In Bad Vegan, Sarma Melngailis recounts her story of coercive control from top to bottom. A four-and-a-half-year relationship where her fraudster husband's demands became so severe she tanked her life and business to hand over millions of dollars.
The latest in a long line of conmen in the spotlight, Anthony Strangis – who used aliases including Shane Fox, Chris Donovan, Michael Caledonia and Will Richards in the series alone – 'tested' his wife with a string of monetary demands while secretly blowing it all in casinos across the East Coast of the USA.
Continuing the frustrating streak of justice unserved, Strangis took a plea deal and his sentence was cut down to time served (a year after failing to raise the funds for bail), as well as five years' probation in 2017. That probation time will end in May 2022.
So what exactly has the gambling addict and fraudster been doing since his freedom, and who else did he manage to con over the years?
Information on Strangis is scarce, but here is what we do know…
Netflix
Had Anthony Strangis committed this kind of scam before?
Yes. Before meeting 'vegan queen' Sarma Melngailis, Anthony had successfully managed to maintain a similar relationship back in 2004.
In Tampa, Florida, Anthony met and moved in with his wife, Stacy Strangis. In a similar situation to Sarma, Stacy was told by Anthony that he was a former Navy SEAL who had been shot in the line of duty, and who was staying in the state for his rehabilitation.
Again, his story was affirmed by Anthony's father – himself a wrong'un. He had held his family hostage after Anthony's mother threatened to leave him. However, he had a level of protection as a cop, and when she called the police on him, the squad "protected their own" and called him for clarification instead.
Stacy, who was a single mother, was quickly charmed by Anthony and his family lifestyle, with Anthony telling her they were "reincarnated lovers who kept finding each other through time". She was so in love with him by the time that claim was made, she never questioned it.
The couple got married three months after they started dating, and they had one child together.
Anthony then came home with a claim that an aunt had died leaving him $5 million.
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In a surprise to no one now, that cheque never came through and Anthony refused to get a job to help pay the bills, even though he had a family to take care of. He started telling Stacy that there were "demons after him" but he managed to evade their grasp.
The only way to save themselves was to start funnelling money to a mysterious group.
He also started making bizarre comments that left Stacy worried about the safety of their newborn baby. On one occasion he claimed a baby could be killed with salt as it "wouldn't show up in an autopsy".
Things came to a head shortly afterwards when Anthony and his father broke into the family home and stole all of Stacy's jewellery. He claimed he would pawn the money and eventually get it back but he never did. Instead, he and his dad fled to Vegas.
Eventually things disappeared within a blink of an eye. When Anthony's father had a heart attack and needed surgery, Stacy left Anthony at the hospital for the evening and he disappeared, never to be seen again.
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In Bad Vegan, Stacy admits she knew there were red flags but loved him too much to stop herself, telling cameras: "I feel like it was one of the greatest loves of my life" and believed she would fix him if she loved him enough.
At Sarma's trial, Stacy was one of the few people that wrote a letter to the judge in defence of the vegan restaurant owner.
In part of the letter, she wrote: "I know how it feels to be taken in by Anthony. I know how it feels to love Anthony."
On top of this, Anthony had two prior convictions before meeting Sarma – one for impersonating a police officer and one for grand theft in Florida after stealing a sports car.
Where is Anthony Strangis now?
Anthony and Sarma were arrested in 2016 for 24 counts including 11 counts of grand larceny, eight counts of criminal tax fraud of varying degrees, three counts of scheming to defraud investors, violation of labor law and other financial crimes.
He was unable to fork out the money for bail, and instead spent a year in prison ahead of his court date.
Ahead of trial, he struck a plea deal and was sentenced to five years' probation plus time served.
According to the New York Post, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun made the decision that he had "spent enough time behind bars".
"It's hard enough in that the defendant has done over one year of incarceration, and it doesn't end the sentence, because in the sentence to five years' probation, he has a five-year period in which he must keep himself accountable to probation," the judge said.
His decision comes shortly after Sarma also took a plea, with Anthony's attorney, Samuel Karliner, maintaining she was complicit in the scheme to make off with more than $1 million in investor cash, stiffing restaurant workers from their wages.
He has never been charged for the money he took from Sarma's mother.
"He's satisfied, especially now that it has come to light that she played an equal and culpable role in this," said Karliner. "She was a savvy businesswoman who came up with a plan and he helped her execute it. She knew exactly what she was doing and so did he and for that, they are being appropriately punished."
Netflix
However, to date, including the Netflix documentary, Sarma maintains that she was psychologically, sexually and emotionally abused in order to remain under his control.
His current whereabouts remains unknown, but Sarma still has some level of contact with him.
In the opening moments of Bad Vegan, she tells him about the documentary, and he threatens her to shut it down.
The recorded conversation hears him tell her: "You're going to co-operate with these people? I think you know two things about me. One that I love you, and that you love me [...] Two, I'm not some f**king joker, I'm not someone to be f**ked with."
"If I get f**king dragged by these people again, it's going to be f**king hellfire from the sky," he added.
Sarma then tells the cameras: "I would feel ill recording anybody else, but this motherf**ker? F**k him."
Bad Vegan is available now on Netflix.
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