SantaCon organizer accused of diverting charity funds for personal use
Stefan Pildes, a Hewitt, New Jersey man who runs the SantaCon bar crawl in New York City, is charged with one count of wire fraud for allegedly pocketing more than half of about $2.7 million raised from SantaCon tickets between 2019 and April 2026, using funds for a personal ‘slush fund’ and purchases such as renovating a New Jersey lakefront property and leasing a luxury Manhattan apartment, depriving charities including City Harvest, City Parks Foundation and the Children’s Heart Foundation of more than $1 million.