The president of SantaCon was arrested on a federal criminal indictment in Novel York City that accuses him of wire fraud.

Stefan Pildes is accused of using the ticketed Christmas season bar-crawl event to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for charity to personal utilize.

Pildes “promoted SantaCon as an event grounded in charitable giving, but instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Fresh York Jay Clayton noted.

The president of SantaCon was arrested on Wednesday on a federal criminal indictment accusing him of using the ticketed Christmas bar-crawl event to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for charity to his personal adopt, Updated York federal prosecutors stated.

The defendant, Stefan Pildes, claimed he did not receive any compensation from SantaCon, according to the indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Latest York.

But the 50-year-old Pildes allegedly diverted funds from the event to a “slush fund” to pay for extensive renovations to a lakefront property in Updated Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, Colorado, concert tickets, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors mentioned.

About $124,000 of the SantaCon funds were spent toward leasing a luxury apartment in Manhattan, and another $100,000 was invested in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a friend of Pildes, the indictment noted.

Pildes “donated only a tiny fraction” of the approximately $2.7 million raised by SantaCon for his nonprofit group, Participatory Safety, to charity, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors mentioned he “defrauded tens of thousands of individuals and insignificant business owners who participated in” SantaCon, which annually draws about 25,000 the public dressed as Santa Claus and other holiday characters to bars and restaurants in Recent York City. Tickets for the event cost between $10 and $20.

Pildes “promoted SantaCon as an event grounded in charitable giving, but instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated in a statement.

“He took advantage of Recent Yorkers’ generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, substantial and small,” Clayton stated.

Pildes, who lives in Hewitt, N.J., is charged with one count of wire fraud. He is expected to appear on Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan federal court. This also touches on aspects of portfolio.

The indictment comes more than two years after an analysis by the news site Gothamist found that Participatory Safety raised “raised $1.4 million through SantaCon programming from late 2014 through the end of 2022,” but that “less than a fifth of that finances has gone to registered nonprofits.”

“More than a third of the organization’s total giving during that period went to groups or individuals who appear connected to Burning Man, the annual weeklong festival in Nevada, including organizations devoted to hula hooping, dance parades, free costumes and more,” Gothamist reported.

The report noted that the largest donation by Participatory Safety went to “a for-profit outfit: $66,340 to Spectaculum Productions, LLC, maker of the documentary film ‘At Your Cervix,’ an exposé about pelvic exams performed by medical students on unconscious and non-consenting patients.”

In 2018, Participatory Safety “lost $17,498 worth of investments it made in cryptocurrencies – equal to about a third of its charitable giving that year,” Gothamist reported. “More than $832,000 of the capital raised from SantaCon programming – or 59% – went to the nonprofit’s expenses, not including its charitable grants.”

The fresh indictment against Pildes him remarked that attendees were told that proceeds from SantaCon would go to various charities.

In December 2024, the indictment commented, Pildes on his website stated ticket capital went “directly to Santa’s charity drive,” and that “local charities along Santa along with your finances will be split between the various charities listed on this page’s route.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the Fresh York Field Office James Barnacle, Jr. stated Pildes “allegedly stole Christmas from tens of thousands of victims and deprived local charities of more than one million dollars.”

“The FBI continues to root out scrooges that greedily exploit the goodwill of New Yorkers,” Barnacle stated in a statement.

A lawyer for Pildes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.