If you devoured Netflix's Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna, then you're bound to enjoy Bad Vegan. The four-part true crime documentary tells the fascinating story of Sarma Melngailis, a famous vegan
restaurateur whose life and business took a dire turn after she met a man online.
While Bad Vegan lifts the lid on Sarma's frankly unbelievable story, viewers will likely want to know what the former owner of New York's Pure Food and Wine is doing now. Here's what you need to know about the unlikely star of Netflix's latest true crime obsession.
Who is Sarma Melngailis?
At one time, Melngailis seemed to have the culinary world at her fingertips. Her successful raw food restaurant boasted some seriously impressive celebrity clientele, from Gisele and Tom Brady to Alec Baldwin and Owen Wilson. Melngailis followed up her restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, with takeout and juice bar One Lucky Duck, and a line of snacks sold in Whole Foods. Expansion of her empire seemed all but imminent.
However, the queen of vegan's life was quickly turned on its head when she became romantically involved with a man she met online called Shane Fox. Per the documentary, it later transpired that Shane was really Anthony Strangis, but despite a checkered history and arrest record, Sarma ended up marrying him. Once they were husband and wife, the trouble really ramped up.
As noted byVanity Fair, “Melngailis transferred more than $1.6 million from her business accounts to her personal bank account, and Strangis spent $1.2 million of this money at Connecticut casinos.” While the sheer volume of cash changing hands is jaw-dropping, the truth behind the embezzlement is much stranger.
Why did Sarma give Shane/Anthony so much money?
Per Vanity Fair, and as she describes in Bad Vegan, Melngailis was allegedly subjected to “coercive control” techniques throughout her relationship with Strangis. According to the Netflix series, not only had Strangis told her that he was involved in Black Ops, he'd also managed to convince his wife that he could provide her beloved Pit Bull, Leon, with immortality. The supernatural, and frankly cult-like, aspect of their relationship is allegedly what conned Melngailis into giving her husband more than $1.6 million. 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.
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. Instead, he was apparently gambling it all away at casinos, and spending it on lavish hotels, expensive watches, and travel. When Melngailis couldn't raise any more capital for her restaurant, and could no longer pay the wages of her staff members, the couple “allegedly spent a year on the run—authorities tracked them to Las Vegas, Louisiana and ultimately Tennessee,” Peoplereports. As noted byForbes, Melngailis and her businesses also owed the government $400,000 in sales tax.
Melngailis and her husband were eventually apprehended in May 2016 after ordering a pizza from Dominos. According to Gothamist, she accepted a plea deal in May 2017, and “pleaded guilty to grand larceny, tax fraud, and conspiring to defraud.” Per her deal, she served four months in Rikers, and will spend a subsequent five years on probation. Meanwhile, Strangis also accepted a deal that saw him serve a year behind bars, also followed by five years probation, perThe Independent. The publication notes that both Melngailis and Strangis had initially faced up to 15 years in prison based upon their charges.
Where is Sarma Melngailis now?
Following the events outlined in Bad Vegan, Melngailis struggled to process what had happened to her. “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. It’s like waking up into a nightmare.” In May 2018, it was reported that Melngailis was divorcing her estranged husband Strangis, per Daily News.
Melngailis is on Twitter and Instagram. In her bio, she describes herself as “In mourning over @purefoodandwine + @oneluckyduck. Rikers alum. It's a long story. Writing it now.” Basically, a book about Melngailis' experiences is probably on the way. After her candor in Bad Vegan, it's sure to be an interesting read. Even (her probably not immortal) dog Leon has a Twitter account and, yes, he's also on Instagram. And in March 2022, Melngailis celebrated Leon's 12th birthday.
I did find time yesterday to make a cake for @oneluckypuppy’s bday. 12 years. ????? pic.twitter.com/LT6R5GWvo7
— Sarma (@sarma) March 11, 2022
Melngailis holds dual citizenship as her father is Latvian. She appears to still be close to her parents, and has shared photos of them on social media. Judging by her Instagram account, she spends a lot of time at home with Leon reading books.
Melngailis also has a blog, and in an entry dated January 2018, she wrote, “I've been living in Harlem with Leon in my own place, and I fucking love Harlem. It has felt good to live in a neighborhood where the same people are hanging out on the same stoops and everyone knows Leon’s name and no one cares what I do or don’t do for a living, or knows anything about my past, and by the time they do, they don’t judge me for it.”
Despite finding a welcoming neighborhood, and being reunited with her pup, Melngailis makes it clear that everything that happened still weighs heavily on her. “My life’s work and the hard work of so many good people is gone, so many people I care about were hurt financially and otherwise, I’m humiliated, and still somewhat confused, along with sad, angry and more,” she wrote in January 2018. “The debts for which I’m responsible are so big they feel surreal. So the question is, now what?”
In Bad Vegan, Melngailis tentatively mentioned that she dreamed of one day reopening a restaurant, although she realized that fundraising for a business was out of the question. 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. Executive producer Ryann Fraser told Entertainment Weekly, “She's working on a number of different things, but I think getting things back together maybe.” Bad Vegan's director Chris Smith also told the outlet, “I'm secretly hoping she opens a restaurant again.”
In an interview with theNew York Post in January 2019, Melnagilis mused, “If there was some magical opportunity to open the same restaurant in the same place, I would do it in a heartbeat … I think New York would take me back.” She also revealed that she'd reached out to former customer Alec Baldwin when she got out of Rikers, but never heard back. “I tried to email him once but I didn’t hear back. I don’t know if he ever got it or did get it and was like, ‘Well …’”
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? It’s not easy but I’m going to try to choose to believe that it may happen, magical or not. Fuck it. I believe in love.”
WATCH BAD VEGAN ON NETFLIX NOW