KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar, who is known as “ChiefsAholic,” on Thursday was sentenced to 17 ½ years in prison without parole for committing a string of armed bank robberies across the United States.
Babudar, 30, will face three years of supervised release following his sentence, according to court documents. He was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to pay more than $532,675 in restitution to the victim financial institutions. In addition, he must forfeit “any property involved in his money laundering activity,” including an autographed painting of Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri.
In total, Babudar stole $847,725 from 11 financial institutions across seven states from 2022 to 2023. He laundered much of the stolen money through local casinos and online gambling, according to the release. When searching Babudar’s 2019 Mazda 3, investigators found a Barstool Sports betslip for $20,000 from Nov. 2022 and a FanDuel betslip for $4,000 from Dec. 2022. Earlier that year, he placed a separate $5,000 bets that the Chiefs would win Super Bowl LVII and that Mahomes would win the Most Valuable Player award in the game – both of which hit and paid Babudar $100,000 in winnings, according to the release.
Babudar’s sentencing Thursday comes about six months after he pleaded guilty in February to one count of bank robbery, one count of money laundering and one county of transporting stolen property across state lines, federal prosecutors said in a news release.
Babudar became a local celebrity in Kansas City for his “ChiefsAholic” persona, in which he attended Chiefs home games while dressed as a gray wolf wearing Chiefs attire. He had a sizeable social media following, but lived a “nomadic existence” around Kansas City, prosecutors said.
“While parading as a social media celebrity, the defendant secretly engaged in a violent crime spree of armed robberies and attempted robberies across seven states,” U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore said in the release. “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. He tried to flee from justice, but law enforcement caught up with him and now he will spend a significant portion of his life in prison.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 22:07:00
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