Sarma Melngailis “Never Really Knew” What Anthony Strangis' Job Was

If you want to know what Anthony Strangis’ job is, his ex-wife, Sarma Melngailis, wouldn’t be the one to ask. “I wouldn’t be able to give you a straight answer because I never really knew,” the former New York City restaurateur explains in Netflix’s new four-part docuseries, Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. “[He] was always very mysterious about who he was, what his occupation was.”

Melngailis, who opened the celebrity-favorite raw-vegan hotspot Pure Food and Wine in 2004, said she believed that Strangis “was involved in some sort of like black ops, like the stuff that’s under the radar that nobody writes about, that’s kind of unofficial.” She cited Strangis’ lengthy, mysterious trips out of town and a “very password protected” laptop stamped with what “looked like it was a seal of the CIA or something” as support. She also recalled witnessing him procuring an envelope full of diamonds, as well as reviewing some sort of drone footage, adding that he often made cryptic allusions to danger.

Both she and her ex’s first wife, Stacy Avery Strangis, were also led to believe that Strangis had served in the military, specifically the Navy SEALs. Though Strangis’ father, former local suburban Boston police officer John Strangis, allegedly corroborated these facts, Bad Vegan casts doubt on Strangis’ purported military background. A 2016 Vanity Fair article noted that Strangis never graduated from college, and he was said to be living with his dad in a Sarasota, Florida, trailer park when he met Stacy at 23 in 2004. By the following year, he’d disappeared, having pawned her electronics and jewelry for cash. He left her and their then-eight-month-old son behind.

When Strangis eventually met Melngailis in late 2011, his mother believed he was living in a van with his father near the docks in New Bedford, Massachusetts, though he claimed he was living with a friend. He soon moved in with Melngailis, despite a temporary breakup in early 2012. Though Melngailis was never entirely sure about about the source of Strangis’ supposed income, she said he promised to give her enough money to pay off all of her debts. (Strangis’ court-appointed attorney denied these claims, and the money never materialized.)

Beginning around 2013, Strangis — who was then going by “Shane Fox” — became a “regular presence” at Pure Food and Wine and its offshoot One Lucky Duck and began “exercis[ing] authority over the business,” an investigation found. According to a 2016 indictment, Melngailis transferred over $1.6 million from the business accounts to her personal bank account between January 2014 and January 2015. The Brooklyn District Attorney alleged that Strangis spent nearly $1.2 million of those funds at two Connecticut casinos, over $80,000 at specialty watch retailers including Rolex and Beyer, over $70,000 at hotels in Europe and New York, and over $10,000 on Uber car rides. He also allegedly withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

Though Strangis’ official role in his wife’s businesses was unclear, her former director of operations told Vanity Fair that he would act like the boss whenever Melngailis was out of town. Another employee described “about five” occasions in 2014 when Strangis asked him to meet at a bank with a week’s worth of Pure Food and Wine cash receipts, ranging between $3,000 and $10,000. Rather than depositing the money, the employee said, Strangis took it with him in a waiting Uber. (Strangis’ attorney denied this claim.)

According to the 24-count indictment against her, Melngailis was unable to pay employees for five months in 2014. The filing also described Strangis holding a staff meeting that August during which he falsely claimed that he was in the process of buying the company “on paper.” While seeking out new investors, Melngailis allegedly claimed that she was negotiating a sale to a wealthy man named “Michael Caledonia.” After a May 2015 meeting, however, one of the investors discovered that “Caledonia” was actually Strangis, the indictment said. The couple — having allegedly defrauded 84 workers of up to $3,500 each for a total of over $40,000 — went on the lam around this time, and Melngailis’ businesses permanently closed in July 2015.

Following their eventual arrests in May 2016, Strangis and Melngailis faced charges of second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal tax fraud, first-degree scheme to defraud, and violation of labor, among other crimes. Melngailis accepted a plea deal and served four months at Rikers Island in 2017 for grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and scheme to defraud. Strangis pleaded guilty to four counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and was sentenced to one year in jail and five years of probation in addition to having to pay $840,000 in restitution. He served his time and was released from Rikers in May 2017, requesting to serve his five-year probation in Massachusetts.

It’s unclear what Strangis is doing for work now.