The FBI is looking for any potential victims of the man who runs SantaCon after federal authorities arrested him, saying he scammed tens of thousands of people by claiming the event’s proceeds were going to charity.
The annual Christmas-themed bar crawl involves people donning Santa costumes to engage in a booze-soaked tour across several Manhattan neighborhoods. The tradition has long been criticized as a public nuisance, but was billed as a charity event.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said that from “at least 2019” on, founder Stefan Pildes instead funneled the bulk of the $2.7 million he raised into a “slush fund” for concert tickets, luxury vacations and fine dining. Federal authorities arrested him Wednesday on wire fraud charges.
A 2023 Gothamist investigation also found only a fraction of the money went to registered nonprofit organizations, in an analysis of the organization’s tax records that included a period before the time the indictment addresses.
Instead, more than a third of the money raised by SantaCon between 2014 and 2022 went to people and groups attending the Burning Man festival, according to Gothamist's analysis.
Pildes confirmed Burning Man-related expenditures to Gothamist at the time. For instance, he said the nonprofit that organizes SantaCon spent money on a post-Burning Man party. He said that money was paid back to the nonprofit as a zero-interest loan, but he did not say by whom.
“Pildes primarily targeted SantaCon attendees who purchased tickets to the event, as well as bars that participated in the event” during that time.
The FBI is asking anyone who suspects that they have been a victim of the alleged scheme to fill out the form, asking attendees when they went, if they purchased tickets and how they paid. It also asks for information from bar and restaurant owners who paid sales commissions to SantaCon.
The FBI’s form tells potential victims they may be “eligible for certain services, restitution and rights” and that their replies may be useful in the federal investigation.
Messages to Pildes' attorney were not immediately returned Thursday.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify a statement by Pildes about how Santacon funds were spent in connection with Burning Man.
