Bad Santa: SantaCon Founder Caught Using Charity Funds On Apartments, Costa Rican Resort
The SantaCon founder is accused of pilfering over a million dollars that was meant for charity
You'd think nothing nefarious could come from getting a bunch of people to dress like Santa Claus and cruising around bars… except for, I suppose, the regular things that can happen after a night of drinking.
But now the founder of New York City's SantaCon is accused of taking nearly half of the money that was meant for charity and spending it on himself.
According to The New York Post, Stefan Pildes is accused of pilfering over a million dollars by diverting funds from ticket sales — which attendees were told were being used to fight hunger and support the arts — to a slush fund.
He then allegedly used that slush fund to do some renovation on a lakefront property in New Jersey, a high-end apartment lease, a car, and even $100,000 at a resort in Costa Rica.
Do you realize how many packs of Peanut M&M's from the minibar that is?!
Probably at least a dozen… maybe a dozen and a half…
SantaCon founder Stefan Pildes is accused of diverting over $1M in charity funds to personal luxuries, including property, a car, and a Costa Rica resort stay. (Getty Images)
"Pildes promoted SantaCon as an event grounded in charitable giving, but instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game," US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. "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."
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FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office and man whose name may or may not also belong to a SpongeBob Squarepants character, James Barnacle, said that the Bureau would not stand for this kind of fraud.
"The FBI continues to root out scrooges that greedily exploit the goodwill of New Yorkers," Barnacle said.
So, I guess here's the lesson: if you're going to get hammered as Santa Claus, make sure your money is going to the right place.
You could also just do it on your own time and make your own charitable donations (or not, I'm not judging).
But the best option? Find a mall that will pay you to get hammered and dress up like Santa.