Kansas City Chiefs superfan ChiefsAholic sent to prison for string of bank robberies
KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A federal judge has sentenced the Kansas City Chiefs superfan known as “ChiefsAholic” to more than 17 years in prison for a series of 11 bank robberies across seven states, during which he stole nearly $850,000 to fund his social media fame.
Xavier Babudar, 30, was told his fate on Thursday, the same day his beloved Chiefs prepared for their season opener against the Baltimore Ravens. He will spend 17 1/2 years in prison for the bank robberies he admitted to earlier this year.
Babudar gained a following on his @ChiefsAholic account on social platform X after attending games dressed as a wolf in Chiefs gear. His fanatical support for Chiefs became known on social media, although he is far from being the team’s most famous fan since Taylor Swift started dating tight end Travis Kelce last year.
“Babudar’s rampage financed expensive tickets and cross-country travel to Kansas City Chiefs games while building a large online fan base. However, the bank and credit union employees he threatened to death at gunpoint bore the brunt of his true nature,” U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore said in a statement.
Most of the stolen money was never recovered, so the court ordered him to pay more than $530,000 in restitution and forfeit everything he used to launder the money, including an autographed painting of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes seized by the FBI.
But of course it is possible that he will never be able to pay back that much, just as it is unlikely that he ever will pay back. $10.8 million to an Oklahoma bank teller he terrorized and assaulted at gunpoint during one of his bank robberies. Prosecutors have said much of the stolen money was laundered through casinos and online gambling.
Babudar robbed or attempted to rob banks in Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, Minnesota, Nevada, and California in 2022 and 2023. Two of the robberies were committed after he cut off his ankle monitor while out on bail and fled Oklahoma. He even robbed the same bank in Clive, Iowa, twice in 2022, though the bank changed its name in the months between the robberies.
When he was first arrested in 2022, he had a bag full of $289,750 in cash, $24,000 betting slips and bank deposit slips showing he had deposited $20,000 and $50,000 into his account earlier that year.
Before the start of the 2022 season, Babudar placed two winning $5,000 bets that the Chiefs would win Super Bowl LVII and Mahomes would be named the game’s Most Valuable Player. He received a check for $100,000 from the Argosy Casino in Illinois before leaving and using some of his winnings to purchase a vehicle that he used to evade authorities.
He was arrested in Sacramento, California in July 2023 and has been in federal custody since then.