Journalist Allen Salkin, who was featured in the smash hit Netflix docuseries, covered Melngailis’ meteoric rise to New York City’s “Vegan Queen” and knew her well. In a new op-ed for The Forward, Salkin claimed that when Melngailis switched attorneys from Sheila Tendy to Jeffrey Lichtman, her case may have been doomed.
What did Sarma do?
Melngailis was the owner of NYC hotspot Pure Food and Wine, which boasted A-list clientele including Bill Clinton, Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson(who workers in Bad Vegan recalled walking through the restaurant’s kitchen barefoot), Anne Hathaway, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchenand Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. She met Strangis through the Baldwins’ amusing Twitter exchanges with him, and they started dating in late 2011. Strangis allegedly told Melngailis that he was an ex-Navy SEAL and working on black ops missions. He told Melngailis that if she passed a series of “cosmic tests,” he could make her and her beloved rescue dog Leon immortal. Strangis and Melngailis tied the knot in December 2012, but Melngailis insisted she wasn’t enthusiastic about her wedding (which was kept a secret at the time). She told Vanity Fair, “The impression in the doc is I intentionally married Anthony so he could transfer me money. That is completely not the case. At some point, Anthony did some of his mindf**kery and got me to marry him.” Strangis allegedly demanded Melngailis—in the guise of “cosmic tests”—to move Pure Food and Wine’s funds into his own bank accounts, to the tune of over $1 million. (Strangis denies all allegations of coercive control.) According to an investigation, the crooked couple began making fraudulent transfers from Pure Food and Wine’s coffers into Strangis’ personal accounts in January 2014. By the following January, the pair blew through $1.2 million of Pure Food and Wine’s money on at casinos, plus another $80,000 on designer watches, $70,000 on hotel stays, and an additional $10,000 just on Uber rides. As a result of using the restaurant’s funds for their own vices, Pure Food and Wine couldn’t make payroll for five months, to the tune of $40,000 missing from employees’ pay. Her workers picketed outside the eatery in winter 2015, and Pure Food and Wine closed for good that July. While Pure Food and Wine’s staff were getting stiffed, Melngailis and Strangis went on the lam. After about 10 months MIA, cops busted the couple in a Tennessee hotel room after Strangis ordered Domino’s.
What happened during Sarma Melngailis’ trial?
Melngailis first hired Tendy, a prominent Wall Street attorney with expertise in family law. It was initially in her work with Tendy that Melngailis accused Strangis of “coercive control” that made her commit fraud. (Strangis has repeatedly denied these allegations through his own legal team.) According to Salkin, who covered the case extensively for Vanity Fair, a key part of Tendy’s planned defense strategy for Melngailis would be to prove that Strangis was abusive; painting Melngailis as a victim of Strangis may have granted her more leniency from a judge and jury. Tendy was working on a plea bargain that, if accepted, would have seen Melngailis plead guilty to a single felony charge in exchange for no jail time and paying restitution. Indeed, based on Melngailis’ own testimony within the series, it seems like coercive control could have been at play if everything she alleged is true: According to Healthline, telltale signs of coercive control—a form of psychological abuse—include monitoring all communication (remember, Strangis allegedly had all of Melngailis’ passwords); sexual abuse (Melngailis hinted at this in the docuseries and accused Strangis of rape in a recording); and threatening loved ones and pets (he promised Leon and Melngailis immortality, but only if they did what he said). Salkin said himself that the theory was credible, noting that Melngailis seemed “shellshocked” after her arrest. Tendy was reportedly working with the NYPD Special Victims Unit in efforts to investigate whether Strangis committed sex crimes against Melngailis and alleged in court documents obtained by Salkin, “Mr. Strangis repeatedly raped Sarma, forcing her to commit sexual acts against her will.” However, Tendy said in Salkin’s report, Melngailis declined to pursue that line of defense—and instead pursued a sexual relationship with her new attorney.
What happened with Sarma Melngailis’ lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman?
Melngailis fired Tendy and hired Lichtman in early 2017; Melngailis told Salkin she wasn’t aware of all Tendy’s efforts and angles to (hopefully) keep her out of the big house. Lichtman dropped the sex crime investigation and focused solely on restitution, even going so far as to slam Tendy in leaked text messages with Melngailis as being “obsessed with sexual abuse,” according to The New York Post. They reportedly began hooking up before her sentencing that May. Melngailis told The New York Post that she didn’t know Lichtman was married until the outlet reported as such. “He was totally different from the start. I really appreciated that he treated me like I’m equal, I’m smart, I’m direct, I’m honest,” she said. “[He treated me like] this is something we’re working on together.” Of his being married, she said, “It just hurts a bit,” but said that they “would always be friends.” It sounds like that isn’t quite the case anymore, because when asked about Lichtman, she told Salkin for The Forward, “Are you writing about that compacted turd?”
Did Sarma and Anthony go to jail?
Despite Lichtman’s best efforts, Melngailis ended up behind bars, albeit for a brief period of time—and so did her husband. Strangis pleaded guilty to four counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of probation. He was released from jail in May 2017. The same month that Strangis walked (mostly) free out of Rikers Island, Melngailis pleaded guilty to grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and a scheme to defraud and was sentenced to six months in Rikers Island and five years probation and restitution to the workers and investors she bilked. She was released from jail in October 2017. Tendy says that Melngailis’ change of legal representation likely hurt her in court. “Jeffrey Lichtman takes over and she goes from pleading guilty to one charge to pleading guilty to three,” Tendy told Salkin. “I wouldn’t have wanted her to have a ‘scheme to defraud’ on her record.” Next, find out what Sarma Melngailis’ former employees thought about Bad Vegan on Netflix.
