Amelia Kunhardt/The Patriot Ledger-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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One of the stars of the hit Netflix documentary series Tiger King, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, won’t be holding any public performances with exotic animals for awhile. That’s because the Myrtle Beach Safari operator was just officially sentenced to prison for wildlife trafficking and money laundering.
Antle was arrested by the FBI in 2022 and charged with two counts of money laundering of approximately $505,000. It was the last in a litany of offenses that had been levied against him over the years, including allegations of animal abuse, the illegal sale of big cats, sleeping with underage females, and running a cult.
In November of 2023, Antle pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act (exotic animal trafficking) and conspiracy to launder money. Also in 2023, Antle was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines for illegally buying lion cubs by a state court in Frederick County, Virginia.
Now, according to a Department of Justice press release, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle has officially been sentenced to one year in federal prison and three years of probation. He was also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine, serve three years of supervised release, and forfeit three chimpanzees and more than $197,000 to the government.
It was revealed in the press release that Antle participated in the money laundering “for what he believed to be an operation to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States across the Mexico border.” Antle also used “various schemes Antle used to hide his illegal trafficking in endangered species, including requiring payments to be ‘donations’ funneled through his non-profit, The Rare Species Fund; conducted “transactions in bulk cash to hide their true nature” and created “false paperwork to hide the illegality of his wildlife transactions.”
“Doc Antle portrayed himself as a conservationist. But in reality, he was a key player in the illegal chimpanzee trade, and he laundered more than half a million dollars through a complex web of deceit,” said U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling for the District of South Carolina. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their work in bringing the defendant to justice for both of these federal crimes.”
Many fans of the Tiger King series rejoiced at the news of Doc Antle getting prison time.
DOC ANTLE IS GOING TO PRISON https://t.co/tVWTHrwEcE pic.twitter.com/fQZH0fk9O3
— Diamonddog (@DD_723) July 9, 2025
“Justice has been served,” PETA wrote on X (Twitter), adding, “Now, he will be forced to languish in a cage and have every moment of his day controlled, just like the innocent animals he imprisoned.”
Joe Exotic, the main star of the Tiger King series, and a current prisoner in the Federal penal system, also weighed in on X, writing, “Funny how Jeff Lowe and James Garettson was [sic] involved in trafficking endangered animals, young women, and bank fraud, identity theft and yet the Department of Justice has not used any evidence provided to them to file one charge. Wonder how long Doc Antle will be in prison?”
“What’s wrong with this. Seriously 1 year in prison with all they had on him?” he wrote in another post. “Being a rat pays off. That’s what kept Jeff Lowe and James Garettson out of prison and I got 21 years.”
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