The founder of New York City‘s popular holiday event SantaCon has been arrested on wire fraud charges after allegedly stealing over $1 million meant for charity. Stefan Pildes, 50, is the president of a nonprofit called Participatory Safety Inc. Federal authorities claim he was running a long-term con disguised as a festive bar crawl, while thousands of people dressed as Santa hit the streets every December.
According to The Sun, SantaCon generated around $2.7 million between 2019 and 2024. This money came from ticket sales and commissions from bars and restaurants, which were asked to donate between 10% and 25% of their food and beverage sales to charity. Despite the event being marketed as a charitable cause, Pildes allegedly donated only a very small portion of that total.
