Bad Vegan: The True Story Behind Netflix’s True-Crime Series What Happened To Sarma And What Does She Do Today?

Bad Vegan: In February 2022 the “Fishgate” exploded in New York. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and a staunch vegan, was caught by paparazzi eating fish at Midtown West’s Osteria La Baia. Only a few hours before the release of the shots that immortalize a mouthful of salmon, the former policeman who became the first citizen of the “Vegan Fridays” in the school canteens claimed that “cheese is like heroin”.

Deception, hypocrisy and manipulation of reality are nothing new in the world of those who speak with love about salads and lettuces, vegetables and legumes. This is demonstrated by the sensational case of the vegan star Sarma Melngailis, at the center of the true-crime docu-series Bad Vegan: fame, fraud and fugitives , available on Netflix from March 16. Chris Smith, the director of Fyre – The biggest party ever and executive producer of Tiger King, tries to shed light on one of the most bizarre scandals in New York in recent years: the escape and arrest of an absolute master of the world. vegan entrepreneurship.

Who was really the founder, chef and owner of the “raw vegan” Pure Food and Wine restaurant (in the exclusive Gramercy Park neighborhood in Manhattan) and the vegan snack e-store One Lucky Duck?

Bad Vegan: The True Story On Netflix

Born and raised in Massachusetts in 1972, Sarma Melngailis is the daughter of an MIT cook and physicist. She graduated in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and began working for prestigious banks, investment funds and private equity such as Bear Stearns, Bain Capital and CIBC. Convinced activist for a “plant-based” change, she is a devoted vegan and she leaves the world of finance to enroll in the French Culinary Institute: her mission is to promote veganism and healthy cooking.

In New York she gets engaged to chef Matthew Kenney and opens the Commissary with him, before closing it (on the advice of the powerful restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow) to launch Pure Food and Wine. Sarma has everything to be successful: she is good in the kitchen, she is particularly involved in the field of animal rights, she has a green ethic that is so fashionable and she is beautiful. In a short time Pure becomes a point of reference for those who practice and promote a plant-based lifestyle. It is an avant-garde raw food restaurant, beloved by prominent politicians and Hollywood celebrities. Her most frequent clients include Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Thomas, Anne Hathaway, Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, Rooney Mara and Tom Brady.

Even the employees love it: Melngailis puts all of herself in that place and with the staff she is always generous and helpful. Pure becomes a phenomenon: it is consistently in New York Magazine’s Top 100 Restaurants list and for five consecutive years in Forbes’ “All Star New York Eateries”. Business is booming: Pure often serves more than 200 covers per night and, with related businesses, produces approximately $7 million in revenue and $500,000 in profits per year.

Sarma Melngailis and Anthony Strangis aka Mr. Fox

Things start to go wrong in 2011, when Sarma meets (first on Twitter and then live) Anthony Strangis, on the social “Mr. Fox”. Anthony is a ludopathic gambler and at the time is already prejudiced with a dark criminal past. When he and Melngailis get together, she puts him on Pure’s staff as manager, introducing him to the rest of the “family” as Shane Fox. Shortly passes and the first cracks appear, starting with the restaurant bill that begins to empty.

Not only that: a sick relationship is established between the two . Anthony manipulates Sarma into believing everything, to make her earn so much money that she becomes independent from “pushy” investors and even to be able to make her dog immortal if she lets herself go to the “cosmic forces” she is able to manage. . Strangis allegedly used cult plagiarism techniques to control it, such as sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation. Instead, she would have an eye on her (alleged) assets to “cheat” him and finally gain full ownership of her assets.

In April 2012, the promised money did not arrive, quite the contrary. In December of the same year the couple got married in great secret, but Sarma shows signs of abortion: she has an abortion, she is bulimic and ends up on antidepressants. You transferred $ 1.6 million from your restaurant account to your personal account, to which Strangis has free access. It is the prelude to the “plan” that will take them straight to prison.

Sarma and Anthony end up stealing nearly two million dollars from the Pure not for some risky operation or to diversify the business strategy: Strangis plays (and loses) 1.2 million in a Connecticut casino. Soon the bill arises: the two have not paid a million dollars to employees and investors in salaries, contributions and dividends and have evaded $ 400,000 in taxes.

When the news begins to circulate and the workers denounce the situation, Melngailis explains in an interview with Well + Good that this unfortunate situation is due to the low profit margins caused by debts for the purchase of expensive ingredients, while with the staff he gives the blame for a change of bank. In an investigation conducted by Dana Schuster and Georgett Roberts for the New York Post , attorney Benjamin Dictor, the attorney for a group of former Pure employees, calls Sarma ” the Bernie Madoff of vegans “, or alternatively “the Vegan. Vixen “.

Even friend Alec Baldwin becomes suspicious when Melngailis texts him to ask if he can recommend a broker in East Hampton. One of Pure’s investors, now frustrated, triggers the complaint. Strangis and Melngailis are arrested in Tennessee on May 12, 2016. Fatal is hunger: the two, locked up for 40 days in a motel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Pigeon Forge in Sevierville, order a pizza at Domino’s to escape justice. they find the police at the door. Anthony Strangis had the brilliant idea of ​​using his real name. But besides the damage, there is insult: Strangis asks for a bucket of chicken wings together with the pizza (with cheese).

What Happened To Sarma And What Does She Do Today?

Sarma ends up in Rikers prison on 24 counts, including aggravated theft, violation of labor laws and tax evasion. Her cellmates call her “Sweet Pussy”. At the trial, her prosecutors offer her a plea deal: a discount on the sentence from one to three years in prison. Her lawyers, Sheila Tendy and César de Castro, refuse: the defense of their client insists on the “coercive control” exercised by Strangis.

The sentence comes in May 2017: Melngailis is guilty of theft, fraud and tax evasion and is sentenced to four months. A year later she divorces Strangis. Today she is 49 years old , she is trying to reopen a business in the vegan world and in the meantime she is dedicated to her second great passion: dogs. She lives with pit bull Leon and supports Brooklyn’s Sean Casey Animal Rescue. But this story remains a huge blemish for a woman who has become a symbol of ethics-obsessed vegans. As one of Pure’s investors told Vanity Fair reporter Allen Salkin , Sarma is not so much guilty of the crimes she was convicted of, as she is of “misconduct” for a vegan.