SantaCon founder accused of siphoning charitable funds from New York City bar crawl for own use

NEW YORK -- The founder of SantaCon is a con, according to federal prosecutors in New York.

Stefan Pildes was arrested Wednesday on federal wire fraud charges that accused him of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars of charitable funds for his own use.

SantaCon is an annual drunken bar crawl in December when 25,000 people dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to bars and restaurants throughout the day in New York City.

The event is billed as "a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy." But of the nearly $3 million Pildes raised, he diverted more than half to an entity he used as a slush fund, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.

The indictment said Pildes used that slush fund "to finance various personal ventures" and to pay for concert tickets, fine dining, luxury vacations and home renovations while donating only a "small fraction" to charity.

SantaCon events from 2019 to 2024 generated about $2.7 million in proceeds in part by marketing itself as "a 501c3 Charity organization that, over the last 10 years, has raised over a million dollars for local NYC Charities, specifically arts funding and fighting hunger."

"But instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, Stefan Pildes, the defendant, misappropriated and stole the majority of SantaCon proceeds by diverting them to an entity that Pildes controlled, Creative Opportunities Group, Inc., that had no public connection to SantaCon," the indictment said.

Other proceeds he allegedly used for extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, extravagant meals and a luxury vehicle.

Pildes pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and was released on $300,000 bail.