SantaCon, the charity fundraiser where drunk Santas flood NYC streets, was a con after all, say feds

The annual SantaCon bar crawl that floods New York City with inebriated young people in Santa suits every holiday season was run by a real-life Grinch, according to federal prosecutors.

Event organizer Stefan Pildes was arrested Wednesday on charges that he pocketed the majority of the $2.7 million supposedly raised for charity through SantaCon events from 2019 to 2024.

Money that was supposed to be divided among neighborhood charities was instead used to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, buy concert tickets, pay for his fancy car, and finance extravagant meals and luxury vacations in Hawaii and Las Vegas, according to an indictment.

Pildes, 50, of Hewitt, New Jersey, didn’t respond to shouted questions as he left a Manhattan courthouse following an appearance on a wire fraud charge.

Widely reviled by many New York residents for the chaos it brings to city streets and subways, the annual SantaCon bacchanal draws thousands of costumed merrymakers to Manhattan’s streets and watering holes every year, with most people dressed as Saint Nick, though there are usually a few Mrs. Clauses, elves and the occasional Grinch.

Many participants pay $10 to $20 for tickets — money organizers insisted would go to charity.

The event traces its origins to a 1994 flash mob-style event in San Francisco dubbed “Santarchy,” intended to mock Christmas consumerism. As the idea spread to cities nationwide, it moved away from its countercultural origins and became more of a mass bar crawl.

The New York City version is now promoted as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention.”

Organizers have also tried to improve the event’s reputation for drunken misbehavior by instituting a “Santa code.”

“Santa spreads JOY: Not terror. Not vomit. Not trash. Would you want those under YOUR tree?” reads one rule. Another admonishes participants not to urinate in the street, start fights, block streets, climb on cars or deface property — all things that have been problems some years.

As public officials pressured organizers over the years to clean up their act, SantaCon emphasized its charitable work, advertising that money raised from ticket sales would go to antipoverty groups, food banks, city parks and arts foundations.

According to an indictment, Pildes claimed he received no compensation.

“No producer received income from this event, this is a charity event,” the indictment alleges he wrote in a March 2023 email to a potential venue.

But authorities said Pildes, who was freed on $300,000 bail, siphoned more than half of the proceeds raised each year to an entity he controlled, using those funds for personal expenses.

Those included $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property, $124,000 on leasing a luxury Manhattan apartment, a $100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan.

“Instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a news release.

Pildes was president of and controlled Participatory Safety Inc., the nonprofit entity that organized SantaCon, authorities said.

According to the indictment, he solicited dozens of bars and restaurants to participate and donate 10% to 25% of their food and beverage sales to his charity organization.

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