„Tiger King“ star Bhagavan „Doc“ Antle has been charged with laundering more than half a million dollars, money federal prosecutors said Monday that he …
„Tiger King“ star Bhagavan „Doc“ Antle has been charged with laundering more than half a million dollars, money federal prosecutors said Monday that he believed to be the proceeds of an operation to smuggle illegal immigrants across the Mexican border into the United States. Charges against Antle and Andrew Jon Sawyer, one of Antle’s employees at Myrtle Beach Safari, were revealed during a federal court hearing in Florence, South Carolina. According to federal prosecutors, Antle and Sawyer laundered $505,000 over a four-month period by doling out checks from businesses they controlled, receiving a 15% fee of the money that passed through their hands. The checks, prosecutors allege, falsely purported to be payment for construction work at Myrtle Beach Safari but were in reality intended to serve as evidence that the recipients had legitimate income. According to the complaint unsealed in court Monday, Antle discussed his plan to conceal the cash he received by inflating tourist numbers at his 50-acre (20-hectare) wildlife tropical preserve.
