Ho ho holy s**t! New York City’s SantaCon founder just secured his place on the naughty list!
Stefan Pildes has found himself in some deep legal trouble! If you’ve managed to never see any pics from SantaCon, allow us to fill you in on what exactly it is. Every December, NYC holds an annual bar crawl where THOUSANDS of festive holiday cheerers dress up in their finest Christmas gear and head downtown to parade through the city streets while stopping in to sip at various pubs.
Beyond Christmas cheer, the point of the event is to raise money for charities that directly benefit New Yorkers in need. Affiliated nonprofits include The Children’s Heart Foundation, Clowns Without Boarders, the City Parks Foundation, and more. According to the website, participants’ dinero is “split between the various charities listed on this page, (after we satisfy all costs) as well as local neighborhood charities along Santa’s route.”
A fine idea, right?! Except what happens when corporate greed poisons the Christmas cheer? A LOT of coal is served up!
Related: Trump Cuts $11 Million Catholic Charity Contract Amid Pope Feud
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, SantaCon founder Stefan Pildes has been accused of stealing more than $1 MILLION from the charity:
“At all relevant times, Pildes served as the president of and controlled the nonprofit entity that organizes SantaCon called Participatory Safety, Inc.”
According to prosecutors, from 2019 to 2024, SantaCon raised more than $2.7 million. Of that, at least HALF was allegedly redirected by Pildes. OMG!
US Attorney Jay Clayton said:
“As alleged, 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.”
Prosecutors accused Pildes of defrauding “tens of thousands” of New Yorkers for his own direct benefit:
“Among other things, Pildes spent SantaCon proceeds on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury vacations, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle. Pildes did so despite claiming that he did not receive any compensation from SantaCon or PSI.”
That’s WILD!
Stefan was arrested on wire fraud charges Wednesday. As of now, it’s unclear if he has entered a plea.
What are YOUR reactions, Perezcious readers??
[Images via MEGA/WENN]
