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A Kansas man who gained consideration for dressing in a full wolf’s costume at Kansas Metropolis Chiefs video games and who allegedly eliminated his ankle monitor whereas he was out on bail on a financial institution theft cost has been arrested in California, in accordance with a news release from federal authorities.
Xaviar Michael Babudar, a 28-year-old man identified to followers of the 2023 Tremendous Bowl champs by his Twitter deal with ChiefsAholic, was taken into custody Friday in Lincoln, California, simply 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, after greater than three months as a fugitive, the US legal professional’s workplace for Missouri’s western district mentioned within the launch.
Babudar, of Overland Park, Kansas, disappeared in late March, after making bail in February after he was arrested and charged in December on suspicion of robbing a credit score union in Oklahoma’s Tulsa County, in accordance with a possible trigger affidavit filed within the case.
Federal authorities now allege in a recently unsealed criminal complaint that earlier than his arrest on these expenses he traveled to “numerous places all through the Midwestern United States to perpetrate a string of robberies at numerous banks and credit score unions.” Authorities allege he laundered the theft proceeds by way of casinos and financial institution accounts, in accordance with the affidavit.
The federal criminal complaint expenses him with financial institution theft and interstate transportation of stolen property on suspicion of taking practically $70,000 from the tellers on the Nice Western Financial institution in Clive, Iowa, in March 2022 and taking that cash to Missouri.
Further expenses are potential, in accordance with the information launch.
A spokesperson for the US legal professional’s workplace, Don Ledford, had no remark and referred to the information launch.
Babudar made his preliminary court docket look Tuesday afternoon in California, in accordance with his appointed public defender, Hannah Labaree, who mentioned the proceedings have been “largely procedural.”
The case can be taken to a grand jury to find out whether or not to return an indictment on the federal expenses within the Iowa case or different expenses, the information launch mentioned.
After Babudar was arrested in Oklahoma, ESPN.com ran a lengthy story on him, writing he was a fixture at Chiefs tailgates and video games. Babudar wore a grey wolf go well with and had tens of hundreds of followers on his ChiefsAholic twitter account, in accordance with the report.
However the FBI alleges in its affidavit that at about the identical time, Babudar was robbing banks and credit score unions within the Midwest after which, to launder the cash, was shopping for and redeeming on line casino chips in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, and likewise funding his financial institution accounts. In line with the affidavit, greater than $845,000 was stolen from six banks, together with the roughly $70,000 from the establishment in Iowa. Some $163,560, lined in pink dye, was instantly recovered after one of many robberies.
The affidavit alleges that after the Iowa theft in March 2022, Babudar deposited about $70,000 in his credit score union cash market account in transactions between March 17 and April 12, 2022. However in April, Babudar additionally withdrew $68,000 and had $65,000 deposited into his account by casinos, the court docket doc alleges.
In complete, Babudar allegedly bought greater than $1.1 million in on line casino chips and redeemed about $50,000 much less between April and December 2022, the affidavit says.
Cameron Smith, an FBI particular agent within the bureau’s advanced monetary crimes squad, writes within the affidavit that they tried to seek out out whether or not Babudar had a respectable supply of revenue. However Babudar has reported no wages in Kansas since 2018 and none in every other state since October 2021, in accordance with the affidavit.
Smith writes that mobile phone information locations Babudar close to the scenes of the robberies. Bodily proof contains gloves discovered within the suspect’s automobile that seem to match gloves worn in the course of the thefts, in accordance with the affidavit.
