Netflix
Sarma Melngailis is accusing Netflix of “mocking” the “psychological abuse” she allegedly suffered by the hands of her ex-husband, Anthony Strangis.
The former couple is on the middle of the streamer’s four-part docuseries “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.,” which premiered earlier this month.
Melngailis ran vegan scorching spot Pure Food and Wine in Manhattan earlier than she went on the run together with her then-spouse in 2015 after they stole practically $2 million from traders and employees.
The couple was arrested the next yr, with Melngailis, 49, subsequently sentenced to 4 months in jail.
She filed for divorce from Strangis, 41, in 2018, claiming he abused her and coerced her into the crimes.
The glamorous blond — who has been dubbed the “vegan Bernie Madoff” — participated within the new Netflix documentary, however she clearly isn’t pleased with the completed product, taking to Instagram to slam the streamer in a meaty submit on Tuesday.
“There are more important things going on in the world than the misrepresentation of *my* story, but I’ll continue to speak out in objection to the mocking of psychological abuse by Netflix and the misportrayal of these kinds of stories in general,” Melngailis fumed.
She shared two images — one in every of a Netflix promo exhibiting her as a “glamorous villain,” and the opposite, a selfie exhibiting her with mascara smudged throughout her face.
“Me looking like a glamorized villain eating a cash salad is not me,” she declared. “It may help Netflix sensationalize the story, but at my expense, and at the expense of a greater understanding of the larger issue including #coercivecontrol, #narcisssisticabuse, #cultmindcontrol and more.”
Melngailis additionally linked to a letter on her personal blog, which she alleges she wrote to Strangis in 2016, following their arrest for fraud.
The Post has reached out to Netflix for remark.
In the prolonged letter, she accuses Strangis — whom she calls Mr. Fox — of psychological abuse and of brainwashing her into believing he may make her beloved pet canine, Leon, immortal.
“Everything is gone – the restaurant, the brand, my home, my work, my employees, my customers, even all my things: clothes, papers, files, photos, everything. Also, my integrity. And scariest of all for me: my independence,” she wrote within the letter.
Melngailis added that Strangis made her “drunk with false hope,” saying he may ship her “everlasting youth” and that pet pooch Leon could be “by her side forever.”
“You figured me out — what would work on me. You reeled me in, then got me trapped by borrowing money you’d promise to repay. Only a little at first, but that was the hook,” she continued. “I wanted to be repaid, so I’d let you back in. I’d let you back into my home when I’d resolved to have nothing to do with you again because you were telling me you had cash to pay me back.”
Melngailis then wrote: “Then somehow you’d pull some insane mind-f–kery and would end up borrowing more. How that happened, I don’t even know. Why did I give you more? How did that happen? How did you do that?”
In the letter, the blond additionally alleges that Strangis took management of her Gmail account, contacting a few of her well-known purchasers — together with Alec Baldwin — to ask to borrow money.
“Begging Alec for a few thousand dollars as ME? Writing all that s–tty and beyond humiliating stuff from MY email, so these people think they’re talking to me?” she wrote.
Baldwin was an everyday at Melngailis’ Pure Food and Wine, the place he famously met his now-wife, Hilaria, again in 2010.
Tuesday’s Instagram submit isn’t the primary time Melngailis has hit out at her portrayal within the Netflix doc.
Last week, she slammed the ending of the series, claiming it implied she nonetheless talks to her ex.
“The ending of ‘Bad Vegan’ is disturbingly misleading; I am not in touch with Anthony Strangis,” she wrote. “I didn’t want to marry him, and that part of the story was inaccurately condensed.”
She additionally wrote a separate blog post discussing the way in which she was manipulated by Strangis, saying: “There was no actual gun to my head so it will be said that of course I had a choice. I get that. However, the response that I must be crazy and/or stupid is an easy, reductive one. I’m not stupid and I’m not crazy. I am humiliated and shamed by all the damage caused, but have been working to rebuild a strong foundation of self-reliance and self-awareness.”
Melngailis and Stangis disappeared after she repeatedly didn’t pay her staff in 2014 and 2015. The two have been arrested in May 2016 after ordering a non-vegan Domino’s pizza to the Tennessee motel room the place they have been hiding out.
Melngailis pleaded responsible to costs of grand larceny, legal tax fraud and a scheme to defraud traders in change for 5 years’ probation and 4 months in jail, which she served at Rikers in summer time 2017.
Strangis pleaded responsible to 4 counts of grand larceny within the fourth diploma and was sentenced to 1 yr in jail and 5 years’ probation, in addition to having to pay $840,000 in restitution to traders. It’s unknown the place he’s now.
