NEW YORK CITY — Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Stefan Pildes, the 50-year-old president of SantaCon, with one count of wire fraud for allegedly siphoning more than $1 million raised through the event's charity efforts for his personal use. Pildes, a resident of Hewitt, New Jersey, was arrested in Manhattan.

SantaCon is a ticketed pub-crawl event held each December in New York City, attended by around 25,000 people dressed as Santa Claus and other holiday characters. Patrons paid for tickets believing their money would go to various New York charity efforts. The 2025 beneficiaries included City Harvest, the City Parks Foundation, and the Children's Heart Foundation, according to the SantaCon website.

According to prosecutors, Pildes diverted more than half of approximately $2.7 million raised from SantaCon into a slush fund for his personal ventures. Only a small fraction of the $2.7 million went to charity, according to court documents. The alleged scheme ran from 2019 to April 2026, during which prosecutors say Pildes defrauded tens of thousands of people and small business owners who participated in the event.

Prosecutors allege Pildes spent $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, $124,000 on a luxury Manhattan apartment, and nearly $3,000 on a birthday dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan. Slush fund money also went toward concert tickets, fine dining, luxury vacations, and home renovations, according to prosecutors.

"Stefan 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. He took advantage of New Yorkers' generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said.

FBI Assistant Director James Barnacle Jr. said, "Pildes allegedly stole Christmas from tens of thousands of victims and deprived local charities of more than one million dollars." A conviction for wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.