“He took advantage of generosity”: in New York, a man dressed as Santa Claus embezzled more than a million dollars

A man was arrested in New York on suspicion of embezzling more than a million dollars raised for charity during bar crawls dressed as Santa Claus, Manhattan prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

According to a press release, Stefan Pildes, the leader of this very popular event called SantaCon, “diverted more than half of the approximately 2.7 million dollars raised between 2019 and 2024” and spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” remaining in the accounts of the non-profit organization “for personal expenses”.

These sums were used to “fund major renovations to a lakeside property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury vacations, sumptuous meals and a luxury vehicle”.

FBI: « Fraud subtracts fraud »

“Pildes allegedly stole Christmas from tens of thousands of victims,” commented the deputy director of the FBI’s New York office, James Barnacle, in the press release, referring to the title of the famous children’s story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” “.

“He took advantage of the generous Christmas spirit of New Yorkers to finance his personal expenses, large and small. Disguise it however you want, fraud remains fraud,” added the Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton.

Charged with electronic fraud, Stefan Pildes, 50, risks up to 20 years in prison, according to the prosecution. SantaCon is a paid pub crawl attended by approximately 25,000 people every December in New York.