schemes
In 1926 the fraud police had Jared Flagg under questioning. It wasn't the first time the flimflam man was in trouble with the law. But it would be the last. As the investigators pushed for answers about a particular fraud, Flagg began struggling for breath. The attorneys suspected it was a trick to slow them down. But for once in his scandal-plagued life, Jared Flagg was playing it straight. He collapsed and died. Just short of 70 years old, Jared Flagg left his estate to his wealthy and better-known brother Edward, who was a highly regarded architect and landlord in New York City. The Flaggs were relatives of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Vanderbilt money had paid for Edward's education and launched him as a successful architect. At the time he died, Edward was a major landowner on Staten Island and, his obituary noted, had the design of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. among his notable credits. Jared's obituary, meanwhile, simply noted he "collapsed on...
