(CNN) Netflix has a delicious new true crime treat for devotees of that genre. "Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives" is a four-part documentary series that ...
Did they get away with it?If you don't already know, you will have to watch to see. "Bad Vegan" is streaming now on Netflix. Sarma Melngailis and 'Bad Vegan': What you need to know Netflix has a delicious new true crime treat for devotees of that genre."
"Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives." centers on Pure Food and Wine owner Sarma Melngailis and the unbelievable con by her husband Anthony Strangis.
Melngailis served about four months at Rikers Island, and Strangis was in custody for about a year. I didn’t know what funds Anthony had at the time, and I no longer had access to my electronic devices and email/text accounts." (Melngailis wrote in a blog post Wednesday that she wasn't "'on the lam,' at least not to my knowledge. So he had me wire money to him to prove that I was committed to him and that I was able to handle these tasks.” “After Riley was born he told me, 'Do you know you can kill a baby by giving them salt and it doesn’t show up in an autopsy?'" she says. "It was just another email account that he made." She grew suspicious that Strangis had invented Richards, and she was correct. "There was no Will," she says. Salkin reported in Vanity Fair that "Strangis spent $1.2 million of this money at Connecticut casinos." "He had to have it." The couple wed in November 2012, a union of convenience that allowed Strangis to (hypothetically) cover Melngailis' restaurant debt without having to pay taxes. To some employees, it looked like Melngailis was in on the scheme, willfully defrauding investors and stiffing employees by embezzling from the restaurant to fund lavish trips.
"Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives." is a story about a "Raw Vegan Queen," as they used to call her. It looks into the curious case of Sarma Melngailis.
On the one hand, she was made to believe that Anthony would pay off her debt, so in the beginning, even if he asked her to wire a certain amount of money, she didn’t get paranoid. Sarma was a loner and was a very different person as compared to her public image. He was never charged for the mental torture he put Sarma through. There was a mugshot of him on the internet that told a different reality as compared to what was known to Sarma and her employees. Anthony used that time to go to Pure Food and Wine physically and transfer all the funds to his name. He made her meet his associate, Will Richards, who used to talk to Sarma and convey what needed to be done. He started asking her to transfer sums, to apparently prove that she was steadfast and was ready to be accepted into this supernatural community, which he called his family. He told her that money would be in abundance if she was able to show that she was not bound by it, and she wouldn’t hinder her path even if she had to burn each and every penny she had. He often told Sarma that it was possible for her to achieve that “happily ever after,” something that she had always wanted. Anthony Strangis, who told Sarma that his name was Shane Fox, knew exactly what his modus operandi was going to be and what kind of target he needed to choose. Alec Baldwin met Sarma in her restaurant, and his presence changed the course of the narrative. Matthew was writing his cookbook at that time, and Sarma was interviewed to work with him on the project.
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But after he drained the restaurant of funds, leaving Melngailis unable to pay her employees, the pair disappeared and went on the run for nearly a year. She was sentenced to nearly four months in jail. After Melngailis broke up with Kenney, both personally and professionally, she kept the restaurant and took on a debt of around US$2 million. Anthony Strangis is also from Massachusetts and was born on 10 September 1972. The pair opened Pure Food and Wine, the city’s first upscale raw vegan restaurant. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is a four-part docuseries that focuses on Melngailis’ fall from grace.
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Netflix's new docuseries 'Bad Vegan' details the lives and crimes of ex-Pure Food and Wine owner Sarma Melngailis and her husband Anthony Strangis.
In May 2018, Sarma filed for divorce from Anthony Strangis. As of January 2019, Sarma was living in Harlem with her dog Leon, with hopes to get out of the city for a while. Sarma pleaded guilty to charges of grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and a scheme to defraud in exchange for five years probation and four months in jail, which she served in the summer of 2017. They had been living in a hotel near Dollywood in Sevierville, Tennessee for forty days when Strangis used his real name to order a pizza, alerting the police to the location of the fugitives. It’s a long story.” In Netflix’s series, she finally tells it in her own words. Strangis and Melngailis were charged with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal tax fraud, first-degree scheme to defraud, violation of labor, and more, in a 24-count indictment in which they could have faced up to 15 years in prison if they’d been convicted. The documentary shows Melngailis depressed, ignoring the hundreds of messages on her phone, and living in hotel rooms. According to her 2017 indictment, in total Melngailis transferred over $1.6 million from her business accounts to her personal bank account and then to Strangis over a period of a few years. According to the DA’s office, in June of 2015, Melngailis took $400,000 total from the restaurant's business accounts, transferring over $300,000 of that money to the Foxwoods Casino on behalf of Strangis. The pair then disappeared from New York. Pure Food and Wine shuttered for good in July of 2015, after 84 workers were owed up to $3,500 each, for a total of over $40,000. Over time, Strangis allegedly isolated Melngailis from her friends, coworkers, and family, and convinced her that he had access to a great fortune and could pay off her debts if she only trusted him. Featuring interviews with Melngailis herself, her family, friends, plus investors and staff of her restaurant, the four-episode series sheds a new light on what was once regarded as a scandalous story of a very bad vegan. She met Strangis in person in November 2011 and began a relationship. He also allegedly told Melngailis he was some sort of secret agent, and so she had to give all of her passwords over to his “security” (which was really just himself) in order for them to secure her accounts.
Sarma Melngailis shared how she spent her earnings from Netflix's 'Bad Vegan' to repay her wronged employees.
She later added, "It also feels important to point out that of the money I'd raised at the end, over 90% went to re-open the restaurant and make payments." RELATED VIDEO: Inventing Anna True Story: Everything to Know About Anna Delvey, Including Her Crimes and Where She Is Now Though Melngailis said she was "relieved once payment went through," she continued, "but that was just a small part of what remains outstanding." "Of all the harm and the many debts resulting from my downfall, this portion weighed heaviest," Melngailis added. Sarma Melngailis Used Money from Bad Vegan to Repay Former Employees: 'I Did Not Get Paid Otherwise' "Of all the harm and the many debts resulting from my downfall, this portion weighed heaviest," Melngailis wrote on her website on Wednesday Sarma Melngailis' earnings from Netflix's . went to her wronged employees. RELATED: The True Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries Bad Vegan Melngailis went on to say that Bad Vegan portrays her "very close" bond with her now-former staff, adding that "intentionally harming them is just about the last thing I'd have done. The docuseries, which premiered on the streaming service on Wednesday, explores the downfall of Melngailis, who went from celebrated restaurateur to fugitive when she went on the run with then-husband Anthony Strangis after swiping nearly $2 million from investors and employees.
Netflix's new true crime show is jam packed with fame, fraud, fugitives and...immortal dogs?
“It’s easier to live quietly outside of the city,” she recently told the New York Post. Prices range from £5.99 to £13.99 a month. Yes – this series really does get bizarre.
Sarma Melngailis shares her shocking true story in Netflix's latest true-crime documentary, "Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives."
Melngailis was wanted for grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, scheme to defraud and violation of labor law, reported CBS. They both faced up to 15 years in prison. In January 2019, The New York Post revealed Melngailis had an affair between February 2017 and May 2018 with her defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman. At the time, both were married. According to the DA's office, Melngailis and Strangis had defrauded 84 workers of up to $3,500 each. Will post something soon on my website as an update and to clear up a few things." Melngailis and Strangis both took plea deals. Sarma Melngailis served four months in prison at the notorious Rikers Island. She also received five years' probation. To meet Strangis' financial demands, Melngailis had been using money from Pure Food and Wine, under the belief Strangis would pay her back. "Sorry if I don't reply to emails/texts for a while, or ever. Fox was in fact Anthony Strangis, a convicted criminal and con artist who once impersonated a police officer. At first, Melngailis loaned Strangis a few thousand dollars, believing he needed financial help. Melngailis and Strangis then went on the run for 10 months, facing charges of second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal tax fraud, and first-degree scheme to defraud. However, in reality, he was gambling away the money at casinos.
From Anthony's meat suit to Leon's immortality, Netflix's latest true crime doc is one wild ride. By Amy Mackelden. Mar 16, 2022 ...
As Melngailis wrote on her blog in early 2018, “Can I believe that I can somehow get out from under this and not only repay debts but rebuild something big? However, the team behind the documentary suggest that she's getting her life back on track, and a return to the food industry could be on the cards. Melngailis is on Twitter and Instagram. In her bio, she describes herself as “In mourning over @purefoodandwine + @oneluckyduck. Rikers alum. Meanwhile, Strangis also accepted a deal that saw him serve a year behind bars, also followed by five years probation, per The Independent. The publication notes that both Melngailis and Strangis had initially faced up to 15 years in prison based upon their charges. “Imagine suddenly realizing, My dog isn’t going to live forever,” she told Vanity Fair, “I’m not eternally safe, all my dreams and visions that he promised me he’d make happen are not happening, and this colossal mess isn’t all just going to be undone, like he always said it would be. I don’t know if he ever got it or did get it and was like, ‘Well …’” Judging by her Instagram account, she spends a lot of time at home with Leon reading books. Following the events outlined in Bad Vegan, Melngailis struggled to process what had happened to her. As noted by Forbes, Melngailis and her businesses also owed the government $400,000 in sales tax. Every time she transferred a huge sum of cash, she believed she was doing so to help build their future, and protect him from his enemies—straight out of the Tindler Swindler textbook. At one time, Melngailis seemed to have the culinary world at her fingertips. As reported by Vanity Fair, it later transpired that Strangis wasn't holding Melngailis' money for her as part of some sort of cosmic test.
She spent four months in Rikers Island eating “peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, apples, and fresh-sliced cucumber.”
She and Strangis both took plea deals in their cases, according to The Independent. They faced up to 15 years in prison, and allegedly stole around $2 million from the restaurant, including money owed to employees and investors. On the lam, she and Strangis were found and arrested at a Tennessee hotel after ordering delivery of a… There are certain things you can’t make up, and Melngailis’s meteoric rise in the food world and downfall to Rikers is among them. Sarma Melngailis’s life seemed pretty sweet at the height of her success as a raw vegan chef and restaurateur in the early 2000s. She and husband Anthony Strangis (who is indeed one strange character, but we’ll get to that) were accused of not paying staff, who walked out of Pure. She was wanted for fraud and violation of labor law.
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It was only at this point that I found out it was all gone, and in fact I no longer had a home.” Sarma transferred more than $1.6 million from her business accounts to her personal bank account, and Anthony spent $1.2 million of that money at Connecticut casinos, Vanity Fair says. While Sarma has been open on her website about regretting her decisions around this time, there are still a lot of questions about her relationship with Anthony and how it progressed. Anthony reportedly had a number of aliases at the time, including Shane Fox, Chris Donovan, Michael Caledonia, and Will Richards, per Vanity Fair. He used to make us laugh.” Soon, @Sarma was following @DiscipleOfTodd and his various humorous names, including Mr. Fox and Mr. LongBottoms. Sarma and Anthony ended up marrying not long after they met, and things went downhill fast.
A true-crime series on Netflix revisits the harrowing story of Sarma Melngailis, an ambitious restaurateur whose ventures, Pure Food & Wine and One Lucky ...
Netflix's Bad Vegan has revealed that Alec Baldwin has a surprising connection to the show's protagonist Sarma Melngailis.
The new mini-series has become a hot topic on social media ever since it was released. “Netflix really buried the lede on Bad Vegan being a lot about Alec Baldwin” wrote another user. Netflix’s Bad Vegan has revealed that Alec Baldwin has a surprising connection to the show’s protagonist Sarma Melngailis.