Prosecutors: 'Tiger King' star trafficked endangered animals

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — “Tiger King” star Bhagavan “Doc” Antle has been charged with buying or selling endangered lemurs, cheetahs, and a chimpanzee without the proper paperwork, federal prosecutors in South Carolina said Thursday.

The latest charges are on top of money laundering counts, where authorities said Antle tried to hide more than half a million dollars made in an operation to smuggle people across the Mexican border into the U.S.

Antle is featured prominently in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a 2020 Netflix documentary miniseries that focused on tiger breeders and private zoo operators in the U.S. The series focused heavily on Oklahoma zoo operator Joe Exotic, who also was targeted for animal mistreatment and was convicted in a plot to kill a rival, Carole Baskin.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act requires permission to buy or move any endangered species in captivity and prosecutors said Antle, two of his employees and owners of safari tours in Texas and California all broke the law.

Charles Sammut, the operator of Vision Quest Ranch in Salians, California, exchanged two red ruffed lemurs with Antle in June 2018, federal prosecutors said.

The allegations in the indictments are “littered with misinformation," Sammut told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.

Sammut said he wouldn't specify what was wrong because he had a criminal case now pending, but added he felt the problems “would be cleared up soon.”

Antle was also charged with exchanging a chimpanzee with Franklin Drive Through Safari in Franklin, Texas. Owner Jason Clay didn't return a phone message and a lawyer was not listed in court records.

Sammut, 61, and Clay, 42, are each charged with wildlife trafficking and violating the Endangered Species Act. If convicted, they face up to five...