Joe Exotic sends Jeff Lowe cease-and-desist letter over planned Tiger King NFT auction

Joe Exotic has sent Jeff Lowe a cease and desist letter over his plans for an “official” Tiger King NFT auction.

Lowe, who appeared in Netflix’s documentary series, recently announced an auction of non-fungible tokens featuring Exotic and other Tiger King stars. You can find our explainer about NFTs here.

However, there has been pushback from the Exotic, with TMZ obtaining a letter from Exotic’s attorney saying that the sale is not only not official, but “it is not authorised or legal” either.

It claims that Exotic, real name Joe Maldonado-Passage, owns merchandising rights to the “Tiger King” and “Joe Exotic” trademarks and asks that Lowe “immediately shut down the auction”.

However, Lowe’s wife Lauren told TMZ that they are still pressing on despite legal threats, claiming that Exotic signed the “Tiger King” trademark over to them in 2016.

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The description for the NFT collection, which goes on sale on 1 April, says that the collection comes from “the only authorised creator of The Lowe’s Tiger King NFT Collection”.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Louis Theroux was to make another documentary about Exotic, having first encountered the former zoo owner in his 2011 documentary America’s Most Dangerous Pets.

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against animal rights activist Carole Baskin.

Baskin herself will also star in Louis Theroux: The Cult of Joe Exotic.