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On Monday, November 6, "Tiger King" star "Bhagavan" Doc Antle admitted to money laundering and federal wildlife trafficking charges. The 63-year-old owner of Myrtle Beach Safari, South Carolina, pled guilty to a conspiracy to launder money and a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, according to a press release put out by the United States Department of Justice on Monday.
The Lacey Act was enacted in 1900 and amended in 1981 and 2008 to prohibit the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, including fish, animals, and even plants. Antle was found to have engaged in the illegal trafficking of a couple of cheetah, tiger, and lion cubs, along with a juvenile chimpanzee. He faces five years of prison time for each charge.
Doc Antle was charged with a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act
A press release by the US Department of Justice on Monday revealed that the once revered Dog Antle pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and a conspiracy to launder money.
He rose to fame with the 2020 Netflix documentary "Tiger King" and the following year's "Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story", which explored the allegations of s*xual abuse and violence against him.
Born as Kevin Antle, the guilty man later changed his name to Bhagavan Mahamayavi Antle and was popularly known as Doc Antle. He founded The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.) along with the Myrtle Beach Safari, which the press release describes as a "50-acre wildlife tropical preserve that offers tours and private encounters with exotic wildlife".
Being a self-proclaimed conservationist, Antle is also the director of a South Carolina nonprofit organization named Rare Species Fund. The press release stated that Doc Antle had "conspired to violate" The Lacey Act between September 2018 and May 2020.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Lacey Act states that the service has to issue a permit to authorize any "importation of injurious wildlife" into the US or its territories or possessions. The Lacey Act amendments of 1981 and 2008 further elaborated the law. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Lacey Act:
"Prohibits the importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, or purchase of any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or any Indian tribal law, or foreign law."
The Act also ensures that properly marked containers are used to ship wildlife and the humane treatment of wildlife shipped to the country. As stated in the press release, between September 2018, and May 2020 Antle had directed the sale or purchase of a juvenile chimpanzee and a pair of tiger, cheetah, and lion cubs each. The Endangered Species Act protects all these animals.
Doc Antle used a variety of methods to hide cash transactions from trafficking. This included using cash payments, payments being made through his non-profit in the form of donations, and fabricated paperwork to show non-commercial transfers entirely within one state.
Evidence of money laundering between February and April of last year was also found during the investigations. Doc Antle, along with his conspirator, had conducted transactions from money they had received from the transportation and harboring of "illegal aliens".
The duo carried out the scheme by depositing the cash into bank accounts controlled by them and then writing a check to the person who had given them the money, all while taking 15% as a transaction fee.
The Press release detailed that Antle would receive a maximum of 5 years in prison time for each count, along with a fine of up to $250,000, followed by three years of supervised release. Doc Antle's guilty plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Joseph Dawson III, who will finalize the doc's sentencing after "receiving and reviewing" the United States Probation Office's sentencing report.
