Bad Vegan trailer drops as Netflix prepares to unravel bizarre true-crime tale of restaurant owner on the run

The Bad Vegan trailer has dropped for Netflix’s forthcoming documentary about ‘the vegan Bernie Madoff’, and it’s possibly the only time a ‘meat suit’ has ever been mentioned without reference to Lady Gaga.

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. is the latest true-crime docuseries to premiere on the streaming platform, and it will arrive March 16.

The series follows the case of Sarma Melngailis, who went from being a famous and successful vegan restaurant owner, to being a fugitive on the run and eventually jail bird.

Sarma rose to fame as the woman behind New York’s most successful restaurant Pure Food and Wine, which was at one time known as the ‘top raw vegan restaurant in the world’.

However, things took a turn for the worse in 2011, when she met a man called Shane Fox, who promised to make all her dreams come true, from expanding her food empire to making her dogs immortal. Yep, he *really* told her that.

The two eventually married, which led to Sarma funneling all of the company funds towards Shane, whose real name was Anthony Strangis, until the couple was forced to pack up and go on the run.

The series follows the case of vegan restaurant owner Sarma Melngailis (Picture: Netflix)

Anthony was a convict originally from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, with prior arrests for grand theft and for impersonating a police officer.

They were finally tracked down and arrested in May 2016, when the couple ordered a non-vegan pizza from Domino’s to the Tennessee hotel room they’d been hiding out in.

Both later served jail terms for grand larceny, tax fraud, and conspiring to defraud.

Melngailis went on the run (Picture: Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

Speaking about the marriage, a former associate said: ‘There were tons of conspiracy theories about why she married him. Was there some kind of blackmail involved?’

The documentary suggests that Anthony had control over Sarma, with the opening moments saying: ‘You signed on to this. You told me you wanted happily ever after. If I tell you to take all your money out of the bank and light it on fire, do it.’

However, as prosecutors later claimed, was Samra in on it the whole time? And could she, as the trailer suggests, have been ‘running a scam on him? What if that’s the con? It makes her look like the vegan Bernie Madoff.’

More: Netflix

The series comes from Chris Smith, the executive producer of Tiger King and the director of Fyre: The Greatest Party That Ever Happened.

It will feature interviews with chefs, former coworkers, and friends of Samra, all giving their perspective on what happened.

Oh, and the meat suit? You’ll just have to watch to find out more…

Bad Vegan arrives March 16 on Netflix.

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