Bad santa.Ljupco/iStock
The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York announced Wednesday morning that they have arrested Stefan Pildes, 50, one of the organizers of New York City’s Santacon, an infamous annual public pukefest which claims to be a charitable event. Pildes is accused of diverting money raised by Santacon NYC to a “slush fund,” then using that money for lakefront property renovations, luxury vacations, and concert tickets. All the while, the indictment says, “only a small fraction” of the money raised was actually given to charities.
Santacon, which began its life as a merry little art prank partially inspired by Mother Jones, has since become a powerfully unpopular cultural juggernaut, in which the drunkest denizens of various major American cities dress up in red and urinate upon their local landmarks. In 2023, a Gothamist investigation found that while Santacon NYC, the largest such event in the country, claims to have donated millions to charity, over an eight year period, “less than a fifth” of the money raised by the New York event went to charitable causes. More than a third of the money raised in that time, Gothamist reported, went to “groups or individuals who appear connected to Burning Man.”
“Despite claiming that he did not receive any compensation,” the indictment says donations went to “personal use.”
On their website, Santacon NYC claims to have “made a tremendous difference for dozens of arts & charitable causes!” According to prosecutors in New York’s Southern District, when one attendee asked what she’d receive for buying a ticket to Santacon, “the SantaCon Email responded, in part, ‘your donation goes to charity and it is only a few bucks and that good feeling will warm your heart faster than whiskey and gingerbread.’”
But prosecutors allege proceeds from the Santacon ticket really went to Pildes himself, who the indictment says has been a major Santacon NYC organizer since November 2019. “Instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised,” the indictment reads, Pildes is alleged to have “misappropriated and stole the majority of SantaCon proceeds by diverting them to an entity that Pildes controlled, Creative Opportunities Group, Inc. (‘COG’), that had no public connection to SantaCon.”
Besides the aptly named “Creative Opportunites Group,” prosecutors also allege Pildes “abused his control” over a bank account set up for the nonprofit behind Santacon NYC, which is called Participatory Safety, Inc (PSI). Prosecutors allege that Pildes stole “hundreds of thousands of dollars in other SantaCon proceeds for his own personal use” from the PSI bank account.
“Among other things,” the indictment adds, “Pildes spent SantaCon proceeds on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle. Pildes did so despite claiming that he did not receive any compensation from SantaCon or PSI.” In March 2023, prosectuors say, Pildes emailed a potential Santacon venue, claiming that aside from fees for “ticket processing and production,” all ticket proceeds would go to PSI, “our not-for-profit partner that distributes to the charities we have listed on our charities page. No producer receives income from this event, this is a charity event.”
Chris Hackett, an early Santacon organizer in Brooklyn, says that he and Pildes recently encountered each other at the premiere of a recent documentary about the event, released by filmmaker Seth Porges last year. “I don’t know him but he knows me,” Hackett says. When Pildes suggested the two take a photo together, Hackett recalls telling him, “I don’t know you. I don’t like you. Fuck off now.”
Pildes is charged with one count of wire fraud; if convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Neither Santacon NYC nor Pildes has yet publicly commented on the arrest or the underlying allegations, and it is unclear if the accused has retained legal representation.
Santa himself could also not be reached for comment.
