Anthony Strangis: Aliases, Guilty Plea, and Where He Is Now

Anthony Strangis is a convicted con man who defrauded Manhattan raw-vegan restaurateur Sarma Melngailis out of nearly $2 million, pleaded guilty in 2017 to four counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, and served roughly a year on Rikers Island before being released to five years of probation. Operating under aliases including “Shane Fox” and “Michael Caledonia,” he convinced Melngailis he had supernatural powers and ties to a secret group called “The Family,” then funneled money from her business Pure Food and Wine into casinos, watches, and hotels. His case reached a wider audience through the 2022 Netflix series Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives, and reporting since has documented a pattern of deception stretching back before Melngailis and continuing after his release.

Life Before Melngailis

Strangis grew up in what his half-sister McKaila Coulter described as a middle-class family, and moved to Florida in his twenties to live with his father. Coulter said their mother gave them Marvel-inspired nicknames — his was “Loki,” the trickster.¹

By the time he met Melngailis, he already had a record. He was charged in Florida with grand theft involving a sports car and with impersonating a police officer.² On December 20, 2003, he married a woman he had met at a Florida gym; that marriage collapsed after she reported that he had pawned her jewelry and she fell behind on her mortgage. His first ex-wife, Stacey Avery, later alleged he abandoned her and their child after claiming “demons were after him.”³ Throughout this period, he falsely claimed to be a Navy SEAL. Coulter said stories about him “fighting African rebels” were fabrications that covered time spent gambling or playing video games.

How He Took Over Pure Food and Wine

Strangis first contacted Melngailis in 2011 on Twitter, using the handle @UKnowUWant_It and the persona “Mr. Fox.” He interacted with both Melngailis and actor Alec Baldwin before moving conversations with her into direct messages.⁴ He presented himself as a covert government operative and, over time, convinced her he could make her pit bull, Leon, immortal. He told her a group he called “The Family” could grant her special powers and unlimited resources if she passed “cosmic endurance tests,” each of which required transferring money.⁵

Starting in 2013, he took increasing control of Melngailis’s businesses, Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck. Staff knew him as “Shane.” He held meetings under that alias, told workers he was in the process of buying the company, and instructed untrained employees to bring cash receipts to him at a bank rather than depositing them into business accounts.⁶ To deceive investors who had put in $844,000 to restart the business, he posed as a wealthy buyer named “Michael Caledonia.”⁷

Sources close to Melngailis described his methods as “cult-like techniques” that included gaslighting, sleep deprivation, and sexual humiliation. He allegedly sorted family members and employees into “red shirts” (threats) and “blue shirts” (safe), and warned her about a fictitious tech expert named “Will Richards” and a violent, surveillance-savvy brother watching her every move.⁴ Using the “Will Richards” identity, Strangis reportedly gained access to her email, cell phone, and bank accounts.⁵

Where the Money Went

Between January 2014 and January 2015, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Strangis and Melngailis spent about $2 million in business proceeds and investor funds. Melngailis transferred more than $1.6 million from business accounts into her personal account, and Strangis funneled $1.2 million of it to Connecticut casinos.⁸ The indictment itemized nearly $1 million at Foxwoods Resort Casino, over $200,000 at Mohegan Sun, more than $80,000 at specialty watch retailers including Rolex and Beyer, over $70,000 at European and New York hotels, and more than $10,000 on Uber rides.⁷

Beyond the restaurant funds, 84 employees were shortchanged more than $40,000 in wages, and the business failed to pay $409,987.56 in sales tax to New York State. Melngailis’s mother provided roughly $450,000 from a family trust after being told the money was needed to keep her daughter from a nervous breakdown.⁶ By one accounting, Melngailis’s total debts reached about $6 million.⁹

How He Was Caught

In the summer of 2015, after employees walked out for the last time and Pure Food and Wine closed, Strangis and Melngailis fled New York. They moved through Las Vegas, Louisiana, and Tennessee over roughly ten months before settling into the Fairfield Inn and Suites near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where they stayed about 40 days.¹⁰

They were located after Strangis ordered Domino’s pizza and chicken wings to the hotel using his real name. Bob Stahkle, a spokesperson for the Sevierville Police Department, told reporters that “detectives were able to track down Anthony Strangis and Sarma by a pizza delivery sent to their hotel.”¹⁰ They were arrested on fugitive-from-justice warrants in May 2016.

The Guilty Plea and Sentence

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office brought a 24-count indictment against both Strangis and Melngailis, including second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal tax fraud, first-degree scheme to defraud, and labor law violations. The top charge carried up to 15 years in prison.⁷

On March 2, 2017, Strangis pleaded guilty before Judge Danny Chun in Brooklyn State Supreme Court to four counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree, class-C non-violent felonies.¹¹ He was sentenced to one year in jail, most of which he had already served during roughly a year and three days on Rikers Island, plus five years of probation.¹² Judge Chun told Strangis he had to remain accountable to probation for five years and that a violation could bring 5 to 15 additional years in prison.¹³ He was ordered to pay about $840,000 in restitution to investors. His attorney, Sam Karliner, said Strangis “pled guilty and owned up to the crimes long before Melngailis.”²

Melngailis later pleaded guilty to grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and a scheme to defraud, and served four months at Rikers Island.⁹ She filed for divorce from Strangis in 2018.¹⁴

Where He Is Now

Strangis was released from Rikers Island in May 2017. His probation was transferred to Massachusetts, and he later obtained early release by submitting a bodyguard contract as proof of employment.¹ The contract was with Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of the conservative site RedState, for whom he began working in 2020.

After his release, he reinvented himself using social media accounts under variations of the name “Jack Slater” and interacted with figures in conservative political circles, describing himself as a “behind-the-scenes political operative” and consultant. In November 2019, he told Melngailis he had advance knowledge of private photos of former congresswoman Katie Hill before their publication by RedState; Van Laar later said Strangis had no involvement in that story.¹

On August 10, 2021, Strangis married Van Laar in a Las Vegas ceremony. He legally adopted her surname and obtained a driver’s license under the new name. Van Laar called the marriage something they decided to do “on a lark,” said they later concluded they worked better as friends, and filed for divorce.¹⁵

As of 2022 reporting, Strangis still owed more than $800,000 in court-ordered restitution from his conviction. A separately unearthed document revealed nearly $20 million in federal tax liens against him.¹⁶ His half-sister Coulter said he had borrowed money from her that he never repaid and called his claim of a job with the Republican Party “ridiculous.”

The story has not stayed static. In 2025, Melngailis published a memoir, The Girl With The Duck Tattoo, detailing allegations of psychological and sexual abuse by Strangis and telling the New York Post that he “took control of me and my mind” and “dragged me into a delusion.”¹⁴ Later that year, the Investigation Discovery series Toxic, hosted by Elizabeth Chambers, aired an episode titled “Surviving Strangis” on June 9, 2025. The network’s synopsis said investigators had uncovered “a string of alleged new victims” and that “new revelations suggest Strangis is at it again.”¹⁷ Jeffrey Lichtman, the attorney who represented Melngailis during the criminal case, called Strangis a “lifelong predator and fraudster.”¹⁸

1
Vanity Fair. How Bad Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Reinvented Himself
2
South China Morning Post. Where Is Anthony Strangis From Netflix’s Bad Vegan Now
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Vanity Fair. How Bad Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Reinvented Himself
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Vanity Fair. How Sarma Melngailis Became a Runaway Fugitive
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Newsweek. Bad Vegan’s Shane Fox: Who Is Anthony Strangis
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Vanity Fair. How Sarma Melngailis Became a Runaway Fugitive
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Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Owner of Vegan Food Business and Her Husband Indicted
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Vanity Fair. How Sarma Melngailis Became a Runaway Fugitive
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The Guardian. Bad Vegan: Inside the Bizarre World of a Celebrity Restaurateur Scam
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Forbes. Vegan Restaurateur Wanted for Theft, Tax Fraud Brought Down by Cheesy Pizza Order
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Vanity Fair. Sarma Melngailis’s Vegan Fugitive Defense
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People. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives True Story
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New York Post. Estranged Hubby of Vegan Fraudster Gets 5 Years Probation
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New York Post. Bad Vegan Sarma Melngailis Claims Her Ex Ruined Her Life
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Vanity Fair. How Bad Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Reinvented Himself
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Vanity Fair. How Bad Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Reinvented Himself
17
PennLive. Convicted Conman Is Target of the Next Episode of Toxic
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Yahoo Lifestyle. Bad Vegan’s Anthony Strangis Gambled Away Millions