Fugitive ‘Vegan Bernie Madoff’ Makes Bail: Gambled Away Investors Funds

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  • Sarma Melngailis managed to post her $335,000 bond after being jailed for pilfering some $2 million from restaurant biz
  • Captured in Tennessee with her fugitive boyfriend after ordering a not-so-vegan Dominos Pizza
  • Accused of stealing around $840,000 from investors while failing to pay employees for weeks
  • Possibly gambled away nearly $2 million at Connecticut casinos

A woman referred to as the “Vegan Bernie Madoff” has managed to post her $335,000 bail after she was found to have pilfered nearly $2 million from her popular vegan restaurant leaving employees and investors high and dry.

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Sarma Melngailis, a 1994 Penn State grad, and hubby Anthony Strangis were captured in Tennessee after ordering a not-so-vegan Dominos Pizza.

Melngailis ran popular Greenwich Village restaurants Lucky Duck and Pure Food and Wine. 

From The Daily News:

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun approved Melgnailies’ bail package and she was released from the courtroom with her attorneys Cesar de Castro and Sheila Tendy shortly after.

Melngailis, who declined to comment, immediately changed out of the baggy jail garbs and into a sleeveless white shirt that exposed a tattoo of a duck on her left shoulder and white jeans.

Melngailis is accused of stealing some $844,000 from investors and spending around $2 million in Connecticut casinos.  She also failed to pay employees for weeks, leading to her entire staff walking out en masse.  Employees referred to her as “The Vegan Bernie Madoff” with a number of them appearing in court at the time she was jailed.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com

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