Photo: The Canadian Press
This image provided by the Horry County Sheriff’s Office in Conway, South Carolina shows Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who was arrested by the FBI on Friday, June 3, 2022, on federal money laundering charges.
“The Tiger King” star Bhagavan “Doc” Antle has been charged with buying or selling endangered lemurs, cheetahs and chimpanzees without proper documentation, federal prosecutors in South Carolina said Thursday.
The latest charges are in addition to money laundering charges, where authorities said Antle tried to hide more than half a million dollars made in an operation to smuggle people across the Mexican border into the U.S.
Antle is featured prominently in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a 2020 Netflix documentary miniseries that focuses on tiger breeders and private zoo operators in the United States. The series focuses heavily on Oklahoma zoo operator Joe Exotic, who was also indicted for animal abuse and was convicted of conspiring to kill a rival, Carol Baskin.
The U.S. Endangered Species Act requires a permit to buy or move endangered species in captivity, and prosecutors said Antle, two of his employees and owners of safari tours in Texas and California violated the law.
Charles Sammuth, the operator of Vision Quest Ranch in Salience, Calif., traded two red-tailed lemurs with Antle in June 2018, federal prosecutors said.
The allegations in the indictment are “strewn with misinformation,” Sammut told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.
Sammuth said he would not elaborate on what was wrong because there is a pending criminal case, but added that he believed the issues “will soon be cleared up.”
Antle was also accused of trading chimpanzees with the Franklin Drive Through Safari in Franklin, Texas. Owner Jason Clay did not return a phone message and an attorney was not listed in court records.
Sammut, 61, and Clay, 42, are charged with wildlife trafficking and violating the Endangered Species Act. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison.
Court documents say Antle, 62, and Myrtle Beach Safari employee Meredith Bybee also bought or sold two young cheetahs, though details of who else was involved in the alleged transaction are not in the federal indictments.
Attorneys for Antle did not respond to an email Thursday, and court records did not list an attorney for Bybee, 51.
Antle and another employee, Andrew John Sawyer, 52, were charged earlier in June with money laundering.
Prosecutors said the men wrote $505,000 in checks that were supposed to be for construction work at the Myrtle Beach Safari but were actually payments to help smuggle people from Mexico into the United States.
Antle tried to hide the scheme by increasing the number of tourists at his 50-acre (20-hectare) tropical reserve, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said he previously used receipts to buy animals for which he could not use checks.
Animal rights activists have long accused Antle of mistreating lions and other wild animals. He was indicted in Virginia in 2020 on animal cruelty and wildlife trafficking charges.
In Virginia, Antle faces two felony wildlife trafficking and wildlife trafficking conspiracy charges, as well as 13 felony counts of conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act and animal cruelty charges related to lion trafficking. Those charges are due to be heard next month.
Antle has a history of violations dating back to 1989, when he was fined by the USDA for abandoning deer and peacocks at his zoo in Virginia. Over the years, he has more than 35 USDA animal cruelty violations.
Add Comment