Cat Fight: Carole Baskin Claws For $800k Lawsuit Judgment Against Joe Exotic Just As He Launches Long-Shot Presidential Bid
March 30 2023, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
The claws are out –AGAIN! Reality star Carole Baskin has obtained a federal court summons to seize more than $800,000 from the caged Joe Exotic’s pocketbook, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
Baskin claims she's owed the cash following the 2011 trademark infringement lawsuit against Joe, where a Florida federal court determined he inappropriately stole her “Big Cat Rescue” name, logos, and images. The drama unfolded in the hit Netflix docuseries Tiger King.
The Florida court awarded Baskin nearly $1 million in damages.
Big Cat Rescue Corp. obtained a “Continuing Post Judgment Earnings Garnishment Summons” against Tamara Springer — who is overseeing Joe’s finances as he serves 21 years in a Texas federal prison following his 2020 conviction in a murder-for-hire plot to eliminate Baskin.
The bombshell money grab comes as Joe Exotic recently announced his long-shot candidacy for president in 2024 – and it's unknown if the garnishment proceeding is an attempt to foil his grassroots fundraising efforts.
“You are hereby directed to pay with your answer the amounts required by law and in case of your failure to do so, you will be liable to further proceedings account to law, and a judgment shall be rendered against you in the amount of the judgment…which has a balance of $814,465.14, together with accruing interest, until paid,” the summons dated March 1, 2023, stated.
Baskin filed the request for the summons on February 24, naming Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, along with his three other alias — Joe Schreibvogel, Aarron Alex, and Cody Ryan.
The salvo across Joe Exotic’s broadside comes nearly one month after RadarOnline.com exclusively quoted the tiger-loving reality star lambasting Baskin for claiming her missing husband, Don Lewis, is “alive and well” in Costa Rica.
“Don Lewis is NOT alive, I have her original diary and trust me she hated him so bad she could not kill him fast enough,” the gun-toting former zookeeper told us in January. “I investigated her so much I am 100% sure she, her father who is now passed away and …. killed Don Lewis and ground him up.”
Baskin, 61, created a media firestorm on January 18, when she rediscovered an undated U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigative report claiming her ex, who vanished in 1997 and was declared legally dead in 2002, was spotted in the Central American country.
As RadarOnline.com reported, her claim was immediately shot down by Tampa’s Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, who said the case was still active.
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The garnishment filing claims Joe Exotic and his money manager have the assets to pay off the debt.
“Tamara Springer, is indebted to or has property within her possession or under her control, which is to the best of my knowledge and belief not by law exempt from seizure or sale upon execution, belonging to the judgment debtor and defendant,” reads the February garnishment affidavit filed Baskin’s lawyer.
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