Sure, it's extremely obnoxious when hundreds of velvet-clad 22-year-olds chug and puke and piss and punch their way through Lower Manhattan every December—but at least SantaCon's proceeds are going to charitable causes and not, say, renovations to a New Jersey lake house or a tab at a Michelin-starred restaurant, right? Right?
On Wednesday afternoon, federal prosecutors accused SantaCon of being, well, a con. According to an indictment, SantaCon's organizer, Stefan Pildes, raised $2.7 million from every SantaCon starting in 2019 through 2025, but only donated "a small fraction" of that sum to charity.