When did Sarma Melngailis get married? Melngailis and Strangis married in secret on Dec. 5, 2012, and Melngailis alleged in Bad Vegan that this was a result of Strangis' coercive control over her—and that he told her that if they got married, it would be easier for her to transfer money to him.
Strangis – who was also known as Shane Fox – was sentenced to five years' probation after stealing nearly $1 million from investors and Pure Food and Wine employees, and spent over a year in prison whilst on remand.
In a blog post uploaded shortly after Bad Vegan, Melngailis has cleared the air regarding any communications with Strangis since the release. She said that “The ending of Bad Vegan is disturbingly misleading; I am not in touch with Anthony Strangis and I made those recordings at a much earlier time."
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.
Anthony was reportedly psychologically abusive.
A source close to Sarma told Vanity Fair that Anthony told Sarma that he was not human and that he could make her and her beloved dog Leon immortal if she did what he asked.
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.
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.
In total, Strangis spent one year and three days incarcerated in Rikers Island. In May 2018, Melngailis and Strangis divorced. Unfortunately, very little is known about Strangis' whereabouts today. He is believed to be serving his five-year probation, which ends this May, in his home state of Massachusetts.
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.
Strangis spent nearly $1m (£760,000) of these funds at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, over $200,000 (£153,000) at the Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Connecticut, over $80,000 (£61,400) at luxury watch retailers, including Rolex and Beyer, over $70,000 (£54,000) at hotels in Europe and New York and over $10,000 (£ ...
Melngailis lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York and is active on social media — a recent Instagram post from Dec. 24, 2022, features a photo with her dog, Leon. “Having Leon around me is extremely grounding,” she told the Netflix website Tudum earlier this year.
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.
Putting her life back together. 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 reportedly stealing from investors, dodging tax bills, failing to pay employees, and briefly disappearing in January 2015, Melngailis and Strangis were found and arrested by local authorities (thanks to a credit card used to order a Domino's pizza) and taken into custody in Tennessee until they could be ...
Melngailis reportedly "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," per Vanity Fair.
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.
Is Alec Baldwin vegan? Baldwin went vegan in 2011 for health reasons as well as ethical and moral ones. "Every time sitting at a dining table, we make a choice. Please choose vegetarianism," he said in a 2019 op-ed for CNN.
After the pair were arrested in May of 2016 both took plea deals, with Strangis pleading guilty to grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and a scheme to defraud [via The Sun]. He was ordered to pay $840,000 in restitution to investors and received one year in jail as well as five years' probation.
Anthony Strangis (@anthony_strangis) • Instagram photos and videos.
In 2011, Melngailis met and quickly married Anthony Strangis, who introduced himself as Shane Fox. Strangis convinced Melngailis that she and her beloved pit bull Leon could live forever if she passed a series of tests, which mostly involved giving him large sums of money, with no questions asked.
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.
Sarma Melngailis (born September 10, 1972) is an American chef, cookbook author, and businesswoman. She was the owner and co-founder of Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck, both vegan raw food restaurants in New York City.
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.