Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Report: SantaCon president arrested; prosecutors allege misuse of funds

Photo from 20924 by Stacie Joy 

Is this the "con" in SantaCon? 

The president of SantaCon was arrested today on federal charges accusing him of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for charity to personal expenses, according to CNBC

Prosecutors allege that Stefan Pildes used funds from the ticketed holiday bar crawl, which claims to raise money for charity, for a range of purchases, including home renovations, luxury vacations, and a Manhattan apartment. 

According to the indictment, only a small portion of the roughly $2.7 million raised through SantaCon was donated to charity.

A Gothamist analysis from 2023 found that "the organization raised $1.4 million through SantaCon programming from late 2014 through the end of 2022, and that less than a fifth of that money has gone to registered nonprofits."

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely no surprise there. They should have audited him on a yearly basis.

Anonymous said...

shocking!!

Anonymous said...

SHOCKER!!

h.f. said...

Good riddance. Screw that guy, and screw SantaCon. What a fucking nuisance.

ed anger said...

so surprised 🙄

Anonymous said...

Only the Trump family can get away with this

Anonymous said...

Maybe some corporate interest can buy the rights going forward. Sanitize and corporatize the life out of this shit already. It's what it deserves.

Anonymous said...

does santa deliver lumps of coal to prisons? asking for a ... lol ...

tom said...

Should we assume that will be the end of Santacon?

Anonymous said...

In this environment? Throw in a few sexual assault charges and he could run for office. It would be good to be rid of him and his ill-behaved followers for sure.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Christmas will arrive early this year with the hopeful news of its subsequent, indefinite closure. Good riddance to the grift and utter annoyance of this massively stupid phenomenon.

#DONTEVERCALLMEBRO said...

As a good friend of mine who was interviewed by Fox News several years called it a "Bro​mageddon".

Anonymous said...

Santa CON. Seems apropos.

Anonymous said...

Sure. In Brooklyn or somewhere else.

------m said...

finally the axe falls on the king of the lemings!!

Scuba Diva said...

Oh, I wish—but they'll come back stronger.

Anonymous said...

So the charity was conned by him, doesn't make santacon itself a con job.

Anonymous said...

How no one ever thought of that!

EvHo said...

THAT'S ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Anonymous said...

The jig is up. For the love of humanity, no more Santa CON.

genevieve said...

A lot of nonprofits do little or nothing for anybody.

#DONTEVERCALLMEBRO said...

The NY Daily News article ended with this. Sorta sums it all up:

"The booze-fueled revelry draws at least 25,000 attendees each December to the ire of many New Yorkers disgusted by inebriated St. Nicks vomiting and urinating in the streets."

Here's hoping that this is truly the end of this CF/shit show.

Anonymous said...

Agreed!

Anonymous said...

well at least the bars got paid

cmarrtyy said...

Talk about Santa Con...Ironic... Hmmm

Anonymous said...

As a New Yorker, I cannot put into words how much I detest this day. It needs to be abolished. You want to dress up as Santa and wreak havoc on poor souls with lewd drunkenness, do it in the privacy of your own apartment, and leave the rest of us alone. Hope this d-bag is brought to justice for his greed.