Chris Brown has been banned from buying monkeys for six months.
The 30-year-old rapper was told in court on Wednesday (04.12.19) that he cannot own another primate until June 6, 2020, and has to pay $35,000 to the retreat where his monkey Fiji is now living after he kept the cheeky Capuchin at his home in California without obtaining a Restricted Species Permit from California Fish and Wildlife back in 2017, TMZ reports.
The judge also told him if he sticks to the programme then the charges will be dropped after June 6 but it will be up to the monkey retreat to decide whether he can visit Fiji.
The ‘Loyal’ hitmaker landed himself in hot water two years ago when he shared a video clip on his Instagram account of his then-three-year-old daughter Royalty with Fiji.
Within 36 hours of him posting the footage, California Fish and Wildlife received "a dozen or so tips on the incident" and executed a search warrant on January 2, 2018.
The city’s wildlife department’s employee Captain Patrick Foy said that Chris was not at home when the search on his home in Los Angeles was carried out but his staff handed the primate over to the authorities and he agreed to co-operate with them.
The case was then forwarded to the Los Angeles City Attorney for the next step of the process as it is illegal to own a monkey in California without obtaining a permit.
However, the ‘Privacy’ hitmaker’s lawyer Mark Geragos said at the time: "We are confident that the City Attorney has more pressing problems than monkey business."
The crime could’ve landed Chris behind bars for six months, but he’ll no doubt be relieved to hear that he got away with a hefty fine instead as he’s just become a father again.
Chris’ ex-girlfriend Ammika Harris gave birth to their son Aeko last month.
Chris Brown banned from buying monkeys
