Jailed Tiger King star Joe Exotic has demanded $94 million as he sued over being “wrongfully” arrested and imprisoned.
The main star of the show claimed a huge conspiracy was to blame for him ending up behind bars for murder-for-hire.
This year the flamboyant former owner of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park was caged for trying to hire a killer – who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent – to murder an animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
Joe – real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage – was also convicted of eight counts of falsifying wildlife records.
He was also found guilty of nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act which included killing five tigers at his zoo in October 2017 without a vet present.
(Image: Courtesy of NETFLIX)
But The Tiger King star has claimed a wild conspiracy was the reason behind his sentencing as well as his mum’s death.
According to TMZ, Joe alleged he was “discriminated against because he is the only person charged with this statute because [he] is an openly gay male with the largest collection of generic tigers and crossbreeds.”
According to the suit, Joe demanded $78,840,000 for the loss of his personal property.
(Image: Courtesy of NETFLIX)
The hefty sum was also demanded by him for 18 years’ worth of his work with tigers.
What’s more, he insisted on seeking an additional $15 million after he accused another former colleague of being an informant before saying his mother Shirley’s death as a result of this.
After his sentencing on January 22, Exotic said he would be appealing and accusing the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents of perjury in a statement on Facebook.
(Image: Santa Rosa County Jail)
In his statement, Exotic said he was “punished for taking advantage of my Constitutional Rights to not plead guilty to their very well orchestrated frame job of murder for hire, so they superseded my indictment with 18 wildlife charges”.
He continued: “I will also be looking forward to the Civil Suit I will be filing pro se in the upcoming days against the U.S. Department of Interior, The Federal Wildlife Service and its Directors, and agents involved for $84,840,000.00 for the reasons of false imprisonment, selective enforcement, malicious prosecution, discrimination, loss of 18 years of research, loss of personal property, mental anguish, pain and suffering and the death of my mother, along with a few other counts.”
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