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Federal authorities said Pildes donated only a small fraction of the $2.7 million he raised through SantaCon charity events from 2019 to 2024. The tradition features a ticketed bar crawl through city streets each December that has attracted over 25,000 people.

Widely reviled by many New York residents for the chaos it brings to city streets and subways, the annual bacchanal draws large throngs of costumed merrymakers to Manhattan’s streets and watering holes every year, with most people dressed as Saint Nick, though there are usually a few Mrs. Clauses, elves and the occasional Grinch.

The participants paid $10 to $20 for tickets after Pildes told them their money would be divided among neighborhood charities and that they could “brag that (they) actually gave to charity this year� according to the indictment.

The event traces its origins to a 1994 flash mob-style event in San Francisco dubbed “Santarchy,� intended to mock Christmas consumerism. As the idea spread to cities nationwide, it moved away from its countercultural origins and became more of a mass bar crawl.

The New York City version is now promoted as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention.�

Authorities said Pildes siphoned more than half of the proceeds raised each year to an entity he controlled, using those funds to finance various personal ventures.

He's accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of the remaining revenue to fund the renovation of a lakefront property in New Jersey and to pay for concert tickets, luxury vacations in Hawaii and Las Vegas, extravagant meals, home renovations and a luxury vehicle.

Money supposedly destined for charities, the government alleged, was instead spent on over $365,000 in lakefront property renovations in New Jersey, $124,000 on leasing a luxury Manhattan apartment, a $100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan.

According to an indictment, Pildes claimed he received no compensation from the event.

“No producer received income from this event, this is a charity event,� the indictment alleges he wrote in a March 2023 email to a potential venue.

"Instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game,� U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a news release.

Pildes was president of and controlled Participatory Safety Inc., the nonprofit entity that organized SantaCon, authorities said.

According to the indictment, he solicited dozens of bars and restaurants to participate and donate 10% to 25% of their food and beverage sales to his charity organization.