You might know of true crime perpetrator and so-called Bad Vegan Sarma Melngailis, but you might be short on knowledge about her ex-husband (or is he?) Anthony Strangis, who was also a co-conspirator and fellow convicted criminal in the fraud that sent them both to prison and brought down her raw vegan food empire. While Melngailis takes much of the spotlight in Netflix’s docuseries Bad Veggie: Fame. Con. Fugitives., Strangis is just as fascinating a character (and possibly shadier!). He was also central to the bizarre con at the heart of Bad Vegan.
Basic, when you find yourself Sarma Melngailis are that person of your own you to-day large-avoid intense vegan eatery Pure food & Wines during the Ny City’s Gramercy society, patronized of the famous loves out-of Alec Baldwin, Owen Wilson, and Bill Clinton, Strangis are seriously involved in the woman once the somebody as well as in the lady business (throughout the incorrect indicates, it appears to be).
Strangis and Melngailis were on the lam around 2015. They allegedly failed to pay staff and investors and were wanted for fraud and violation of labor law. The couple was eventually found in a Tennessee motel thanks to a decidedly non-vegan Domino’s pizza delivery order. They were accused of stealing aobut $2 million in all, and owed the government $400,000 in taxes. While they faced up to 15 years in prison, both eventually took plea deals. Melngailis eventually became known as the “vegan Bernie Madoff” in some circles.
Right here, however, is what you need to know regarding the it’s uncommon Strangis, his relationship to Melngailis, his wedding from the Bad Veggie saga, and you can where he or she is now.
Just how did Anthony Strangis see Sarma Melngailis?
There is quicker recognized about Strangis than just Melngailis, that makes experience as she was the fresh new blond bombshell mostly representing Pure food & Wine in public areas and you may wooing a properly-heeled customers. However, behind the scenes is actually a clearly unhealthy matchmaking one turned into entangled in their violent organization transactions.
Believe it or not, one of Pure’s celebrity clients (and a friend of Melngailis) was reportedly key to introducing Strangis to his future wife: Alec Baldwin, along with his wife Hilaria Baldwin, who said they met at Pure. And it all happened, as these things do these days, on social media.
Strangis started communicating with Melngailis via Twitter in 2011, after Strangis entered the Baldwins’ virtual orbit, according to Melngailis’ team in reporting done by Mirror Reasonable. (Strangis’s lawyer denies this telling of their origin story. It’s messy.)
Little else is known about the early courtship, but Strangis and Melngailis , according to the Ny Every single day News. He was previously . She succinctly told the Ny Article that he’s a “sociopath.”
Are Strangis very a ‘sociopath’ whom abused Melngailis and you can stole from the lady bistro?
Whether Strangis was the true bad guy in the Bad Vegan scandal is up to interpretation. He’s widely accused of funneling money from Pure to fuel his gambling addiction, though Melngailis refutes this particular narrative to explain their rampant stealing.
Yet through her lawyers, she has shifted blame onto her former partner. Her attorney Jeffrey Lichtman called Strangis a “complete maniac” who was responsible for the chef’s downfall. “She was badly abused and controlled by a lifelong predator and fraudster,” he told you.
And Strangis brought his allegedly maniacal handling to bear on the Pure restaurant business. “There’d be times when I’d come Sapiosexual dating in on a Monday and get a text or call from [Strangis], ‘Don’t deposit the money. You have to meet me here with the money,’” a former Pure operations director told the New york Post. He would meet Strangis at CitiBank, where Strangis had a personal account. The restaurant’s balance, meanwhile, went down to zero.
Brand new Bad Vegan truck reveals a disturbing tape, where Strangis and you can Melngailis be seemingly during the a heated argument:
“Very I am simply designed to manage anything you state and you may tune in to the information,” Melngalis claims, not so much inquiring due to the fact stating.
“Sure, you closed on to that it! Your said you wanted cheerfully previously once.” The guy contributes, for the a good less noisy but even more threatening tone, “Basically tell you firmly to take all your bank account away from the lending company and you will light they unstoppable… Exercise.”
Somehow the concept which he is actually a beneficial “sociopath” pulling strings does not look thus far-fetched, although reality remains you to definitely one another Strangis and you can Melngailis were convicted away from stealing regarding her restaurant.
How did Anthony Strangis get removed?
There was a great deal more on the matchmaking hinted during the on the trailer to possess Crappy Veggie, away from scandal maestro Chris Smith, who introduced Tiger King and you will brought Fyre: The very best Cluster That Never ever Happened. You to topic brings up a beneficial conspiracy concept one Strangis are blackmailing his wife, regardless of if there is absolutely no real research for this at this time. It’s actually you are able to she try conning your! Some one in the truck also factors to Strangis promising he would provide immortality to help you Melngailis and her pets puppy. This is a mystery nevertheless greatly trying to find resolving.
But Strangis and Melngailis were definitely stuck Domino’s-handed at the $99-a-night Fairfield Inn & Suites in Sevierville, Tennessee, after Strangis placed the delivery order under his own name. (Melngailis maintains that the pizza and its side of wings were meant for Strangis, and she is still strictly vegan.)
Where is actually Anthony Strangis now?
Strangis and Melngailis both took plea deals and spent time behind bars in the infamous Rikers Island prison system in New York. Strangis spent more time, with over a year before being released with five years of probation by a judge when you look at the 2017. So while he isn’t a totally free man, he was able to walk out of court that day-dressed in a red and blue plaid shirt, blue jeans and construction boots, and saying nothing-and into the world. He can even get Domino’s if he’d like.
Are Strangis and you may Melngailis still together with her?
The relationship, perhaps unsurprisingly, appears to be over. The disgraced vegan queen recorded for an uncontested divorce from Strangis in 2018, after their respective plea deals. But the current legal nature of their marriage and whether the divorce is finalized remains (like so much else with these two) vague.
Zero term, as well, toward a new dating for Strangis. But Melngailis possess put him, like the spurned ex boyfriend-spouse just before her, throughout the rearview reflect. And you can apparently the woman is through with marriage generally speaking, too. You to definitely whole Bonnie and you will Clyde feel seemingly have leftover a beneficial long-lasting imprint.
“I have no desire to get married again,” she told the Post. “I have no desire to be in a relationship.” With Strangis or anyone else, presumably especially if they help push her into a fraud scheme and eat dairy-filled fast-food pizza.
