Where is Anthony Strangis now? Details explored ahead of Toxic on ID

Anthony Strangis first slipped from public view after leaving Rikers Island in May 2017. However, his trail resurfaces this week when Investigation Discovery airs Toxic season 1 episode 5, Surviving Strangis, at 10 p.m. on Monday, 9 June 2025.

The convicted swindler, notorious for siphoning more than $1.6 million from restaurateur Sarma Melngailis’s Pure Food and Wine enterprise, has remained a subject of public curiosity.

As per Vanity Fair's report dated April 14, 2022, Anthony Strangis secured early probation release, took his wife Jennifer Van Laar’s surname, and shifted to Southern California. As per sources, he mingled with conservative media and was offered private security work. Anthony Strangis had already served a year in jail and still owed more than $800,000 in restitution, making a discreet restart essential.

According to the Investigation Discovery episode guide dated June 9, 2025, Toxic now tracks fresh complaints that place Anthony Strangis in California. Anthony Strangis is believed to be somewhere in Southern California, but his precise whereabouts remain unconfirmed.

---

In 2015, Anthony Strangis and Sarma Melngailis vanished, leaving workers and investors unpaid and sparking fraud and labour-law warrants

Anthony Strangis became the focus of multiple investigations after Pure Food and Wine stopped paying staff wages in early 2015, forcing repeated walkouts and a temporary shutdown.

According to the New York Post report dated May 22, 2016, prosecutors later alleged that Anthony and Melngailis diverted nearly $2 million from business accounts while payroll obligations went unmet. Staff counsel Benjamin Dictor described the losses succinctly, saying:

“She’s the vegan Bernie Madoff”

By August 2015, investors had also filed civil claims for unpaid loans, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office opened a fraud case. Indictments followed in May 2016, alleging grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, and labour-law violations.

The pair fled New York but resurfaced in Sevierville, Tennessee, in May 2016. A Domino’s order placed under Strangis’s real name led detectives to a budget motel in Sevierville, ending their ten months on the run, as per the Men’s Health report dated March 17, 2022.

---

Arrest in Tennessee and plea deals

Anthony was extradited to New York and held at Rikers Island on $350,000 bail; no one posted it. Court records show he pleaded guilty in May 2017 to four counts of fourth-degree grand larceny. Having already spent about a year in custody, he received time served plus five years’ probation and $844,000 restitution.

Melngailis accepted a separate plea, served four months, and began a longer probation term. The Independent report dated March 17, 2022, notes that both sentences were structured to avoid lengthy trials and that Strangis faced no mandatory mental-health supervision.

A recorded jail call later released by Netflix captured Anthony Strangis insisting he was not a "joker" when warning Melngailis against cooperating with filmmakers, per a Vanity Fair report dated April 14, 2022.

“I’m not some f*cking joker....I’m not someone to be f*cked with,” Strangis was heard saying.

The same article documents his early probation transfer to Massachusetts and subsequent relocation to Southern California after 2021, following a brief marriage to conservative commentator Jennifer Van Laar.

---

What Toxic will revisit

Investigation Discovery schedules Toxic season 1 episode 5, Surviving Strangis, for 10 p.m. IST on Monday, 9 June 2025. The episode guide states that new allegations place Anthony Strangis in Southern California, suggesting possible fresh victims.

By revisiting the 2015 payroll collapse, the 2016 Tennessee arrest, and the 2017 plea, Toxic aims to assess whether Anthony has resumed fraudulent activity or maintains a lower-profile life after probation. Defense attorney Sam Karliner told E! News, in a report dated Mar 22, 2022:

“Anthony is remorseful for the people at the restaurant that lost money and he took full responsibility for his part in that…. He’s got a job, uses his name, this is behind him and she’s behind him.”

The broadcast will update viewers on outstanding restitution, civil claims, and any verified 2025 whereabouts, framing Anthony's post-release path against the background of his earlier fraud scheme.

---

Stay tuned for more updates.