Kansas City Chiefs superfan Xavier Babudar, also known as “Chiefsaholic,” has been sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison after he was found guilty of stealing nearly $850,000 from 11 banks across seven states, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri said in a press release.
Babudar, 30, was sentenced in the Western District of Missouri and Northern District of Oklahoma on Thursday, Sept. 5, the same day the Chiefs kick off the 2024-25 NFL season against the Baltimore Ravens. He will serve his sentences concurrently.
He was also ordered to pay $532,675 in restitution to the “victim financial institutions,” the attorney’s office added. Some of the money has been recovered but not all of it.
Babudar has to forfeit “property involved in his money laundering activity, including an autographed painting of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick L. Mahomes II that has been recovered by the FBI,” per the attorney’s office.
Additionally, in April 2024, Babudar was ordered by an Oklahoma judge to pay $10.8 million to a teller he assaulted with a gun, per the Associated Press.
Babudar earned notoriety for dressing up as a wolf at Chiefs games over the years and he quickly became a fixture on social media. After two arrests in December 2022 and July 2023, he admitted to a string of robberies in February 2024, per the AP.
“Babudar’s robbery spree bankrolled the expensive tickets and travel across the country to attend Kansas City Chiefs games while he cultivated a large fan base online. However, the bank and credit union employees whom he terrorized at gunpoint suffered the brunt of his true nature,” U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore said in Thursday’s press release.
“The actions of Babudar were brazen and traumatic for the bank employees robbed in Bixby, Oklahoma,” U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson of the Northern District of Oklahoma added.
“Babudar terrorized bank employees throughout his multi-state crime spree, while relishing his celebrity status,” stated Special Agent in Charge Stephen Cyrus of the FBI Kansas City Field Office.
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Prosecutors said a majority of the stolen money was laundered through casinos and online gambling. However, he robbed banks or attempted to rob banks in Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, Minnesota, Nevada and California in 2022 and 2023.
Two of those robberies were committed after he cut off his ankle monitor while out on bond and fled from Oklahoma. Additionally, he robbed the same bank in Clive, Iowa, twice in 2022.
When he was first arrested in December 2022 in Oklahoma, his bag had $150,250 in cash, betting slips for $24,000, and bank deposit letters documenting his deposits for $20,000 and $50,000 earlier that year, per prosecutors. After being arrested in December 2022, he was released on bond in the state case in February 2023.
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Ahead of the 2022-23 NFL season, he placed a $5,000 bet that the Chiefs would win Super Bowl LVII, with a $55,000 payout. He also played a $5,000 bet that Mahomes would be named the game’s Most Valuable Player with a $45,000 payout, the release added.
After the Chiefs won and Mahomes was named MVP, Babudar was mailed a $100,000 check from the Argosy Casino in Illinois and spent some of his winnings to purchase a vehicle he used to evade authorities until his arrest in Sacramento, Calif. on July 7, 2023, per prosecutors.
Since his arrest, he has remained in federal custody without bond.
