Crappy Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Very Performed Score Caught Just after Ordering a great Domino’s Pizza
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 Vegetarian: Glory. 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.
Earliest, if you find yourself Sarma Melngailis are your face of your that-date higher-end intense vegan eatery Pure-food & Wine for the Ny City’s Gramercy people, patronized of the famous enjoys out-of Alec Baldwin, Owen Wilson, and you will Expenses Clinton, Strangis is actually deeply associated with the woman just like the a partner along with the girl company (in most the wrong indicates, it appears).
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 “vegetarian Bernie Madoff” in some circles.
Right here, however, is exactly what you should know concerning the truly unusual Strangis, their link to Melngailis, their engagement regarding Bad Vegan tale, and you can where he or she is now.
How did Anthony Strangis meet Sarma Melngailis?
There is certainly smaller recognized in the Strangis than Melngailis, that produces sense as the she try the blonde bombshell largely representing Pure food & Drink in public and wooing a properly-heeled customers. But behind the scenes was a distinctly substandard relationship one turned entangled in their criminal business dealings.
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 have 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 New york Everyday Information. He was previously . She succinctly told the Nyc Blog post that he’s a “sociopath.”
Are Strangis most an effective ‘sociopath’ just who abused Melngailis and took away from this lady cafe?
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,” the guy said.
And Strangis brought his allegedly maniacal handling to bear on the Pure restaurant business. “There’d be times when I’d come 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 Ny Blog post. He would meet Strangis at CitiBank, where Strangis had a personal account. The restaurant’s balance, meanwhile, went down to zero.
This new Bad Veggie truck reveals an annoying tape, where Strangis and you may Melngailis be seemingly inside the a hot argument:
“Therefore I’m simply supposed to do whatever you state and tune in into tips,” Melngalis states, not really much inquiring as stating.
“Sure, you signed onto so it! You explained you desired cheerfully actually once.” He contributes, for the a great less noisy however, a whole lot more menacing build, “Easily tell you straight to take-all your bank account out of the bank and you will light it unstoppable… Do so.”
For some reason the idea he is actually an excellent “sociopath” extract chain doesn’t have a look at this point-fetched, even though the facts remains you to definitely one another Strangis and Melngailis were convicted off stealing away from their restaurant.
Exactly how performed Anthony Strangis get disassembled?
There is certainly way more in the relationship hinted from the about truck to have Crappy Vegetarian, from scandal maestro Chris Smith, exactly who brought Tiger Queen and you will brought Fyre: Top Cluster That Never ever Taken place. One to subject brings up good conspiracy idea one Strangis try blackmailing his wife, regardless of if there’s no actual research for the immediately. It’s actually it is possible to she is conning your! Someone regarding truck also what to Strangis guaranteeing which he would offer immortality in order to Melngailis and her pet puppy. This will be a puzzle nevertheless definitely in need of resolving.
But Strangis and Melngailis were definitely caught 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 Anthony Strangis today?
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.
Is actually Strangis and you may Melngailis however 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, also, into the yet another dating getting Strangis. But Melngailis has lay him, such as the spurned ex-partner just before the lady, about rearview mirror. And you may frequently this woman is done with relationship typically, as well. That entire Bonnie and you can Clyde experience appears to have leftover a great 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.