The Shocking True Story of Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

The Shocking True Story of Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be looking at The Shocking True Story of “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.”

For this essay, we’ll be exploring the scandalous real-life events that inspired Netflix’s miniseries documentary.

Which part of the story surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments.

In 2004, Sarma Melngailis became the “Queen of Vegan Cuisine” thanks to her trailblazing contributions to the vegan and raw food culinary industry. In just over a decade, she would lose it all. So how did that happen?

Backed by restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow, Melngailis opened Pure Food and Wine restaurant with her then-boyfriend Matthew Kenney back in 2004. Raw veganism was still a relatively new concept in those days, so their idea was considered groundbreaking. It wasn’t long before famous faces like Anne Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Owen Wilson, and Gisele Bündchen were among the exclusive restaurant’s customers. According to “The New York Times,” it’s also where Alec Baldwin later met his wife Hilaria Thomas in 2011. In fact, it seems that Anthony Strangis, an important part of this story, was first led to Melngailis through Twitter interactions with the couple. And the actor was among those who eventually became suspicious of Strangis’ intentions.

In 2005, Melngailis and Kenney broke up, and he left the business soon after. Still, the restaurant continued to capture the attention of people, celebrities, and publications everywhere. Everything was going well for Pure Food and Wine, at least on the surface. That changed in 2011, when Melngailis met a new man, Strangis, on Twitter.

Melngailis became romantically entwined with Anthony Strangis following their online introduction. Strangis, who would also go by Shane Fox, was a criminal with past arrests. He was a gambler, too. His previous wife and mother of his child, Stacy Avery, highlighted his dishonest behavior. She claimed that he impregnated her, promised her a vast inheritance, pawned off her belongings, and then bailed on her and their child. But though their relationship ran into some bumps, Melngailis and Strangis reportedly tied the knot in 2012. However, the exact details surrounding their union are cloudy at best. According to “Vanity Fair,” Strangis’ own stepmom couldn’t understand how Melngailis got tangled up with him, saying, “A woman like her—what did she see in Anthony?”

Well, apparently, he promised her that he could make her – and more importantly her dog Leon – immortal. No, you didn’t mishear us. But that’s not all; he also promised her financial security and to pay off her debts. As you’ve probably gathered, these were all empty claims. As if that wasn’t enough on its own, Strangis allegedly told her about some elusive secret brother who could track her every move.

How did an impressive businesswoman succumb to such preposterous offers? Well, sources close to Melngailis believe that she was coerced by her husband into making poor decisions. He even led her to think that some of her own family members were “red shirts,” meaning bad people. Strangis reportedly went so far as to con Melngailis’ mother, claiming that her daughter was sick and desperately needed money.

He apparently presented everything as “cosmic endurance tests,” which Melngailis had to pass to be rewarded. He made her believe that she could do anything — as long as she followed his every command. He even got her to hand over passwords, claiming that his tech expert noticed she’d been hacked. She was also withdrawing money from her business accounts, depositing it into her personal one, and using it to fund Strangis’ lavish lifestyle. She supposedly took out around $1.6 million, about $1.2 million of which he gambled away.

During this time, Melngailis’ staff were waiting for their paychecks. Strangis seemingly joined the business — which had expanded to include the One Lucky Duck Juice Bar and a production center by this point — around 2013. And the team barely saw their formerly attentive workaholic boss anymore.

Melngailis would paint an array of excuses about the missing paychecks. But in January 2015, when they bounced, 98 angry and unpaid employees walked out, and the restaurant had to close.

About a month later, she tried to garner funds from patrons in an attempt to reopen. She even told them that she had needed to withdraw that previously missing cash for her mom, which we know was false. Her pleas worked, though. She managed to source a whopping $844,000, which she used, at least in part, to compensate ex-staff and take care of other expenses. She then assured investors that she was planning to sell her venture to someone named Michael Caledonia — but guess who that really was? The man’s true identity was apparently revealed as one Anthony Strangis.

That’s not all, though. Soon enough, she fell back into old patterns of misusing company funds for personal gain and failing to pay her team. She apparently also tried to intimidate the staff by claiming she’d fire anyone who didn’t continue doing their job despite the missing salaries. In July 2015, the employees walked out for good. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the indictment is said to state that over $400 000 in sales tax for the business went unpaid.

By the summer of 2015, the couple seemingly disappeared from New York, spending months on the run. According to the DA’s office, they went to Las Vegas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. They were wanted for such crimes as grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, scheme to defraud, and violation of labor law, among other things. Ultimately, Strangis’ appetite would lead law enforcement right to them. With that non-vegan order, which also included chicken wings, what was left of their reputation crumbled, and they were finally arrested in May of 2016.

Melngailis was held at the Sevierville Jail before being transferred to Rikers before making bail. She faced up to 15 years behind bars. In 2017, she pled guilty, and was sentenced to four months in jail with five years of probation. These days, she’s pretty active on social media, and has notably posted to promote Netflix’s upcoming “Bad Vegan” documentary. Her Instagram bio also states that she’s “mourning” Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck. And in case you were wondering, her dog Leon has his own page, too. Still, some believe that Melngailis was a willing participant in this scam rather than a victim of intimidation and coercion.

Like Melngailis, Strangis faced up to 15 years in prison and was held on Rikers Island, though he remained there. He pled guilty and ended up spending about a year in prison, with an additional five-year probation period. His attorneys seem to deny many of the stories that have since come out against him. They allegedly told the judge that Melngailis was the real culprit. Not much seems to be known about Strangis’ current whereabouts, but it’s been said that the couple has since gotten divorced.

Thus, the “Queen of Vegan Cuisine” fell from grace, and earned herself a new, less flattering nickname. Of course, many of the story’s finer details are still unclear, and we all have a lot of questions. Hopefully, Netflix’s documentary will provide us with the answers we need.