{"id":213221,"date":"2026-04-28T22:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/213221\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:19:08","slug":"nyc-judge-in-santacon-fraud-case-admits-how-she-feels-about-notorious-pub-crawl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/213221\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC judge in SantaCon fraud case admits how she feels about notorious pub crawl"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manhattan judge overseeing the fraud case involving SantaCon\u2019s founder is no fan of the notoriously boozy Christmas season bar crawl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike anyone in New York, I am assaulted by SantaCon,\u201d federal Judge Colleen McMahon said during a hearing for Stefan Pildes, who prosecutors say skimmed more than a million dollars<\/a> from the event\u2019s ticket sales that had been earmarked for charity \u2014 and instead went to fund his luxury vacations, a high-end car and other extravagances.<\/p>\n

Manhattan federal Judge Colleen McMahon said Tuesday she is not a fan of SantaCon. New York Law Journal<\/p>\n

McMahon, in asking prosecutors to confirm that the case pertained to the infamous event<\/a>, said, \u201cYou mean the drunken kids who walk around in Santa costumes? <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy they buy tickets, I have no idea,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The judge said she stays home during the annual all-day bar crawl \u2014 which brings an army of Kris Kringle cosplayers to the Big Apple \u2014 and dreads \u201ccleaning up vomit\u201d from the street afterward.<\/p>\n

Pildes, 50, had no noticeable expression in court as the judge gave her unfiltered thoughts on the annual day of debauchery, which is widely reviled by locals.<\/a><\/p>\n

The accused scammer\u2019s lawyer, Noam Biale, acknowledged during the hearing that the booze-filled bacchanal\u00a0is \u201ca source of joy to many, and an annoyance to some.\u201d<\/p>\n

SantaCon founder Stefan Pildes has pleaded not guilty to charges of skimming more than a million dollars of \u201ccharity\u201d funds to fund lavish purchases. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n

Pildes has pleaded not guilty to wire fraud for allegedly diverting more than half of the $2.7 million the event purportedly raised for charity<\/a> from 2019 to 2024\u00a0through ticket sales to his personal \u201cslush fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accused fraudster allegedly spent roughly $124,000 of the cash on leasing a luxury apartment in Manhattan, another $100,000 on a boutique resort in Costa Rica and more allegedly ill-gotten funds on renovations to a New Jersey lakefront property.<\/p>\n

The SantaCon founder has advertised the event as a \u201ccharitable\u201d non-profit and promised customers that the proceeds of their ticket sales would be donated to worthy causes, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The annual one-day event brings thousands of revelers to Manhattan streets each year. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

His lawyer insisted Tuesday that \u201cStefan Pildes did not defraud anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery participant in SantaCon got exactly what they bargained for: mirth, merriment, and drunken debauchery,\u201d Biale The Post. \u201cWe look forward to advocating on Stefan\u2019s behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pildes is due back in court Sept. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Manhattan judge overseeing the fraud case involving SantaCon\u2019s founder is no fan of the notoriously boozy Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[277,57,9,56,63,65,64,21905,58],"class_list":["post-213221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-santacon","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}