Ridiculous CrimeEternal Sunshine of the Meatless Mind: Sarma Melngailis
She was a vegan restauranteur looking for meaning in her expanding empire. He was a man who said he could make dogs live forever. Together, they made for one of the most toxic relationships we've ever seen. And along the way, they managed to drain her business coffers and stiff some workers. They put the "well, that sucks" in wellness.
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Mister Zaren Burnett.
What up, Elizabeth Clyde Dunne, How you doing? I'm doing pretty well girl. How are you?
I'm all right? Uh listen here. What's ridiculous?
Yes? The Sultan or Brunei's car collection. Oh have you ever heard about this? No, he's got like seven thousand cars and they're.
All seven thousand cars and.
None of them are cheap. They're all super luxury cars, a lot of custom cars. He's got, like you know, McLaren's Rolls Royce Ferraris in particular, though Bentley's like not. The guy has got like the world record collection again, his book for World Records for numerous bits of like oh I've got the most Rolls Royce or whatever. But his Bentley collection is the one I want to talk about because this dude buys so many custom Bentley's. They have their own like team making Bentley's for him, like his own factory dedicated to making custom Bentley's. Yes, and he buys so many Bentley's that he saved Bentley from bankruptcy. No way, yes, like one person, one by insight. It's insane, all right. And then like, of course there's all you know, there's we should probably talk about it because there's like some crime apparently in the Brunei Investment Agency, you know, like there's some oil price irregularities and like, oh pricelet me down. We lost a bunch of that got caught embezzling. So this car collection ain't clean, right, I could probably look into it. But whatever there it is, it is ridiculous. How ridiculous? Is that?
Very ridiculous? Do you want to know what else is ridiculous?
God?
Yes, I was afraid i'd have to ask.
You criming so that your dog can live forever? That me too. This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free one ridiculous.
Damn right.
There are a lot of groups that I pick on.
Yes, you're the aggressive one, not.
Me, I know, or rather like that I dismiss, or like roll my eyes at Yeah, it's not really. I am trying to get better about that.
You have been? Yeah, no more. The the spring, summer and fall of.
Dark Yeah, it's like whatever. I don't even know what season it is. I don't know what day it is, But these people they're not. They're not, for the most part, hurting anybody, and me being judgy doesn't accomplish anything. No, although I will say that if someone gets all twisted up about something I say and then they send us like a message or they write a review about it, maybe my comments hit a little close to home and they need to self reflect. Yeah, if you're one hundred percent about what you do, then my comments shouldn't matter to you.
Whatever.
Yeah, I'm trying not to be just water off a duck's back exactly. So a group that is ripe for the picking.
Sure in my family and.
A common target of judgment.
Okay, it is my family, it's not.
It's vegans.
Oh yeah, I know that I got much of them.
Almost too easy with like the way that so many of them proselytize about it.
It's like the whole how do you know someone's vegan? Don't worry, they'll tell you.
Yeah exactly. People say, you know you don't want to eat anything remotely from an animal, great, but like, leave me out of it.
I just feel bad for them because they don't have any cheese.
Oh they're missing out.
Weird that they have to suffer through.
You may be surprised to hear though, that I don't really have a problem with vegans.
I am surprised people get into it.
For a lot of reasons. There's like hell, animal rights, environmental issues, so people do it for like weight loss or like the fad of it.
Totally, whatever you want to do, just don't make me vegan.
It doesn't matter why someone does something exactly. To that, I say, who knows, who cares? Just don't try and make.
Me do it exactly.
I have friends who are vegans. Some of my best friends are vegans. Well actually know they're not. But my close friends are all like old school foodies. It's not the kind that like take Instagram pictures of food and go to new hit places with like rosemary pistachio foam or something wow moss fed beef cheeks.
And I got the vegan friends.
Yeah, I don't do that circus. Like my friends were all the kind that go to like hunt down Italian delis that sell more than three kinds of proscudo.
I gotta go out with you, Yeah, you gotta hang out.
With us a little bit more. But my vegan friends, they're sincere about it. And what puzzles me are the vegans who eat pretty much all processed, chemical food.
That's the irony. Yeah, because if you get into being a vegan for your health and then you're actually.
Yeah, they're like vegan restaurants here in Oakland, and some of them are like quote unquote burger places and everything's deep fried and salty and like full of chemicals. Yeah, and I'm not sure that's Healthier's true.
You can do like Indian like you know, South Asian style vegan food. They've been doing it for a long time.
My vegan friends.
If you're going to try to make a burger American style with cheese, forget forget it. They can't have chicken nuggets. The people that.
I know, they don't eat fake meat or fake cheese. And they, like I said, they eat a lot of Indian food. If we're honest, there's a.
Bunch of venues that that just not the American diet and they.
Don't talk about it. It's just something they do. Dad, I love. So today I'm going to tell you about a vegan.
Oh really, a vegan crime, a vegan.
Who took things to not with veganism, but with crime.
Wait, a minute and a dog too, I remembered.
So, Saren, yes, I want you to meet Sarma mel Galis. I could be saying that wrong.
You can try again if you want.
Melm Galis uh gaalless Yeah, okay. So she was born in nineteen seventy two in Massachusetts. Her dad was from Latvia and was a physicist at MIT. Like big I it. Mom was a professional chef. So she was like interested in food. From the fascinating family, she went to UNI. They were.
Their occupations seem interesting exactly.
She went to University of Pennsylvania studied economics. She got a b s. And econ from the Wharton School Economics respect Yeah, and so it makes sense that she got into finance after she graduated, what with the whole econtra. Yeah, So she gets a gig as an analyst at bear Stearns in New York, and then she goes into private equity at Bain Capital in Boston. This is great, you know, like she's making a ton of money. But that wasn't doing it for her goodness. She had to stand in her truth.
Oh yeah, stand girls.
Stand there. So here's how she cared. Well, I'd always loved food, and I gradually realized I wasn't passionate about anything in the world of finance. So I left and I went to the French Culinary Institute. So this is kind of genius, right. So and this is the institute in New York. So she could like come up in kitchens and like when and if she wants to open her own restaurant, she'd have the proper business acumen to do it. It's like, yeah, a lot of chefs are like artists and musicians. They have this passion for their craft, but a complete lack of any business.
Note you can't hold a business thought in their head, not a one, not for long and ten minutes.
No, she graduates from the French Culinary Institute New York starts working at fancy restaurants. In two thousand and one, she and her then boyfriend, chef Matthew Kinney, they opened a restaurant called Commissary in New York City.
New York City, Get a Pope.
They also they had this restaurant tour named Jeffrey Chodoro. He was kicking in some money too. So this this Commissary, it was an upscale vegan place. Okay, and this is before like two thousand and one.
Like a lunch counter style.
Yeah, but it's and it was, but it's fancy vegan and it's before vegan food had like super hit the mainstream. I mean it was everywhere, but like I get it, it wasn't the big you know, kind of exactly, and so it really wasn't there in terms of cuisine.
Like, oh, definitely not.
Yeah. So but she's like, you know what, I'm going to make plant based dining a thing.
I love it.
I love that girl. So the restaurant closed after two years, but that's common for restaurants. I think, like, yeah, and the margins are so thin, and I've worked a.
Lot of restaurants and the owners who were good at it.
All right, And it also was something like this. It depends on the trends.
There's also the factor you cannot control or react to faster.
I think she was ahead of her time quick possibly, So commissary closes. Sarma goes to work for Jeffrey Chodoro's restaurant management group, and that like allowed her to network ropes.
She still wanted to.
Open her own restaurant, and she eventually did just a year later. Look a look at her so in June two thousand and four, Sarma and her boyfriend and Chodro they opened a place called Pure Food and Wine Pure in Manhattan. Okay, not total wine more, it's pure food.
Yeah, no, I imagine it has like a really cute.
Font probably and it wasn't just vegan, it was gourmet raw vegan. Oh this means that nothing was heated about one hundred and eighteen degrees fairness.
Because she made it even harder. Yeah, she's like, what am I taking my last business like increase the difference?
I start making cracks. No, I'm not, No, I'm not. So the place was like super hip, very chic. Things had changed in the culture in those few years, and so veganism was becoming big. It's very very fashionable. Raw food was the new thud.
I've got a lot of models and influencer types are going there exactly.
So it's this posh, high end restaurant serving raw vegan food. There are no other places like it, and it's run by this beautiful, stylish woman she kind of Elizabeth.
I'm sorry I'm interrupt, but you say raw vegan food. So basically I'm just picturing like the produce section somebody has like in the back, like pulled off some of the like the corn husk, right and then just cut the is and put on. It's like they're basically arrange food. Then they may season of assaults and stuff, but like they're just a food arrange.
Well it's a cheap kitchen.
Amazing. You can get this past your customers and charge a lot.
Yeah, exactly. So Sarma, she looks like Sianna Miller.
Okays the British ones JUNI.
Here.
Yeah.
And this this place became like the place to see and be seen, and so all these like rich and famous folks are going there. Alec Baldwin, Owen Wilson, Chelsea Clinton, Chelsea Clinton's dad.
You said Owen Wilson. Second, Oh wow.
Nice Woody Harrelson, Okay. Giselle Bunching, Yeah, I know her, Tom Brady.
They were like, yeah, they're like the whole thing.
But let's not talk about Anne Hathaway. They're all regulars.
Like she's having her come up. Yeah, I know, right, welcome back.
So Sarma, she's now the queen of raw vegan cuisine.
And I'm not sure there's a lot of I bet that's going to go.
For there's no competition for that title. But you knows good exactly. So the restaurant it gets named New York magazines, like in the list of top one hundred restaurants two different times. Oh it got It was on the Forbes list of All Star New York eateies for five years running Media.
Darling totally hot everything.
Yeah. So by the late two thousands, Pure Food Wine bringing in seven million dollars in annual revenue and around five hundred thousand dollars in profit.
That's impressive.
It's a seriously successful restaurant. I wud look at that margin too. Yeah, it's tight. As is common in these circles, Sarma figured that if she had a successful restaurant, she could also have like a hit cookbook on her hands. Oh good, Yeah, I mean aa Garden did it?
Yeah?
I love her, by the way, her memoir is great. She's fascinating one life. Uh yeah, my girl.
And isn't her husband cool too?
Jeffrey Jeffrey, He's there are stories every little she tickles life. My goodness.
Yeah. The two of them are an amazing couples.
They are so The raw Vegan cookbooks she and her boyfriend they co wrote Raw Food slash Real World colon one hundred recipes to get the glow.
Oh sounds promising. I'm sure I want the glow.
That sounds good like Gwyneth Paltrow super goopy, goofy. So as part of her growing empire, she launches then one Lucky Duck dot Com.
You know I had to get pregnant to get the glow?
You did?
No, I didn't. That's the only way I knew how before this was an option for.
Eating out of the produced dumpster.
But no, go.
Get knocked up. Okay, One Lucky Duck Dot shut. So it's this online store that sells raw and organic snacks and products from the restaurant. So, like Martha walked so Ina could run, so Sarma could fly, it's pretty much. Yeah, it is amazing. So the business they're doing, big thing.
Sounds like it's flying, but.
She's flying like it gives.
You weak gravity. The girls, it really is.
You know when you go vegan, That's what happened. But there her relationship with Matthew Kenney, the boyfriend chef, not so high.
She's working too much. It's hard, she's focused.
It's hard for people to have like well, they're business partners.
I know, but still imagine they're doing different things in the business. Like she's always at the restaurant, yeah, but like they always at the restaurant. Yeah.
It's hard for people to be romantic and business partners. Not everyone can be diddyan and done.
This is true.
So they finally they reached a breaking point. Matthew. He goes to the funding guy, Jeffrey Chodo, and he's like, look, you either cut her out or I leave. Oh yeah, because they were just disagreeing.
On all that's more than disagreeing.
Yeah, So Chodoro is like, I put my money on her.
Oh, double snap. The ultimatum snaps you back.
They of course they broke up because I'm not sure how you weather that one.
Now you're.
With Chodro's backing. She bought out his Matthew's share of Pure Food and Wine. So Chodoro lends Sarma two point one million dollars and he took on the restaurant's debt and then she.
Loved to have someone in your life. I didn't. Of course, then you have to pay it back. You got things like that anyway, got her money.
He's the full owner. She also took in a lot of debt on the deal, like two million dollars. She believed in the restaurant and the brand though, and she's like, I'm willing to take that.
Oh yeah, bet on you girl.
Remember one Lucky Duck dot com.
You mentioned it.
She has like a duck tattoo. Like. Yeah. When she took control of the whole venture, she expanded and she opened a juice bar and takeout place called One Lucky Duck.
You first had expanded. I was imagining she got a bigger tattoo, Yes, bigger, much bigger.
Duck till half of her body was one big duck tattoo.
Yeah.
So they sold juice, smoothies and like raw stuff.
Yeah, of course. It's like it's like.
A Panera without a microwave and no bread and no bread. And it was in a store front right next to the restaurant.
Oh that makes sense. It's like the grabbing go kind precisely.
And I guess it did well because in two thousand and nine she opened another one. Around She's like, I see this thing getting huge Lucky ducks everywhere.
Of course, tatoo.
It wasn't like purefood wine was suffering. Like they're still doing a bang of business. But like any good episode of Behind the Music, things weren't so great inside as they were on the outside. Yeah, it was a lot for one person to handle. I bet so with each new venture came more debt, more risk. She had a blog, which is so ats like early two thousands, she'd write about feeling burnt out and like being cash strapped and personal debt.
Yeah, very.
Chef, totally stressed out. And she revealed that she had an eating disorder, which I can admit is not all that surprising. You know a lot of chefs. Well, no, in like a very restrictive food cultures and ideologies. It's not inevitable or omnipresent, but it's not uncommon. Yes you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, when you're.
And then get into veganism and you're like, this is the final answer, this will be the exactly I got you exactly.
So here she is, she's selling this brand with the image of happiness and health and pure living, but meanwhile she's a wreck and her health both mental and physical, as well as.
Financial, personal relationships.
Yeah, everything suffering. So then she went out she did something very smart and very healthy. She adopted a dog.
Better than getting bangs, Well, I don't know. I that's not the move. Yeah, it's it's a fifteen minutes.
It's a tell tale that there's something going on. So she was all about the dog.
I love that, great call, great call. Always get a dog.
You went everywhere with her.
Uns you can't feed the dog, then don't get it.
Don't get a dog. And she even convinced a celebrity friend to adopt a dog, telling him that he needed just this respite and love. Who was that celebrity?
Celebrity friends? You've been waiting to tell me? Who's your celebrity friend, Elizabeth?
Alec Baldwin.
No, I should have known when you snuck him in before.
We're gonna get a little more Alec Baldwin, whether you like it or not.
So Alec Baldwin, you know I've told you that I lived with his personal assistant. I used to be in the car with her, having to listen to him yell at her as we drove across town. It takes a long time to drive across the al We would drive from one side to his place out in the valley. I'm not gonna say where it is, but like and then he would be yelling at her the.
Entire time on the I believe it, and he would be hurt.
She hadn't do anything. He just needed to ven. He's a very intense person.
He was a regular at Pure Food and One.
I bet he needed that. It's also imagined somebody wants that orthorexia life, like this will be the answer this, We'll stop being so mad.
The place meant a lot to him. I bet it did, because that's where he met his how do you say wife?
No, Hilaria, that's hilarious. They met there. That's the perfect place for the two of them to meet.
For those who don't know Alec Baldwin's wife, Hilaria, she purports to be from Spain. She speaks with this Spanish accent. She doesn't remember certain translations into English. Like she was once doing a cooking segment on a morning show and she was like, how do you say cucumber total? I remember that? Yeah. So here's the thing. Her real name is Hillary and she's from Boston. Yeah, and at some point I think she might have been in her teens. Her family bought a place in Spain and vacation summer there. Yeah. I think her parents may have retired there.
And then she's apparently very absorbent based on how little time she was spending the accident rap.
But neither she nor they are of Spanish ancestry.
Or formative years there.
She used to go hard in the paint with the whole I Am from Spain. Well, then she gets exposed. I remember, that's so wild, so insane. But I think it got swept aside the news cycles because.
Like everyone's of course she does that.
Yeah, but she kept it up. She still keeps it up, but she says it's just because she spent so much time in Spain when she's growing. But that's been debunked. Now she and Alex, who have like two dozen kids, they have a reality show, haven't I.
Of them like kids running around in their house.
I haven't seen it for a number of reasons.
Totally.
I feel like it would be so maddening but also pitiful that I don't want to put myself through watching that. And then there's the bread and circuses of it all.
I've spent enough time with Alec Baldwin exactly.
This seems to be a means of rehabilitating his image after the Whole Rest movie set shooting, Oh right, So it's.
That means I'm sorry for the people who got shot, right, person who got shock.
Alick met Hilaria slash Hillary at the restaurant. He did take some of as advice and adopt a dog. And in case that makes you have warm feelings for Alex, let me read to you a transcript of a voicemail he left for his own daughter in two thousand and seven.
Oh God, please, do.
You have insulted me for the last time. You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being. I don't give a damn that you're twelve years old or eleven years old, or that you're a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do. As far as I'm concerned, you've made me feel like I'm going to straighten your out when I see you, I'm going to really make sure you get it. I'll let you know how I really feel about what a thoughtless little pig you are. You are a rude little pig.
Okay, that's the Alec Bald and I know and love and recognize hide.
Away eleven twelve or twelve year old who knows right, yes, yes, but that's okay. So character and integrity, Oh yeah, you either have them or you don't know. Something to keep in mind, something to keep in mind.
So he's been like this whatever there's been, there's no indicator. But then he's not like.
This, yeah, exactly, So Alex, he's hooking up with Helaria Sarma.
Should you imagine what they talk about when they're like doing their pillow talk?
No idea, right, like what is it?
It's did they talk about?
Like I think they talk about things you don't think? So no, who knows? Well, Alec was hooking up with Halaia Sarma was embarking on her own new relationship. In October twenty eleven, Sarma's yucking it up on Twitter, as was the custom of the Sure. She starts chatting with someone in one of Alec bald On Twitter threads and she then they start tweeting and like dm ing.
Yeah.
The guy's name on Twitter was mister Fox and his account name was at you know you want underscore it?
Oh god, is he like a jigg?
Well he's like super charming. Who is mister Fox? He's this man named Anthony Strangus and he lived in a van in Massachusetts, and he was something of a rake. He was like a gambler. He had a horrible past. His dad was a gambler. This is according to Vanity Fair. Quote. When Strangus was about three years old and living in a raised ranch house in Brockton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, he pulled a pair of dice out of his pocket and uttered, baby needs a new pair of shoes. His mother, Patricia Aghast knew her husband, John, a local policeman, gambled, but this he was holding Anthony in one arm and rolling the dice with the other.
She recalled, yes, I love that image. I'm sorry, I mean I feel bad for the kids.
Little kid. Maybe he's okay. So his father was also terribly Yeah, and Anthony witnessed terrible things, and he went on to mirror it in a sense. He married a woman, they had a kid, but he skipped out on them after telling her all sorts of tall tales. He was more financially abusive than anything with that woman. So he hooks up with Sarma. Within a month of connecting with Anthony on Twitter, Sarma was tweeting, quote, Missus Fox be in love with mister Fox. Can't be helped. Oh oh yeah, so this was all online. A few months later, twenty twelve, she meets him in person. Oh it's true, and it's true love. It's true.
Ever smell them?
Yeah, true love or close approximation thereof, or like the best impressions.
Yeah, it looked like it to them.
Yeah, they moved quickly. Her friends seem to know him as Shane Fox. Okay, and then on December fifth, twenty twelve, they got married. Yeah, after about a year after they met online.
Well that's more than I thought.
And the whole thing was like hush USh on the cute tea. Her friends didn't even know that they were married.
Wow. Yeah, that's that's always a good move. Free move, smart move if you're like, oh, I've been having a rough past and by my romances, I'm going to sneak away and marry some guy nobody knows.
So she has this successful restaurant, but she's drowning in personal debt. She has a cute dog, but is completely stressed out. Stress kills.
I thought the dog was going to really help pull her around.
My doctor was telling me that stress kills. I'm like, thanks, that will not stress me out. At all bodily. So Sarma's got a husband. She thought he would be helpful, Like he's calm, he's level. And the best part is Aaron is that he said that he had a bunch of money coming to him soon.
Oh one of those we we know that I got a big payout coming.
Never a red flag and always totally true.
Usually legit, especially if they ask you to borrow money against him.
So he's said that he was going to use the money coming his way to pay off all of her debts. Get everyone of course.
Oh yes, magic wand and.
I think this was the most attractive feature he had for her host Like she saw a solution to her problems in the former lots of cash from a guy who seemed to worship her.
Oh guy, she didn't want to, like, you know, kill somebody that could be another what people see money.
So twenty thirteen, he totally had the claws in and like she kind of did too.
So they digging claws into each other.
Yeah, he's hanging around the restaurant. He's not vegan, by the way, like not by a long shot. Oh whatever, and he's like totally out of shape. Despite the fact that her brand was all about health and wellness and clean eating. She has this sloppy guy that she's telling everyone is a consultant and that, and he's still calling himself Shane Fox.
Shows up smelling like he lives in a van, and she's like, this is my guy who's the consultant for clean living. Yeah, he's got a two pack of days picking lobster out of his beard.
So like he's loving the lifestyle and the celebrity access.
Huh.
According to Vanity Fair, Alec Baldwin became suspicious of Mangalis's new bou One time. He sent us a message and said, can you recommend a broker in East Hampton? I said sure, if you don't mind my asking. What's the price range you want to stay with him? He messaged me back on Twitter and said about ten million. I said, you must be selling a lot of cucumber towers over there.
Oh ab o abu card.
So he wasn't the only suspicious one. Like people associated with the restaurant who knew his real name, started digging into his past. They found an arrest record, but when confronted, he threatened to sue him, and apparently that was enough. No one could figure out why this intelligent, successful woman was tied to such a dufus brute. I'm with them, Yeah, was it the money that he had? The money that did make sense to people? So meanwhile he's getting more and more controlling. He starts telling Sarma that he had to go on covert military mission.
Oh my god, are you kidding me, Zaren?
It's the special ops thing.
Was a super spy. Yeah, of course, total top secret.
Cash. He needed walk around money for that. Oh and his brother, who like didn't exist, was supposed to be an expert in surveillance in some sort of like mercenary and he needed Anthony for other missions, so they would need money for that.
Naturally you work with your brother and you're a specialized.
Yeah, totally. He told Sarma that this tech expert pal of his had detected a hacking in her computer.
Not the hackings, Yeah.
There was the hacking. And the way to fix this is like Sarma had to email her log in and passwords to his tech experts.
Oh, yeah, to de hacking.
She did give me and so now Anthony controls her email, her bank stuff for fun. It really, it goes off the rails. When Anthony told Sarma that he was doing all of the things he was doing, which at this point also included Sarma's mom fronting him money under the pretext of it being to help her daughter.
Okay, I'm glad that that continued. I You're saying, like, including doing Sarma's mom, and I was like, no, no, no.
No, no, getting getting getting money from the mom. Sure, he said he was doing all of this to bring her cosmic power.
Oh my god, I think I rolled my eyes so hard. I just stranged.
You heard me, cosmic power.
I don't think they're going to come back forward to Elizabeth. This is what Sarma katy cosmic power. How does someone into the straight face say that, And also how does someone hear that and then go oh my god for real and like.
That's a good question. That's a good question. Here's what Sarma told Vanity fair question. He convinced me I'd be empowered in ways I couldn't imagine. I would have access to unlimited resources so that I could grow my brand all over the world, make the documentary I always wanted to make, the one that would finally change people's ways and help eradicate factory farming. Basically, I could do all the world changing things I'd been quietly dreaming about. I could help whoever I want and stay young forever doing it.
Oh my god.
Yeah, so he had all her.
Whole thing is what I really want to do is direct totally.
So he has all these like six psychological tricksity play on her. He's super vulnerable.
Remember, I'm.
In debt eating disorder. She's like got to keep up with everyone's expectations of.
Crazy pressure to maintain personally.
You know, it makes it makes sense that she could fall for this sort of coercive control.
I do. Yeah. I don't mean to judge her. I I just I'm disappointed that a sentient person can't see that.
I mean, there's there's a lot of debate. I get, I get there is a lot of debate about it. He played wild bind games on her. He told her that he had eyes on her everywhere, and like everything that comes out about this, he's like, Nope, never happened. Later on he denies any of this.
I guess.
Ultimately, so he said that his brother was monitoring them and out to get them.
The brother who does or does not exist?
This does not does. She had like half brothers, but that's not they're like good boys. Okay, Yeah, she just had to continually prove her loyalty to and her faith in him, and that was mainly through financial favors. The biggest thing that he offered though, had to do with Leon, the dog. So Anthony told her that if she went along with him and got access to this cosmic power, then Leon would live forever.
I forgot about that problem.
So Anthony told her that Leon had been his dog in a previous life, and all three of them had been living together for a thousand years.
What he preclaimed the dog's that's actually are owned dog. I would a previous.
Things I want to note here, So first we have to remember her state of mind.
And also I'd love that he picks a round number of one thousand years. He hasn't, like I guess number.
Some people have been fortunate enough in their lives to not have a total spin out. Yes, and to them, I say up less for others of us, we've had shaky times for differing degrees. You know, you look back on those times and you see the decisions you made or the ideas you had. You're just bewildered. Yeah. Yeah, everything made sense at the time, especially like with bad relationships.
And things that are passionate.
Yes, but you add in all of her sort of like comorbidities to that, and she's fragile and there, Like I said, there are those who totally doubt this story of hers. They think that she makes she made it all up.
She's a co conspiratory.
Yeah, that she's way too smart to fall for something like this, and she concocted all this wild story as a cover up. They say it never happened. I can't say, like.
People who were around it, who could attest, but.
They didn't see like the coercive control, behind the scenes stuff.
Because he's got her locked away, I imagine.
Right, I can see both sides. There are more details on this whole thing than I could ever get into today. So there's a Netflix documentary that's worth watching that was made or the reading up to make up your own mind. People feel very strongly on both theories. Oh interesting, So let's go back to the dog please us dog folks know that these animals mean everything to us. Yes, And if you've gone through like tough times, the spinouts, and you have a dog or say a cat that you love, most people would say that the pet help them get through it, Yes, because there's no judgment from a pet, just unconditional love. And for Sarma.
Even the frustrations can end up making you love the animal more.
Right, exactly. So for Sarma, Leon is her lifeline. He's her everything and in her state to be told that she could make him live forever.
I get people, how much do they spend on cloning dogs? Yeah?
Right, So she was willing to endure whatever tests he had for her if it meant she'd be happy and successful and that she'd never lose Leon, I feel and so about those tests, they were pretty much her sending him large sums of money, which she did.
Once again, love comes to me in dead presence.
All of the money transfers add up because remember she's already in debt, the restaurant's doing well, and the coffers there were just right for the picking. So she was sending hundreds of thousands of restaurant dollars to him. Oh and they said that the totals coming out of the restaurants all said were in the neighborhood of two million. She pulled out of there. They these were not endless cash sources. So pretty soon the restaurants they start missing payroll.
Yes, at places distributing like their meat or I guess not meat, but they have all their yeah.
Yeah. But so like at places where staff totally believe in the chef and the owner and the mission. I've known some who will ride out a missing paycheck.
Oh totally, even a couple like a few, yeah, if they love it.
But in July of twenty fourteen, employees went unpaid for a full month.
That's rough.
Yeah, And throughout twenty fourteen, she missed payroll five different times.
Oh, so they've had to go through this multiple times. They're borrowing from friends and family already.
Or whatever, right, and then of course other bills aren't getting paid, and so she had all sorts of excuses for people. But the fact was, like she wasn't even there very often anymore. She's all scattered when she is, and her staff like they were originally very loyal and they believed in the mission of it. Now they're like, dude, you're never hearing you make no sense when you are. And so it was unlike her, but like they just couldn't hang on any longer. So on January thirteenth, twenty fifteen, the staff of Purefood Wine and one lucky Duck. They all walked out, every single one of them, and everything shut.
Down coordinated respect exactly.
So the story starts getting out about this and this vegan icon who's like all about ethical living. She just stiffed her staff and her suppliers. Not so like she's got the press and the labor board just like breathing down her neck.
Also, she becomes a favorite target of people like the New York Post, And so you're gonna be like I'm saying.
You know, like vegans are easy to mock.
Yeah.
Well, also when you and your high profile.
Tall grass gets cut exactly.
So she blogged it out, and as you.
Do, of course, you blogged through a girl.
In a post titled in all caps what happened? She put the blame everywhere but herself. She blamed slim margins, debt, how expensive quality ingredients were. She told her employees that the problem was a bank changeover in like a payroll glitch. So not having a consistent story did not help the situation.
Do you want to answer?
So three months after the walkout, the restaurants open back up all new staff because the other ones are like, no thanks, Sarma convinced an investor to fork over a million dollars. Wow, and she hired a new general manager to monitor the finances. Okay, customers came back. Things are starting to look up, but like not really. Three months later, she's missing paychecks again. Oh and the staff does a whole other walk out. And when the restaurants closed that time, it was for good, like end of an era. And she's a wall so no one knew where she was. Lawsuits are piling up. She's a no show in court, so she's getting default judgments against her left and right, and she and Anthony are basically on the run. They actually left New York after the first walkout, and they moved all over the US of A, trying to get away from creditors, trying to get away from authority. I have no well, at first they were like not trying to save the little bit of money they had for a year. They traped around the guesses are they spent about two million dollars of vegan restaurant money. They gambled in Vegas, They stayed in fancy hotels, fancy closed in fancy things, and all this like she's got a warrant out for her arrest for you know, charges of grand larsity fraud a local labor and so this obviously can't last.
Forever now, were just a crime spree.
Right when we come back, I'm gonna let you know how it fell apart for Sarma and her sleazy, horrible husbands.
I just care about Leon.
Zaren Elizabeth dateline, May twenty sixteen, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Oh wow, oh wow, Zaren, close your eye. Oh yes, I want you to picture it. You are the manager of a Domino's Pizza and Pigeon Forge, home of Dollywood. It's a slow night and you're working the phones. Your two delivery drivers have each come back from a run and are sitting in the back of the shop watching a small TV. The phone rings and you answer. It's a guy calling to order a cheese pizza, soda wings, anything else, No, just the cheese pizza. Can I get your name? You ask Anthony. He gives you an address that's a cheap motel that's technically in Ceverville, just outside of town. That's okay, it's in your delivery area. You tell him that you are cards only now, no cash, no problem, he says, he'll read you his credit card information Anthony Strangus. Then he rattles off the account number and gives you the expiry date. You tap the information into your computer and wait while the card runs. There's a flag on it. This isn't uncommon. People's cards get declined all the time for all sorts of reasons. But this flag is different. It says it's a criminal hold. There's a warrant out. You know the system has already sent an alert, but you are a good and conscientious citizen. You tell the man it will be thirty minutes, and then you hang up, and you immediately call the cops. A customer walks in the door, setting off the chime. Help him out. You hiss at one of the delivery drivers as you wait for an answer. At nine to one one, we've got a situation. You tell the operator that you've got a flag on a credit card. Someone's got a warrant. Okay, the operator says, But in those moments while you were waiting, you googled the guy's name. He's wanted out of New York City. You tell the operator something to do with a vegan scam, and he ordered cheese pizza. The operator assures you that they're making this their priority. Hang up, you straighten your name tag and take a deep breath. It's all in a day's work for the brave folks of pizza delivery. Thank you for your service, Darren. I know I've made you a pizza guy a couple of times lately.
But you know, actually really was I don't know.
And I just want to pay tribute to one of the greatest foods and one of the greatest professions. Those who make it distribute it.
You say, one of it is the greatest food. And that's not just me talking. That's glued toamite, Like you know, it makes your brain chemistry go.
More than a cucumber tower would.
Yes.
So the cops show up at the hotel. They bust Anthony and Sarma. Turns out they'd been there for like a month and the room had They had like lap tops and phones, cash just stax cash. They paid cash for everything and they laid low. But he screwed up and used his card. So the couple they get extradited.
To New York, risk for pizza, risking all for pizza.
It makes sense. They got they got to face the music now, so she gets charged with grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, scheming to defraud, and violating labor law. He gets similar charges, including four counts of grand larceny as well as he got a separate charge for a labor law violation. Huh, I suppose. And in total, they owed about eight hundred and forty four thousand dollars to investors and forty grand and unpaid wages to employees.
They're lucky didn't get any wire front and.
They builket the state out of four hundred thousand dollars in sales tax.
Oh recording that.
Yeah, so this is all over the news, talk of the town. It was so much money, sure, but it was also the hypocrisy of course everything. Yeah. So here's this media darling. She's all about, as I said, ethical consumption and wellness and sustainability and right living. Yeah, she's standing in her truth and she takes everyone's money and gets busted over cheese pizza and pigeon forge like that's.
Brought low and her dirt bag Clyde Barrow.
So the media loved the cheese pizza part, like they made a big deal out of the cheese pizza.
I'm telling you you fixation. It's right there. You got a vegan who gets.
Caught pepperoni pizza.
Yeah, of course would be better.
They called Slarma the vegan, Bernie made off and bad vegan in the headline.
Okay, that was pretty fresh.
Yeah, I guess so. She later told People magazine quote, I never claimed that I was a strict vegan. That wasn't my intention. I definitely don't refer to myself as that now. I also don't even identify as a chef. I was always more of a curator, like I.
Said, a food arrangement.
I cannot stand when people call themselves curators outside of a museum set.
You get this look in your eye. That's very right.
And so the thing is, the more people learned about the case, the more the details became totally unbelievable, yes with them. For some it was obvious that Anthony was behind everything and had some sort of control over her totally. People found out about his promises of like this utopian life with immortal dogs, and they thought two things like one, she's nuts too, he's a psycho. Or there was the she's making it all up and she's the mastermind behind taking all the money. She knew what she was doing the whole.
Time, like a gone girl, but without the death.
Yes, exactly. So awaiting trial, they both worked with their lawyers to come up with the defense. The prosecution believed that she had entered into all of the activities with full will, full time.
Oh that's a prosecution's take.
Yeah. Her lawyers were like, no, she had been gas lit, like the actual definition, yeah.
The true technical like her reality and brainwashed.
And this is like risky, right because that that defense coerceive control. It doesn't always pan out. It's hard to so I bet, yeah, And so she gets out to.
Approve state of mind and all the aspects of and.
Like it's right now, it's that he said, she saidtle They had like telephone recordings, but those are the dal too.
It would need somebody who's like an accomplished to him in this to say he did this. He told me that we're going to do it exactly without that exactly.
So she she gets offered a plea bargain one to three years in prison for a guilty plea, and she took it.
She did so.
May tenth, twenty seventeen, she pleads guilty to charges of grand larceny in the second degree, criminal tax frawd and scheme to defraud. She gets four months in jail and five years probation. What so she was looking at fifteen.
Years that money crimes never made because.
She but she had no priors.
And then they're not suggesting they should. It's just insane.
They also took in like the coercive control part. They're like, okay, may have been.
I'm with that, I'm not again Anthony.
He also took a deal. He pleaded guilty to four counts of fourth or Greek grand larceny. He gets sentenced to a year in jail in five years probation.
What's his deal? Flip on her?
I guess well, what's interesting is that while Anthony he gets ordered to pay restitutions, she did not.
Okay, that's good, we're putting more responsibility in here.
Well, she owed more than a million dollars to all the investors and the employees she'd stiff. So while there was no restitution ordered, you know, obviously there are all these civil cases and those had been piling up. She said she wants to pay people back, but that's obviously easier said than done. So she did her four months. She got out in October twenty seventeen. Then she filed for divorce from Anthony, like and when she spoke to the media, she made sure to explain that, like, I take responsibility for what I did, but he was the driving force and we are totally separate now we have nothing to do with each other. And for the most part, she tried to lay low. She was on probation and that lasted until twenty twenty two. But like, think about trying to get work if you're her, it's tough. Yeah, there's like no way a restaurant or a chef is going to hire you.
Most likely unless you lie about your identity and change enough.
That nobody goes all that. But she's so striking, like everyone.
Knows and that is a small community.
And totally she's got all that that financial experience and like the degrees and stuff, but like, no one's gonna like put you on the payroll for that kind of stuff.
And they're not gonna trust you.
No, how do you even get enough resources together to rent a place like you get yourself established to find work well, so.
And she's not the kind of famous or infamous where she can cash in on.
It right, right, So this is the quandary that so many people find themselves in, even those who haven't broken anymore are done time. So like you have like women who are stay at home moms or wives and like leave the husband abuse or otherwise if you have no education, nothing to.
Draw marketing sources.
Yeah, like, or if you get injured and you lose your There are all these examples. So she's like right there with them, right. So she couch surfed for a while, and then she got a job as an administrative assistant. Okay, not a bad job, but like way below her.
Skill level, way below, but she's gonna be steady work, I guess exactly that way, she still got to feed Leon, the one thousand year old.
Dog, exactly, and that's that's who was with her through this whole thing. Leon. Oh thank you, Her dog was right there for her the whole time. He is the hero of the story.
Oh yes, how you gonna spend more time with Linin?
I know. The media backlash and the fascination just kept up. An investor told Vanity Fair that quote she is guilty of conduct unbecoming a vegan, which is like hilarious but also totally captures the way that the communities like restaurants, vegans, wellness folks, finance folks, they felt totally betrayed by her.
Totally. I mean, it's when you put yourself up with high ideals and then you betray those you compromised, not just the ideals, but other people who put those same ideas up.
And for every person or story attacking her, there's another pleading her case as a victim. So it's a strong strong points on both sides. And again, I know I'm leaving out details. There's a lot to the story. So if I missed your favorite detail, forgive me and just relax.
You didn't even tell me her shoe size. I don't even know.
How could I. In twenty twenty two, Netflix release that documentary Bad Vegan.
Finally Got to direct, is a four parts documentary she wanted to make.
I find it right, she doesn't get to make it four part series. They interviewed like old employees, investors, her family, They interviewed.
Her Oh wow, that's cool.
Yeah, they even had they had audio of phone calls between her and Anthony, and so they show her control and lack of control in the situation. It's very complicated, so sometimes it sounds like, oh wait, no, she's the one pulling the strings, and then it's a mess. It's just one thing that everyone could agree on is that the relationship was totally toxic.
And culpability can sometimes be very difficult to assign because it's like, well this led to that, well, but before that.
Did that, before that, this is the right and the context of start the story, the context of this phone call. Yeah, so she cooperated with the Netflix stock, but she wasn't happy with the final product, which is common.
Well, she's a you know, prospective documentary.
She thought she thought that it was edited to make her look bad or at least like worse.
She's using her story, so she'sion oh yeah.
And in April twenty twenty two, she published a statement on her personal blog that she's still blogging it out, called it all caps bad. Vegan is not a documentary like that. When you look at like people's comments about it online, everyone's like she's full of it, like she she makes it all up. Anyway, She said that there were all these misrepresentations in it, and she felt that they like meant that basically they edited her to create drama, which Reality TV Welcome to Hollywood more.
Than a document.
Yeah, she did her damnedest to correct the record, but at this point it's just like shouting into the void. People watch the series, they draw their conclusion, like mostly negative towards her because she's not very likable in it, and then they move on, you know. So she's worked to bring attention to psychological abuse and fraud, and she speaks out about like coercive control and even the dynamics of cults. She did an interview with the podcast A Little Bit Culty, connecting her experience with those of cult survivors. Also in twenty twenty two, a New York pop up event that Like featured dishes from Purefood Wine their menu. People loved it and they had all these like, oh my gosh, I remember this nut cheese. Oh, these vegetables are just as raw as when I ate them before. She wasn't part of that though, okay, and then nothing ever came of it. In March of twenty twenty four, she told People magazine that she'd been diagnosed with autism level one Okay, defcom one, which is used to be known as aspergers.
Oh is that no longer?
This don't I guess, yeah, that's what I learned in that article. So her doctor, who specializes in working with people on the spectrum, believes that her condition had a lot to do with how she was able to be manipulated by Anthony.
I can totally say that. I mean, she's being very straightforward in the way that I understand the Aspergers.
Well, this is this is what the doctor told people. Quote, at the core of an autism diagnosis is not always getting social cues or misreading social cues, and not always having the understanding of the intent of the other person. So she said that even before Anthony came around, it was really hard for Sarma to develop and maintain social relationships. And the doctor said that quote autism, manipulation, and vulnerability often go hand in hand. It's common. It's something I see a lot.
So, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I hadn't considered that.
Yeah, exactly. And I don't know, I don't know what or who to believe, but there it is. And in other news, in July of twenty twenty four, there was a huge Daily Mail article about Sarma because Leon had passed away. No, he had a good run, long life, like he had to be pushing like sixteen.
Oh, that's really good. I'm glad he got a.
Twenty twenty four. He made it a good boy until the end. Yes, yes, Leon the thousand year Dogs last the hero here. So, whether you believe Starv or not, Leon was an honest and good boy, loyal and true.
I gotta say, though, pre owning a dog in a past life is one of the wildest things I've heard a long time. You know, actually I owned your dog before you, well, is to.
Make your If your dog becomes immortal, then when you die, the dog is like, oh, like, there goes my owner, like, which is rough for dogs. So I don't know. I don't know. Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway.
That I'm totally gonna pull. I've owned your dog before you. I guarantee you You're gonna hear me say that to one of my dirtbag friends. So just yeah, I know that. So thank you for giving me that gift. Elizabeth, what's your ridiculous take on dogs?
Gotta get a dog? Dogs? Dogs? Acreous?
I need to get anything that loves me, like a pet of some kind, maybe an orphan. I don't know the line. No, I'm kidding obviously.
You know what I think we need right now is a talk bag.
Oh my god, I love get.
Hey Ridiculous Crime. Have you ever heard of the Brandy Line? It was a country bar in San Borandino. I had a French foreign exchange friend who would go with me there while we were in college. But she was French and she called it the country club because that's what makes sense to her. If you've ever been there, it's the furthest thing from a country club you could possibly imagine. But I thought that mashup would be funny to you.
That do cut.
I want to go to the country clubs.
I want to go, Let's go, let's let's let's go there and Random Iron record an episode.
On the road. I like it. We need to do a roadshow.
We so need to do. I have a lot of ideas for that. That's it for today. You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime dot com. One of the cool things about our website is that it is part of the virtual reality world. So if you put the goggles on.
Yeah, you get free cash back deals.
You get to swim through a bucket of cheese and free cash back deals. It's by one it's buy one, get one busters, so many doorbusters. We're also on Blue Sky and Instagram and you can email us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Dear producer Dave, and then leave us a talk back on the iHeart app. Give us some more places that we should go and do a road trip to reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by noted vegan butcher Dave Houston, starring Annals Rutger as Judith. Research is by built kinwa supplier Marissa Brown and raw Food grill master Alex French. The theme song is by Pigeon Forge, Domino's Peacha franchisees Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred guests hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are celebrity vegans who also love burgers and raw blood, Ben Bollen and Noel.
Browns QUI say it one More time?
QUI?
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show os
