Bhagavan “DOC” Antle, the flamboyant animal trainer who made Myrtle Beach Safari a photo-up destination for Cub-Cuddling Tourists, was ordered to earn 12 months and a day in federal imprisonment and to pay a $ 55,000 fine after admitting to trade in wildlife and money-lagging consequences according to CNN.
Judge David C. Norton handed down the verdict in Charleston, South Carolina, almost five years after the “Tiger King” documents catapulted Antle and his colleagues with exotic animal dealers for pop culture.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Andy Carvin, License: CC By-SA 2.5
Prosecutors are tracked $ 500,000 in alleged smuggling of cash through Antles nonprofit.
Illegal animal agreements that are laid just
The court’s records show that Antle’s trade stretched over state lines and species. In 2018, he sent an intermediary to Florida with $ 35,000 in cash for two cheetah cubs. Four months later he sold two Lion Cubs for $ 15,000, then withdrew $ 10,000 from his nonprofit, the rare species fund, to move two tigers to Montana, Live5 News reports.
Prosecutors say each transfer violated the Lacey Act, which prohibits trade in wildlife taken or sold contrary to federal or state law.
Anle’s business model was dependent on newborn animals that tolerated human handling.
“A baby chimpanzee could easily cost $ 200,000,” he told a FBI informant during a wire -tapped call, CNN reports. The surplus window closed when the animals became too strong.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / ZoOoflanden, License: CC By-SA 4.0
The Lacey Act became 115 in 2025 and is still used to bust modern human traffickers.
Cash arrangement tied to migrant smuggling
Investigators say Antle did more than peddle rare kids. Between February and April 2022 he laundered more than $ 500,000 in what he thought was revenue from smuggling of undocumented migrants across the southern border, USA Today reports.
“Antle and other counterfeit items, stepped transactions through nonprofit organizations and bought and sold newborn threatened species – all of promoting themselves as conservationists,” Adam Gustafson, acting assisting assistant law lawyer for the Ministry of Justice’s environmental and natural resources, told USA Today.
To hide the origin of the cash, Antle and an associated deposited bundles in their own bank accounts, foamed a 15 percent fee and wrote checks back to the alleged smugglers, according to Live5 News.
Co-conspirators and lingering attractions
The study snarled several allies.
Jason Clay, a private Texas Zoo owner, received a four-month judgment for selling a primate. Employees Meredith Bybee and Andrew “Omar” Sawyer drew probation for the mediation of a chimpanzee selling and helping white laundering cash, reports CNN.
Shalynn Kolwyck-Peterson, who admitted to having sold Antle a chimpanzee for $ 200,000, waiting for penalties, USA Today reports.
Antle must also surrender three chimpanzees and almost $ 200,000 to the government. Still, Myrtle Beach Safari remains open “only after reservation,” says its website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiirxed8xfa
Past conviction and wider context
The latest penalty follows Antles 2023 Virginia conveyance for four censuses on trafficking in wildlife tied to lion sales. Two counts were later thrown under appeal, but the court left intact a suspended two-year prison period quota of five years of good behavior, CNN reports.
Antles rival on screen, Joe Exotic, earns 21 years to try to hire hitmen and for wildlife violations. His case, along with Tuesday’s verdict, reinforces what prosecutors call a sustained illegal market that thrives on public fascination with charismatic megafauna.
For animal welfare spokesmen, the verdict marks a tangible blow to pay-to-play Cub meetings, although practice has not disappeared from the tourist brochure.