NEW YORK (WABC) — The founder of SantaCon is a con, according to federal prosecutors in New York.
Stefan Pildes was arrested Wednesday on federal wire fraud charges that accused him of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars of charitable funds for his own use.
SantaCon is an annual drunken bar crawl in December when 25,000 people dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to bars and restaurants throughout the day.
The event is billed as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy” but of nearly $3 million Pildes raised, he diverted more than half to an entity he used as a slush fund, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
The indictment said Pildes used that slush fund “to finance various personal ventures” and to pay for concert tickets, fine dining, luxury…
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