SantaCon Organizer Charged In Wire Fraud Scheme Targeting Attendees And Host Venues

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), James C. Barnacle, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation ("IRS-CI"), Jennifer L. Piovesan, announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging STEFAN PILDES with wire fraud. PILDES was arrested today in Manhattan and will be presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon.

"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," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "He took advantage of New Yorkers' generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small. No matter how you dress it up, fraud is fraud. We are committed to protecting New Yorkers from those who exploit their enthusiasm and generosity."

"Stefan Pildes, the president of SantaCon, allegedly pocketed over half of the proceeds generated by his nonprofit to make personal purchases," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. "Pildes allegedly stole Christmas from tens of thousands of victims and deprived local charities of more than one million dollars. The FBI continues to root out scrooges that greedily exploit the goodwill of New Yorkers."

"When individuals exploit charitable causes for personal gain, they undermine the trust our communities place in organizations meant to serve the public good," said IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Jennifer L. Piovesan. "IRS-CI remains committed to working with our law enforcement partners to uncover deceptive financial schemes and ensure those who abuse their positions for personal enrichment are held accountable."

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment:^[1]

From at least November 2019 through April 2026, PILDES defrauded tens of thousands of individuals and small business owners who participated in a popular, Christmas-themed event organized and promoted by PILDES, referred to as "SantaCon." SantaCon is a ticketed bar crawl that takes place annually in December in New York City, during which over approximately 25,000 attendees dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to participating bars and restaurants throughout the day. At all relevant times, PILDES served as the president of and controlled the nonprofit entity that organizes SantaCon called Participatory Safety, Inc. ("PSI").

SantaCon primarily generates proceeds through (i) sales of tickets to bar crawl attendees ("Attendees") and (ii) sales commissions from bars and restaurants that serve as host venues along the bar crawl route ("Venues"). PILDES, through PSI and its representatives, represented to Attendees and Venues that SantaCon was an event to benefit charity.

PILDES maintained a website for SantaCon (the "SantaCon Website") that was used to promote and communicate information about SantaCon. The SantaCon Website advertised that Attendees who purchased a ticket to SantaCon would receive access to the Venues and that proceeds from ticket sales would be distributed to various charities. For example, in or about December 2024, PILDES promoted on the SantaCon Website that ticket money went "directly to Santa's charity drive," and that "[y]our money will be split between the various charities listed on this page as well as local neighborhood charities along Santa's route." Additionally, the SantaCon Website described SantaCon as a "charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention." PILDES also solicited bars and restaurants to participate in SantaCon through representations regarding the event's charitable mission. Venues that were signed up as official stops on the SantaCon route agreed to give PSI a designated percentage of their food and beverage sales during the event. This contribution was characterized as a "charitable commission" or "donation" and was typically between 10% and 25% of sales. In exchange, PILDES, through PSI and its representatives, agreed to distribute the charitable commission to various charities.

In reality, PILDES defrauded the Attendees and Venues. SantaCon events from 2019 to 2024 generated approximately $2.7 million in proceeds, including over $2 million in ticket sales and over $675,000 in charitable commissions from Venues. PILDES donated only a small fraction of the millions of dollars he raised for charity. Instead, PILDES siphoned off more than half of the charitable proceeds to an entity that PILDES controlled, Creative Opportunities Group, Inc. ("COG"), that had no public connection to SantaCon, where he used these funds freely to finance various personal ventures. PILDES also abused his control over PSI's bank accounts to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of the remaining proceeds for his own personal use. 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. PILDES told one representative of a potential Venue that "[n]o producer receives income from this event, this is a charity event."

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PILDES, 50, of Hewitt, New Jersey, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Clayton thanked the FBI and IRS-CI. He also expressed appreciation for the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.

This case is being supervised by the Office's General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Varun A. Gumaste and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew N. Stahl are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.