entertainment

This Bizarre True-Crime Series Just Hit Netflix & It's Already Climbing Up the Charts

True-crime enthusiasts are in for a special treat with Netflix's new docuseries, Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

The four-part series, which comes from the mastermind behind Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, chronicles the downfall of former vegan queen Sarma Melngailis, who co-founded two of New York's biggest vegan restaurants. As it turns out, it was her relationship with her ex-husband that led to a series of bizarre events and, ultimately, one of the strangest scandals in history.

In the trailer, we see people who knew Melngailis detailing her story, from her failure to pay employees to her questionable relationship with a guy who claimed he could make her dog immortal. (No, we're not making this up.)

In one clip, Jim Switzer, the former operations manager of Pure Food and Wine, said, "There were tons of conspiracy theories about why she married him. Was there some sort of blackmail involved?" Former manager Bonnie Crocker also chimed in, "It was just all very mysterious."

Warning—a few spoilers about the scandal ahead: After Melngailis met her ex-husband, Anthony Strangis, on Twitter in 2011, he conned the restauranteur into thinking that he could help her reach her goals. But in exchange for these outlandish promises, she had to follow all of his requests. As a result, they wound up stealing over $2 million from the restaurant while several employees and suppliers went unpaid. And after being on the run for almost a year, the couple were finally caught by law enforcement after Strangis ordered from Domino’s under his real name.

Perhaps you're already thinking that this doc sounds way too bizarre to be true (TBH, same). But one thing's for sure. Fans of Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna may have just found their newest obsession.

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is now available to stream on Netflix.

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Nakeisha Campbell

Associate Editor, News and Entertainment

Nakeisha has been interviewing celebrities and covering all things entertainment for over 8 years, but she has also written on a wide range of topics, like career...
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