SantaCon organiser charged with stealing $1m from charity pub crawl

Prosecutors say Stefan Pildes spent hundreds of thousands of $2.7m raised for charity on personal expenses. SantaCon organiser charged with stealing $1m from charity pub crawl Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. SantaCon had around 25,000 attendees, according to prosecutors People take the streets of New York City for SantaCon The president of SantaCon, an annual event in New York City in December where thousands of young people dress up as Santa Claus and drink across the city, has been charged with wire fraud. Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York say Stefan Pildes, 50, siphoned more than $1m (£737,000) raised through the SantaCon charity for his own personal use. "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," US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. "He took advantage of New Yorkers' generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small." An attorney for Pildes has not yet been named in court documents. SantaCon is a ticketed pub-crawl event, which is attended by around 25,000 people dressed as Santa Claus and other holiday characters, according to the charging document against Pildes. Pildes, who is from New Jersey, advertised the event as a charity fundraiser, prosecutors said. But prosecutors allege that of about $2.7m (£1.989m) raised from SantaCon, Pildes diverted more than half the money to a "slush fund" for his own personal ventures, using hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for "concert tickets, fine dining, luxury vacations, and home renovations". Prosecutors allege that 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. Only a small fraction of the $2.7m went to charity, according to court documents. Prosecutors allege that Pildes defrauded tens of thousands of people and small business owners who participated in the event from 2019 to April 2026. He has been charged with one count of wire fraud, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Revellers take part in SantaCon on December 10 2016 in New York Mamdani has made progress on pledges for free child care and city-owned grocery stores, but many goals remain. Several thousand people took part in the celebration of a celebration of Scottish culture and Scottish‑American heritage. Police fatally shot the assailant after he ignored at least 20 demands to drop the weapon, NYPD says. BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner explains how the world's second-largest economy fits into the Gulf conflict. Since the start of the US blockade on Monday, 15 vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, nine of which have links to Iran, BBC Verify analysis of ship-tracking data suggests. Roelf Meyer played a key role as a negotiator during talks to end white-minority rule in South Africa. The move will make it easier for the banks to conduct transactions in dollars. Leading conservative Catholics tell the BBC why they back the American pontiff in his spat with Trump.