”Tiger King” star Doc Antle pleads responsible to federal wildlife trafficking cost

A wild animal coach featured within the in style Netflix sequence ”Tiger King” has pleaded responsible to federal wildlife trafficking costs, the Division of Justice introduced Monday. 

Bhagavan ”Doc” Antle pleaded responsible to a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and a conspiracy to launder cash, federal prosecutors stated in a information launch. 

Antle, 63, is the proprietor and operator of The Institute for Enormously Endangered and Uncommon Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.), also referred to as the Myrtle Seashore Safari. He additionally heads the Uncommon Species Fund, a nonprofit group registered in South Carolina.

He rose to nationwide prominence as one of many characters featured in ”Tiger King: Homicide, Mayhem and Insanity,” a 2020 Netflix documentary miniseries about tiger breeders in Florida and Oklahoma.

Based on prosecutors, Antle conspired to violate the Lacey Act — which prohibits the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, together with animals protected below the Endangered Species Act — by directing the sale of two cheetah cubs, two lion cubs, two tigers and one juvenile chimpanzee between Sept. 2018 and Could 2020. 

”Antle used bulk money funds to cover the transactions and falsified paperwork to point out non-commercial transfers fully inside one state,” prosecutors stated. ”Antle additionally requested that funds for endangered species be made to his nonprofit so they might seem as ’donations.'”

Investigators additionally stated Antle and a co-conspirator laundered cash between Feb. and April 2022 after discovering proof of money transactions believed to be obtained from ”transporting and harboring unlawful aliens.” 

”To hide and disguise the character of the unlawful money, Antle and his coconspirator would take the money they obtained and deposit it into financial institution accounts they managed,” prosecutors stated. ”They’d then write a examine to the person who had offered the money after taking a 15% price per transaction.”

Prosecutors stated Antle took benefit of his place as a conservationist. 

For every rely, Antle faces a most penalty of 5 years in jail, a tremendous of as much as $250,000 and three years of supervised launch, in response to prosecutors. He’s set to be sentenced after a choose evaluations a report ready by the Probation Workplace, prosecutors stated.