New York (AFP) – US investigators charged a man Wednesday for allegedly stealing over $1 million from a popular Santa Claus-themed charity bar crawl, prosecutors said. Stefan Pildes, head of SantaCon, embezzled more than half of the roughly $2.7 million raised between 2019 and 2024, prosecutors said in a statement. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars remaining in the nonprofit organization’s accounts on personal expenses, the Justice Department said.
He allegedly used the cash to fund major renovation work on a lakeside property in New Jersey, concert tickets, luxury vacations, lavish meals, and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors allege. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle said, “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.”
Prosecutor Jay Clayton said, “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.”
Charged with wire fraud, Pildes, 50, faces up to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors. SantaCon is a charity bar crawl that draws around 25,000 participants every December in New York.
© 2024 AFP
