CHARLESTON — Nearly two years after pleading guilty to illegally selling wildlife and trying to cover it up by laundering the funds, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle is scheduled to be sentenced for those crimes.
Antle, 65, is set to be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. June 10 in federal court in Charleston, according to a hearing notice filed on May 23.
Antle has owned Myrtle Beach Safaria for-profit, 50-acre wildlife preserve, but he’s best known for being prominently featured in the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King.”
As one of the conditions of his guilty plea, he agreed to surrender his property and abandon any interest in animals, allowing the government to find a new home for the wildlife kept at the Safari, which is also called The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS).
Antle violated the Lacey Act, which prohibits trafficking illegal wildlife and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, by buying two cheetah cubs and a chimpanzee, and selling two tigers and two lions from 2018 to 2020. All of these animals areprotected under the Endangered Species Act.
He then used donations to his nonprofit, Rare Species Fund, to launder the money and attempt to cover his illegal sales.
In the investigation, it was also revealed that Antle, along with an employee, was involved in money laundering activities on behalf of an individual they believed obtained more than $500,000 by smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States. They accepted large chunks of cash from the person, who was a confidential informant with the FBI on three different occasions, taking a 15 percent washing fee and writing a check for maintenance services.
Antle pleaded guilty to the federal charges on Nov. 6, 2023.
Both the illegal sale of wildlife charge and money laundering charge carry a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Antle was indicted June 28, 2022, along with the owner of a California wildlife ranch, Charles Sammut; the owner of an east Texas safari, Jason Clay; and two of Antle’s employees. Authorities alleged that Antle, Sammut, Clay and employees Andrew Sawyer and Meredith Bybee illegally trafficked endangered wildlife from June 2018 through October 2019. They also alleged that Antle and Sawyer engaged in a conspiracy to launder more than $500,000.
In 2023, a judge dismissed Sammut’s charges after federal prosecutors said moving forward with his case would not “serve the interests of justice,” according to court documents. Bybee pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Endangered Species Act. She was sentenced to one year of probation.
