Kriti Mehrotra
There’s no denying that Netflix’s ‘Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.’ is a tale of lies, greed, and manipulation from the point of view it’s told, but it’s also absolute that even luxury is at the front and center. After all, despite the fact that Anthony Strangis purportedly drove his then-partner Sarma Melngailis to steal thousands of dollars from her staff and investors alike, he almost always led an extravagant life himself.
As per the series, from rolling around in a Bentley to having a small manilla envelope full of diamonds and from buying a Rolex to splurging on grand vacations, the gambling addict ostensibly did it all with additional cash in hand. So now, if you wish to learn more about Sarma’s rings, in particular, especially where they were from and if they were really worth an exuberant amount, here’s everything we know about them.
What’s up with Sarma Melngailis’ Rings?
There was a brief period in 2012 – just a few months after the duo first got together – when restauranteur Sarma Melngailis had no interest in seeing Anthony Strangis (or Shane Fox, as she then knew him) again. However, he managed to lure her back into his orbit through a thoughtful roundtrip from New York to New Hampshire just to pick her up from her mother’s, following which it seemed like things got better.
The then-queen of vegan cuisine sometimes felt as if Anthony understood her aspirations in a way no one else ever had, “like this is what was meant to be happening,” so she couldn’t push him away, as per the documentary. That’s also why she didn’t mind when he invited her to meet him at Tiffany & Co. one day, even though diamonds are not her thing, unlike millions of women all across the world. He actually made Sarma try on several rings on the “exclusive floor where they bring you champagne,” one of which cost an astounding $800,000.
According to the Netflix original, Sarma did ask her boyfriend what they were doing at the luxury store, to which he only responded, “just tell me what you like in here.” That’s the same day she told Anthony she loved him at The St. Regis hotel, and they soon began looking at townhouses together before tying the knot in late 2012. Unfortunately, since their wedding was a “non-event,” in her father’s words, and Sarma was always careful never to show off her ring publicly, we can’t even describe what it looks like, let alone calculate its estimated worth.
All we know from ‘Bad Vegan’ is that Sarma often went as far as to wear one of her own rings to cover up her wedding ones, indicating she didn’t want people to know she was married and probably didn’t like them either. As seen above, the former is quite the statement piece, with dangling charms representing her Latvian heritage, which is likely why she proudly displayed it on her ‘Raw Food/Real World’ (2005) cookbook cover as well.
Read More: What is Sarma Melngailis’s Ethnicity and Nationality?
