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Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — who was featured in a popular Netflix documentary — was sentenced today to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and launder more than $500,000 for what he believed to be an operation to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States across the Mexico border. Antle was also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine, serve three years of supervised release, and forfeit three chimpanzees and more than $197,000 to the government.

Two of Antle’s co-defendants were recently sentenced for their separate involvement in either the Lacey Act or money laundering conspiracy. A defendant in a related case recently pleaded guilty to illegally selling a newborn chimpanzee to Antle.

“Today’s sentence holds Doc Antle and his co-defendants accountable for activity they knew was unlawful and unethical,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “They illegally purchased and sold newborn endangered wildlife even as they laundered more than $500,000 in smuggling money — all while promoting themselves as conservationists.”

“Doc Antle portrayed himself as a conservationist. But in reality, he was a key player in the illegal chimpanzee trade, and he laundered more than half a million dollars through a complex web of deceit,” said U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling for the District of South Carolina. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their work in bringing the defendant to justice for both of these federal crimes.”

“These sentences should send a clear message: the FBI and our partners will not tolerate those who attempt to violate our laws,” said Special Agent in Charge Kevin Moore of the FBI Columbia Field Office. “We remain firmly committed to investigating and holding accountable individuals whose illegal actions threaten our financial systems and put protected species at risk.”

“This case underscores the grave criminal threat posed by wildlife traffickers who not only exploit vulnerable species for profit but also use sophisticated money laundering tactics to conceal their crimes,” said Assistant Director Douglas Ault of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement. “Our special agents uncovered a complex network of illicit activity involving the trafficking of endangered animals — including baby chimpanzees and cheetahs — falsified documentation, and the laundering of hundreds of thousands of dollars through purported nonprofit organizations. These traffickers operated under the false pretense of conservation, betraying both the law and public trust. We remain unwavering in our commitment to dismantling such networks and bringing those responsible to justice.”

The wildlife conspiracy outlined various schemes Antle used to hide his illegal trafficking in endangered species, including requiring payments to be “donations” funneled through his non-profit, The Rare Species Fund; conducting transactions in bulk cash to hide their true nature; and creating false paperwork to hide the illegality of his wildlife transactions. The animals trafficked included baby chimpanzees, cheetahs, lions, and tigers, all of which are protected under both the Endangered Species Act and international treaties. The Lacey Act prohibits trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish or plants, including animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Antle’s co-defendant in the wildlife conspiracy, Jason Clay, was recently sentenced to four months in prison, four months home confinement, and to pay a $4,000 fine into the Lacey Act Reward Fund. In 2019, Clay illegally sold a juvenile chimpanzee to Antle in exchange for $200,000 in cash and a juvenile gibbon. 

As for the money laundering conspiracy, Antle and a co-defendant laundered more than $500,000 in cash between February and April 2022 that were represented to be proceeds from an operation to smuggle illegal immigrants across the Mexican border into the United States. Evidence presented to the court showed that Antle planned to conceal the cash he received by writing checks for what appeared to be construction-related services for Myrtle Beach Safari, which he owned and operated, and which was featured in the Netflix documentary. The Myrtle Beach Safari is a 50-acre for-profit zoo that offers tours and private encounters with exotic wildlife.

Antle’s co-defendant in the money laundering conspiracy, Andrew Sawyer, was recently sentenced to serve two years of probation including eight months of home detention. He also forfeited nearly $185,000 to the government and a chimpanzee.

In a different Lacey Act violation case connected to Antle, Shaylynn Kolwyck-Peterson pleaded guilty last month to illegally selling a chimpanzee to Antle in 2022 for $200,000. The Kolwyck family owns and manages the private Sunshine Zoological Preserve LLC in north Florida. The facility is believed to be the only one in the United States breeding chimpanzees for private or non-scientific purposes.

The FBI and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Patrick M. Duggan of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Bower for the District of South Carolina prosecuted the case.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division today announces its partnership with the United States Postal Service to create the Whistleblower Rewards Program. For the first time, the Antitrust Division will offer rewards for individuals who report antitrust crimes and related offenses that harm consumers, taxpayers, and free market competition across industries from healthcare to agriculture — under existing law and at no additional cost to the taxpayer.

“Antitrust crimes and related offenses that harm free market competition often occur in secret, making detection a formidable challenge. The new Whistleblower Rewards Program will create a new pipeline of leads from individuals with firsthand knowledge of criminal antitrust and related offenses that will help us break down those walls of secrecy and hold violators accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Antitrust Division. “This program raises the stakes: If you’re fixing prices or rigging bids, don’t assume your scheme is safe — we will find and prosecute you, and someone you know may get a reward for helping us do it.”

“This reporting mechanism gives those with a vested interest in maintaining the integrity of the Postal Service the opportunity to join us in the fight,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “The Postal Inspection Service, along with our partners in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General will not tolerate anyone who violates Antitrust Laws; we remain committed to seeking justice against anyone who chooses to do so. And for those who are also motivated to using this tool to report Antitrust crimes, we affirm our commitment to fully investigate and bring violators to justice.”

“As a key partner and original member in the Department of Justice’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG), actively collaborates with other federal agencies to detect, investigate, and prosecute antitrust crimes, ensuring fair competition and safeguarding taxpayer’s dollars in federal procurements,” said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Robert Kwalwasser, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. “We are pleased to be partnering with DOJ and the Postal Inspection Service to implement the Whistleblower Rewards Program to incentivize individuals and companies to provide information about collusive behavior without fear of reprisal. This newly established program is an example of DOJ’s commitment to root out illicit behavior in all industries, which includes industries where the USPS procures goods and services either directly or indirectly. The USPS OIG will fully participate in this collaborate effort to ensure the USPS and the U.S. taxpayers are not being defrauded of honest services.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and USPS OIG have long played a vital role in uncovering and investigating postal-related antitrust crimes that harm Americans. The Whistleblower Rewards Program will provide individuals with the opportunity to report evidence of antitrust crimes directly to the Antitrust Division and, in appropriate cases, qualify for substantial monetary rewards of up to 30% of any criminal fines recovered, for violations of law affecting the Postal Service, its revenues, or its property. The program expands upon the Division’s long-standing efforts to detect and prosecute cartels and criminal collusion by incentivizing individuals to report specific, credible, and timely information about illegal agreements to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate markets, as well as other federal criminal violations that impact, distort, or undermine the competitive process or market competition.

To facilitate reporting, the Division has established a dedicated Whistleblower Regards Program webpage accessible at www.justice.gov/atr/whistleblower-rewards. Whistleblowers and their counsel are encouraged to contact the Division promptly.

The Justice Department announced today that Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 33, of the People’s Republic of China was arrested on July 3 in Italy at the request of the United States. Xu and his co-defendant, PRC national Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, are charged in a nine-count indictment, unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas, for their involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021, including the indiscriminate HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, and will face extradition proceedings.

According to court documents, officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) directed Xu to conduct this hacking. The MSS and SSSB are PRC intelligence services responsible for PRC’s domestic counterintelligence, non-military foreign intelligence, and aspects of the PRC’s political and domestic security. When conducting the computer intrusions, Xu worked for a company named Shanghai Powerock Network Co. Ltd. (Powerock). Powerock was one of many “enabling” companies in the PRC that conducted hacking for the PRC government.

“This arrest underscores the United States’ patient and tireless commitment to pursuing hackers who seek to steal information belonging to U.S. companies and universities,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division. “The Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for threatening our cybersecurity and harming our people and institutions.”

“The indictment alleges that Xu was hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins,” said Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget.”

“In February 2020, as the world entered a pandemic, Xu Zewei and other cyber actors working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeted American universities to steal groundbreaking COVID-19 research. The following year, these same actors, operating as a group publicly known as HAFNIUM, exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research,” said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of FBI’s Cyber Division. “Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information. This arrest, carried out with our Italian law enforcement partners, demonstrates the FBI’s relentless commitment to holding CCP-sponsored hackers accountable for their crimes.” 

According to court documents, in early 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators hacked and otherwise targeted U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment, and testing. Xu and others reported their activities to officers in the SSSB who were supervising and directing the hacking activities. For example, on or about Feb. 19, 2020, Xu provided an SSSB officer with confirmation that he had compromised the network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas. On or about Feb. 22, 2020, the SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the university. Xu later confirmed for the SSSB officer that he acquired the contents of the researchers’ mailboxes.

Beginning in late 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators exploited certain vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, a widely-used Microsoft product for sending, receiving, and storing email messages. Their exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server was at the forefront of a massive campaign targeting thousands of computers worldwide and known publicly as “HAFNIUM.” In March 2021, Microsoft publicly disclosed the intrusion campaign by state-sponsored hackers operating out of China. Throughout March 2021, Microsoft and other industry partners released detection tools, patches, and other information to assist victim entities in identifying and mitigating this cyber incident. Additionally, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a Joint Advisory on Compromise of Microsoft Exchange Server on March 10, 2021. However, by the end of March 2021, hundreds of web shells remained on certain U.S.-based computers running Microsoft Exchange Server software. In April 2021, the Justice Department announced a court-authorized operation to remediate hundreds of computers in the United States made vulnerable by HAFNIUM actors. In July 2021, the United States and foreign partners attributed the HAFNIUM campaign to the PRC’s MSS.

Among the victims of Xu’s exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server were another university located in the Southern District of Texas and a law firm with offices worldwide, including in Washington, D.C. After exploiting computers running Microsoft Exchange Server, Xu and his co-conspirators installed web shells on them to enable their remote administration. These web shells were specific to HAFNIUM actors at the time. As with the earlier COVID-19 research intrusions, Xu and Zhang worked together on the HAFNIUM intrusions, under the supervision and direction of SSSB officers. For example, on or about Jan. 30, 2021, Xu confirmed to Zhang that he had compromised the other university’s network. Later, on or about Feb. 28, 2021, Xu updated a SSSB officer on his successful intrusions. This SSSB officer then directed Xu to obtain a list of other, successful intrusions from a second SSSB officer. Unauthorized access to the law firm’s network allowed Xu and his co-conspirators to steal information from mailboxes and search them for information regarding specific U.S. policy makers and government agencies. Their search terms included “Chinese sources,” “MSS,” and “HongKong.”

The announcement of charges against Xu is the latest describing the PRC’s use of an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. This largely indiscriminate approach results in more victims in the United States and elsewhere, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third parties.

Xu is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count; conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers, to commit wire fraud, and to commit identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Zhang Yu, remains at large. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

The FBI’s Houston Field Office is investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in securing the defendant’s arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark McIntyre and John Marck for the Southern District of Texas and Deputy Chief Matthew Anzaldi of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is handling the extradition.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.