A federal grand jury in South Carolina indicted five people on charges of wildlife trafficking and money laundering, including Bhagavan Mahamayavi Antle, who is also known as Kevin Antle or Doc Antle, and starred in the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King, the United States Justice Department said on Thursday local time.
The indictment alleges that Antle and others illegally trafficked wildlife in violation of federal law, and made false records regarding that wildlife.
The animals involved included lemurs, cheetahs and a chimpanzee, the Justice Department said in a statement.
READ MORE: Beyoncé explains why she created Renaissance alongside epic new photo
The indictment names Andrew Sawyer, 52; Meredith Bybee, 51; Charles Sammut, 61; and Jason Clay, 42, along with Antle, 62.
Their representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Antle’s lawyer told a CBS affiliate that the indictment “was nothing we weren’t expecting.”
READ MORE: Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman apologises for show’s lack of diversity with $5.8 million
The indictment also alleged that in recent months Antle and Sawyer laundered more than $US500,000 (approx. $725,000) in cash.
They allegedly believed the cash to be the proceeds of an operation to smuggle immigrants across the Mexican border into the United States illegally.
Antle had allegedly used bulk cash receipts to purchase animals for which he could not use checks, and planned to conceal the cash he received by inflating tourist numbers at a wildlife tropical preserve in Myrtle Beach that he owned, according to the indictment.
READ MORE: Former Aussie basketball player Andrew Bogut under fire for ‘disgusting’ Kendall Jenner tweets
Antle starred in Tiger King, the true crime series set in the world of private zoos and their eccentric owners, which became a worldwide phenomenon when it was aired in March 2020.
Antle and Sawyer each face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for the charges related to money laundering, and each of the five people face up to five years for the charges related to wildlife trafficking.
Tiger King‘s biggest star, Joe Exotic, also recently had some trouble – but not necessarily with the law. Rather, he was unlucky in love.
Exotic is currently incarcerated himself, serving a 21-year prison sentence in an attempted murder via hitman case.
While he was serving his term, he met a fellow prisoner, John Graham, who then became his fiancé. The duo, however, recently broke up, and Exotic is also currently in the midst of a divorce from his estranged husband Dillon Passage.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
Discussion about this post