Biography Flash Santa Claus Scandal President of SantaCon Busted for Stealing Over a Million from Charities

About this episode

The episode discusses the arrest of Stefan Pildes, president of SantaCon, for allegedly stealing over a million dollars from charities.

In a bombshell that has the holiday world reeling, Stefan Pildes, the 50-year-old president of New York Citys iconic SantaCon nonprofit Participatory Safety Inc., was arrested Wednesday on federal wire fraud charges, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors allege this so-called Santa turned Grinch pocketed over half of the 2.7 million dollars raised from 2019 through 2024 via the massive December bar crawl that draws 25,000 boozed-up revelers in Santa suits, diverting funds meant for antipoverty groups, food banks, parks, and arts foundations. Instead, according to the indictment unsealed this week, Pildes splurged on a 365,000-dollar New Jersey lakefront renovation, a 124,000-dollar luxury Manhattan apartment lease, a 100,000-dollar stake in a pals Costa Rica resort, Vegas and Hawaii getaways, concert tickets, a fancy car, and even a nearly 3,000-dollar Michelin-starred birthday bash. He claimed no personal pay, emailing venues in 2023 that no producer received income from this charity event, yet funneled cash to his slush fund, says U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who blasted it as Pildes running his own con game on New Yorkers…

Topics covered

• fraud
• charity
• holiday scandal
• SantaCon
• arrest
• fund misappropriation

Keywords

• Santa Claus
• fraud
• charity scandal
• Stefan Pildes
• SantaCon
• New York City
• arrest
• funds misappropriation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Participatory Safety Inc., U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, FBI New York

Places: New York City, New Jersey, Costa Rica, Vegas, Hawaii

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