Melngailis pleaded guilty in May 2017 to stealing more than $2,000,000 from investors, and scheming to defraud, as well as criminal tax fraud charges. She received a jail sentence of nearly four months. She filed for divorce from Strangis in May 2018. The 2022 Netflix documentary series Bad Vegan: Fame.
Following a plea deal where she pleaded guilty to larceny, tax fraud and conspiring to fraud, Melngailis served a four-month sentence on Rikers Island in 2017, Collider reported.
I won't spoil the plot, but Sarma ends up handing over $1.7 million to Anthony Strangis and leaving the government, her employees, and investors out in the cold to the tune of $6.14 million.
In a recent post to her blog Sarma Raw, the ex-restauranteur criticised the new Netflix documentary and specifically, how it ended. She addressed the circulating rumours about being paid for the docuseries (she wasn't), but clarifies that she insisted any payments be sent to her ex-employees.
In May 2018 Sarma filed for divorce from her estranged husband [according to Page Six], six months after leaving Rikers. There's very little information on what Strangis is up to now, but we do know from the documentary that the pair still have some contact.
She Paid Her Employees With Netflix Money
However once the docuseries was finalized, Netflix execs decided to pay the balance of Sarma's substantial debt.
Sarma Melngailis Used Money from 'Bad Vegan' to Repay Former Employees: 'I Did Not Get Paid Otherwise' Sarma Melngailis' earnings from Netflix's Bad Vegan: Fame.
After her arrest, Sarma's prosperous business was shut down, leaving her in debt. Sarma's net worth was close to $1.5 million when she went to prison. According to the show, she now owes over $6 million to her investors, employees, and others.
Nazim Seliakhov
He currently resides in New York City and has leaned into his entrepreneurial side, being the founder of a pharmaceutical-grade Industrial Hemp Processing Laboratory. Seliakhov remains private online, with his only public social media profile being his LinkedIn.
Although there is not much known about his current whereabouts, it is known that he is already out of prison and serving the remainder of his probation sentence as a private citizen. According to his lawyer, Karliner, Strangis has a new job, uses his name, and he has moved forward.
Melngailis ran a profitable restaurant for 11 years, wrote cookbooks (Raw Food Real World and Living Raw Food) and rubbed shoulders with celebrities. But now, she spends most of her time reading, hanging out with her dog, working on a memoir and recording podcasts.
After her breakup and without Baldwin to move on with, Melngailis eventually found herself talking to Anthony Strangis, who she knew as Shane Fox at the time. To Melngailis, it appeared that "Mr. Fox" and Baldwin knew each other because they would have short, quippy conversations on Twitter.
Clad in black and sporting a noticeable Maltese cross pendant, Anthony Caruana speaks about his personal relationship with Sarma Melngailis, who ran Pure Food and Wine Restaurant in the series 'Bad Vegan: Fame.
IS LEON STILL ALIVE? Leon is still alive and well and he actually just celebrated his 12th birthday. Leon even has his own Instagram account: @oneluckyrescuedog.
On May 12, 2016, it was reported that Melngailis and her then-husband Anthony Strangis were arrested in Sevierville, Tennessee, after he ordered a pizza from Domino's Pizza. The couple were staying in separate hotel rooms.
Today, Susan still runs the orchard by herself.
Susan Jasse continues to own and operate Alyson's Orchard. And although she hasn't appeared on Sarma's Instagram in a while, there's nothing to suggest the two aren't still on good terms.
He's been out of prison since May 2017. When celebrity restaurateur Sarma Melngailis met “Shane Fox” on Twitter in 2011, she thought her dreams were about to come true. As recounted in Netflix's four-part docuseries, Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud.
Strangis went to live with his father in Florida in his 20s, Coulter said. According to his first wife, Stacy Strangis, whom he met there, when Anthony would brag that he had a huge inheritance coming and had been a Navy SEAL—which his sister says he was not—his father would back him up.
In March 2017, Strangis pleaded guilty to four counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and was sentenced to one year in jail and five years of probation.
Who is Sarma Melngailis? Melngailis is the former owner of and co-founder of the vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine in New York City, which opened in June 2004.
Aparna is an avid traveler who has visited over 43 countries, while also launching her own luxury travel company, My Golden Balloon. After practicing law full-time for 10 years, Aparna seems to be on a sabbatical, and has recently added “author” to her resume.
As a vegan, her access to food was limited, and she lived off the fast food chain's veggie bowls. When the police arrested the pair, they were taken in to a Tennessee county jail before being sent back to New York, where Sarma gathered enough money to make bail before trial.
Sarma Melngailis is presently working on her memoir. It focuses on her wild experience with Anthony Strangis and the downfall of her high-end raw vegan restaurant. She hopes to paint a more accurate picture of what happened between them as she believes that the Netflix series, Bad Vegan, did not do the story justice.
But Will isn't a real person.
Even though he's being played by an actor in the series, Will Richards wasn't actually a real person. Instead, he was a persona Anthony created to convince Sarma that he was part of an underground military operation. Anthony also used Will Richards' name to assert his control over Sarma.
Melngailis filed for divorce from Strangis in May 2018 and hasn't looked back since.