Tiger King Joe Exotic’s Net Worth Isn’t What You’d Expect

Joe Exotic has gone immensely famous with Netflix’s Tiger King. The convicted felon is behind bars for his unforgivable violations of the Lacey Act, a conservation law & Endangered Species Act. Federal agents were examining his Oklahoma’s Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, and discovered corpses of 5 tigers in the back of the park.

The Netflix docuseries has shed a lot of light on who the man really was. Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage had initially received the Animal Park with the settlement money he received from the company held responsible for his brother Garold’s death.

Exotic was previously a police chief in Texas. After a neighbor of his introduced him to animals, Exotic bought the park and named it after his brother. The Tiger King had then sold his Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park to Jeff Lowe, a former business partner.

The Tiger King made a whopping $10 million to $15 million from his parks on an annual basis. However, his net worth definitely faced deterioration as he faced a lawsuit from Big Cat Rescue for infringing upon their trademark.

Exotic filed for bankruptcy subsequently. However, he then filed a $94 million lawsuit against .S. Fish and Wildlife Service and and the U.S. Department of Interior for a mistrial. He revealed to TMZ that the “generic tigers” were unfairly marked as an endangered species because of their personal discrimination against him.

It’s unclear whether he was ever paid for the Netflix series. As it is marked as a docuseries, it is unlikely that he saw any huge payday. However, usually most documentaries offer a sort of stipend to the people who interviewed in it. That might have been the only payday the Tiger King received from it.

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