Federal prosecutors stated that Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who runs an exotic animal safari in South Carolina and rose to fame from the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary series “Tiger King,” entered a guilty plea on Monday to charges of wildlife trafficking and money laundering.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina, Antle, 63, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, managed the sale or purchase of two cheetah cubs, two lion cubs, two tigers, and one juvenile chimpanzee between September 2018 and May 2020. All of the animals were protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Prosecutors claimed that this was against the Lacey Act, which forbids the trading of wildlife that has been seized unlawfully.
Prosecutors added that Antle also entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to launder money.
“Antle used large cash payments to hide the transactions & falsified paperwork to display non-commercial transfers entirely inside one state,” prosecutors stated. “Antle additionally asked that payments for species in danger be made to his nonprofit so that they could appear as ‘donations.'”
Antle gained notoriety for his role in the 2020 Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness,” which included footage of him, his large cats, and their South Carolina safari.
Prosecutors said that he is the proprietor and manager of the Myrtle Beach Safari, often referred to as The Institute for Greatly Endangered & Rare Species, or T.I.G.E.R.S. Prosecutors claimed that the safari is a 50-acre nature park that provides excursions and the opportunity for up-close interactions with animals.
Prosecutors added that Antle is also the director of the Rare Species Fund, a nonprofit organization that is registered in South Carolina.
A probe revealed evidence of money laundering carried out between February 2022 and April of the same year, in addition to wildfire trafficking.
The incident happened when Antle and another accomplice “conducted monetary transactions with cash they thought was obtained from transporting & harboring illegal aliens,” according to the prosecution.
Antle and his accomplice would take the money they were given and put it into bank accounts under their control in order to hide and distort the nature of the illicit funds. After deducting a 15% charge for each transaction, they would thereafter issue a check to the person who had contributed the funds, according to the prosecution.
A jury had cleared Antle of five charges of animal cruelty in June of this year as well.
In the release, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department stated: “The defendant represented himself as an environmentalist, but he broke laws safeguarding endangered animals on multiple occasions and then attempted to hide those infractions.
He went on, “This prosecution shows our dedication to stopping illegal trafficking, which puts endangered animal species’ lives in jeopardy.”
On Monday, Antle’s lawyers were not immediately reachable for comment.
For each offense, Antle could get a maximum sentence of five years in jail, fines of up to $250,000, and three years of supervised release, according to the prosecution.