(CNN) He called himself Joe Exotic and once lorded over a popular exotic animal park in Oklahoma.

Then he shot and killed five tigers, sold baby lemurs and falsified paperwork to say they were donated, and tried to pay a hit man $3,000 to kill a rival.

Now, the man once known as the "Tiger King" is going to prison for 22 years.

Joseph Maldonado-Passage was sentenced Wednesday for the murder-for-hire plot and several wildlife violations.

A federal jury found Maldonado-Passage guilty in April of trying to hire someone to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin in November 2017, according to the US Attorney's Office Western District of Oklahoma

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