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Sarma Melngailis is accusing Netflix of “mocking” the “psychological abuse” she allegedly suffered at the hands of her ex-husband, Anthony Strangis.
The former couple is at the center of the streamer’s four-part docuseries “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.,” which premiered earlier this month.
Melngailis ran vegan hot spot Pure Food and Wine in Manhattan before she went on the run with her then-spouse in 2015 after they stole nearly $2 million from investors and staff.
The couple was arrested the following year, with Melngailis, 49, subsequently sentenced to four months in prison.
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 in the new Netflix documentary, but she clearly isn’t happy with the finished product, taking to Instagram to slam the streamer in a meaty post 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 photos — one of a Netflix promo showing her as a “glamorous villain,” and the other, a selfie showing her with mascara smudged across 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 also 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 comment.
In the lengthy letter, she accuses Strangis — whom she calls Mr. Fox — of psychological abuse and of brainwashing her into believing he could make her beloved pet dog, 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 in the letter.
Melngailis added that Strangis made her “drunk with false hope,” saying he could deliver her “everlasting youth” and that pet pooch Leon would 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 also alleges that Strangis took control of her Gmail account, contacting some of her famous clients — including Alec Baldwin — to ask to borrow cash.
“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 a regular at Melngailis’ Pure Food and Wine, where he famously met his now-wife, Hilaria, back in 2010.
Tuesday’s Instagram post isn’t the first time Melngailis has hit out at her portrayal in the Netflix doc.
Last week, she slammed the ending of the series, claiming it implied she still 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 also wrote a separate blog post discussing the way 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 failed to pay her employees in 2014 and 2015. The two were arrested in May 2016 after ordering a non-vegan Domino’s pizza to the Tennessee motel room where they were hiding out.
Melngailis pleaded guilty to charges of grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and a scheme to defraud investors in exchange for five years’ probation and four months in jail, which she served at Rikers in summer 2017.
Strangis pleaded guilty to four counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree and was sentenced to one year in jail and five years’ probation, as well as having to pay $840,000 in restitution to investors. It’s unknown where he is now.
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