5 September 2024
A diehard Kansas City Chiefs fan who was known on social media and at games as “ChiefsAholic” was sentenced Thursday to 17½ years in federal prison and ordered to pay a half-million dollars in restitution for pulling off a string of bank robberies across the central U.S. and attempting to rob banks in Apple Valley and Savage.
Xaviar Michael Babudar, 30, of Overland Park, Kan., robbed or tried to rob 11 banks and credit unions across seven states — netting nearly $848,000 — during a sixteen-month period starting in March 2022, according to federal prosecutors. In all but a few of the robberies, Babudar brandished what appeared to be a firearm.
Babudar’s robbery spree enabled him to purchase expensive tickets to Chiefs games and cultivate a large online following as “ChiefsAholic,” a knockoff of the Chiefs’ official mascot K.C. Wolf.
“This ChiefsAholic persona was the way he chose to present himself to the world,” prosecutors wrote last week in a sentencing memorandum. “But to the many bank and credit union employees he victimized between 2022 and 2023, Babudar put on a different mask — usually a ski or paintball mask coupled with goggles — which was also meant to conceal his true identity.”
Babudar robbed three banks in Iowa and one each in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee between March 2, 2022, and his first arrest on Dec 16, 2022. He then laundered the robbery proceeds through area casinos and bank accounts, according to a criminal complaint filed under seal in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City in May 2023.
Babudar’s two attempted robberies in the Twin Cities came within two hours on Nov. 29, 2022.
Federal prosecutors say these surveillance photos show Xaviar Michael Babudar, then 28, of Overland Park, Kansas, trying to rob Royal Credit Union at 14295 Cedar Ave. in Apple Valley on Nov. 29, 2022. (Courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri)
He first entered Wings Financial Credit Union at 14411 Minnesota 13 in Savage just after noon and demanded that employees open the vault. Upon seeing it only held small bills, he left the bank without taking anything.
About an hour and half later, Babudar tried to rob the Royal Credit Union at 14295 Cedar Ave. in Apple Valley. He again discovered only small bills in the vault and left with nothing.
Babudar was charged in Tulsa County, Okla., in a December 2022 heist at the Tulsa Teachers Federal Credit Union, where he made off with $139,500. FBI investigators reviewed bank records, casino transaction records and financial documents and discovered that he had purchased and redeemed more than $1 million in chips from casinos in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois between April and December of 2022, the criminal complaint said.
Despite objections from Tulsa prosecutors, Babudar was released from custody on an $80,000 bond in February 2023, according to the sentencing memorandum. Four days later, the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII, a game in which Babudar won $100,000 from two bets he placed in June 2022 in the midst of his robbery spree.
Babudar then removed his ankle monitor and fled prosecution. He evaded detection over the next few months, robbing a bank in Sparks, Nev., on June 8, 2023, and a U.S. Bank branch in El Dorado Hills, Calif., on July 3, 2023. The FBI caught up with him four days later, arresting him in Lincoln, Calif.
‘Guy in the wolf suit’
According to an ESPN.com report in February 2023, Babudar was one of the most popular Chiefs fans on game days. He was known as “the guy in the wolf suit, often shown on TV, who’d run around tailgates in head-to-toe gray fur, claws and a mask, firing up fans.”
The criminal complaint noted that Babudar “enjoyed a robust social media presence as a Kansas City Chiefs superfan.” However, in late December, fans began to notice that his popular Twitter account — @ChiefsAholic — went silent, before one found his mugshot from the Oklahoma jail, the ESPN.com report said.
As part of a February plea agreement, Babudar pleaded guilty to one count each of bank robbery, money laundering and transporting stolen property across state lines.
His sentence includes three years of supervised release following prison. He was ordered to pay $532,675 in restitution to the banks and forfeit to the government property involved in his money laundering, including an autographed painting of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes that was recovered by the FBI.
His sentencing came on the same day the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs were to kick off the NFL season with a home game against the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium.
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