Article #5083

The pub crawl’s organizer is accused of pocketing donations but residents and businesses have long had misgivings

On what started as an otherwise uneventful spring day in New York City, thousands of residents last week received what they felt was an early Christmas present.

Stefan Pildes, organizer of SantaCon in New York City, was arrested on Wednesday morning for allegedly using hundreds of thousands from event-based charitable donations on his personal expenses, such as luxe vacations and “extravagant meals”, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.