'Tiger King' Star Doc Antle Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

Tiger King star Doc Antle, who was also featured in Netflix's follow-up documentary, Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, has pled guilty to federal charges pertaining to money laundering and animal trafficking.

According to TMZ, Antle, whose real name is Bhagavan Mahamayavi Antle, entered a plea agreement on Monday on one count of a wildlife trafficking charge and another count of a conspiracy to launder money. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, as well as three years of supervised release. The judge is expected to review a report from the U.S. Probation Office in determining the 63-year-old's sentence.

When he was first arrested in 2022, an indictment claimed that Antle had engaged in an elaborate, years-long scheme to traffic wildlife, and that he concealed financial transactions while profiting over the years. Prosecutors claimed at the time that Antle had directed the sale of some cheetah cubs, lion cubs, tigers, and a chimp using bulk payments to hide the transactions and falsifying paperwork. He was also accused of using his nonprofit to make the sales look like donations.

The federal charges are the latest in Antle's extensive legal woes. Back in June, he was convicted in the state of Virginia on two felony counts of wildlife trafficking and two felony counts of conspiring to wildlife traffic. In addition to a suspended two-year prison sentence, Antle was fined $10,000 and banned from "possessing, trading or interacting with wild animals" in Virginia for five years.