Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. - General Discussion

[Door County Cherry]

Bad Vegan, a new Netflix documentary, chronicles the downfall of Melngailis, who has alleged her husband exercised outsized influence on her. 

[merylinkid]

I watched this.   She is STILL in denial about her choices.   She never explained HOW he acquired this incredible influence over her such that she would just keep giving him money she didn't have.   That she would take off and just wander around -- because he promised her dog would live forever?   I mean I would like a little proof he was capable of this other than his promises.   

She told a story about how he blindfolded her once and ordered her around as a "test."   She's not sure what the test was.   I was all, a test to see if you were dumb enough to do whatever he said.   You passed.   If she had said no way, he would have bailed and gone on this next mark.

He's the Tinder Swindler in New York, except he actually married his marks.  

[OoogleEyes]

I am absolutely fascinated by con people and their "victims". What the hell... $1.6 MILLION? 

She must have been smart, maybe? WTF. If her business was going that well that she was able to afford that...

NOT TO MENTION her mother. I can kind of see why she was duped.

Damn

Edited March 20, 2022 by OoogleEyes

[Adiba]

2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

I watched this.   She is STILL in denial about her choices.   She never explained HOW he acquired this incredible influence over her such that she would just keep giving him money she didn't have.   That she would take off and just wander around -- because he promised her dog would live forever?   I mean I would like a little proof he was capable of this other than his promises.   

She told a story about how he blindfolded her once and ordered her around as a "test."   She's not sure what the test was.   I was all, a test to see if you were dumb enough to do whatever he said.   You passed.   If she had said no way, he would have bailed and gone on this next mark.

He's the Tinder Swindler in New York, except he actually married his marks.  

I agree, Sarma still didn’t seem to take accountability for many of her actions. I do get that Anthony sort of brainwashed her and manipulated her over years, but how he ever got that foothold in the first place still mystifies me. I guess it’s the same thing with cults, though. Anthony created his own mini- cult with Sarma.

Another Netflix documentary, The Puppet Master, about Robert Hendy-Freegard in the UK, is similar to this story. He controlled his victims through fear over many years. He had them convinced he was a spy, a member of MI6, and that the IRA were after them. Mind- boggling.

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, merylinkid said:

He's the Tinder Swindler in New York, except he actually married his marks.  

Except I had a lot more sympathy for the Tinder Swindler's victims than I had for Sarma.  At least the Tinder Swindler instantly backed up his claim of money with elaborate gifts. This guy was immediately not who he seemed when she met him yet she didn't run from it.  And she let the fact that Alec Baldwin interacted with him on a social media platform trust him even though there's no evidence that he's not a stranger to Alec.  It sounds like Alec came into her restaurant enough that she could have asked him.

Instead, it sounds like she was just ready to give up everything to him because she was tired of having responsibility? 

I'd maybe feel more sympathy for her if it weren't her employees who suffered.  She says she was emotionally abused and manipulated but, from the documentary, it feels more like she was just willing to believe anything even when evidence directly contradicted it.

That said, I also hope Leon lives forever.

The documentary was at least an episode too long, though, IMO.

[IntrovertRed]

The reporter in the show said that he wonders if Sarma was going to use Anthony because she thought he was wealthy and in fact she was the con until it got away from her.  True or not, I felt like she was lying through some of it and they deserved each other.  I think she liked that he took over the restaurant because it was too overwhelming for her because she was in way over her head.

The only people I feel sorry for are the ones who worked for her and were hurt by her actions.  Oh and her mother too.  

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

The documentary was at least an episode too long, though, IMO.

Way too long!  They probably could have done this in one episode that was two hours. It felt way too repetitive.

Edited March 20, 2022 by KLJ

[MakingBacon]

I have to wonder if Sarma ever actually cared about the restaurant or if she was just going through the motions because that’s what she thought she was supposed to do, like when she was working on Wall Street. I think it’s pretty clear she married Anthony thinking he would pay off the debt. What happened after she realized that wasn’t going to happen I cannot wrap my head around. I don’t think she was brainwashed so much as she seemed to want someone to take over making decisions. I do wonder if she had been dealing with depression or something and she sort of gave up. That’s being said, I don’t feel sorry for her and think she was an active participant the fraud even by just allowing Anthony to take control. Her lack of remorse or empathy for what her employees when through is appalling. I am disturbed by her conversation with Anthony at the end. Who basically flirts with the man who helped you lose everything and end up in prison?

I am disturbed with the mentioning of Patty Hearst. She was kidnapped, held hostage for over a year and abused. Sarma’s life cannot be compared to what she went through. 

The employees are really the stars in this whole saga. They seem to be loyal people who tried their best to keep the restaurant going when they weren’t even getting paid. The fact they left the other restaurant to go back to Sarma’s when it reopened says a lot about how they felt about her. They deserved better. 

[merylinkid]

22 minutes ago, MakingBacon said:

I am disturbed by her conversation with Anthony at the end. Who basically flirts with the man who helped you lose everything and end up in prison?

OMG THIS.    I know.   Like, why go BACK to the guy you claim controlled you.   All you had to do was ... not call him.   Now he knows, he can con you again and you will fall for it again.   Sarma, girl, you are an idiot.

[UsernameFatigue]

Hubby and I just binge watched this. A couple of episodes in I said that it should be called "Dumb Vegan". By the third episode I revised the title to "Bad Liar".  Samra really was a piece of work. She may have been conned at the start, but ended up being as much of a con artist as her hubby was by the end 

I was wondering what she is doing now so googled. She is  apparently writing a memoir. Or work of fiction, perhaps. I wondered how she had managed to con investors into giving her $850,000 to reopen her restaurant after it shut down the first time. Apparently she told them that she needed to take money out of the business to help her mother.  A lie, of course. 

Her lawyer had previously represented a famous Mexican drug lord. While he was representing her she had an affair with him over the course of a year of so.  Maybe looking for what she thought was another rich guy to look after her? She said they got along well when they first met because "I'm smart, I'm direct, I'm honest". Nope, nope and nope. 

[Pepper Mostly]

So, stupid Sarma thought that she would somehow be gaining entrance to a higher plain of existence and some sort of cosmic immortality by blindly following the "instructions" of this oafish lout? She got nothing in return. He didn't even charm her! He was gross and creepy from the very beginning. Usually con men can use their charisma and charm and power of persuasion on their victims but he had none of that. He was crude. And she tried to excuse herself by saying she fell for his phony New Age mumbo jumbo which mostly sounded like the narratives of video games by saying she was "open minded" about woo woo spirituality? In the 80's she would have played the Airplane Game. I'm surprised the Scientologists didn't get hold of her. She was ripe for the plucking. And stupid. Oh so stupid. She blithely handed over her passwords and banking information! And never ever figured out that he was monitoring her phone and email?? 

I don't know much but I suspect that if someone was really doing super secret Black Ops stuff they wouldn't tell you. 

Oooh, he and Alec Baldwin sometimes exchanged tweets! Well, that makes it legit then. 

Its always greed that gets these marks in the end, and it was her undoing too, regardless of how she tries to excuse it now. 

[watchingtvaddict]

Sarma removed herself as an active participant in her own life. From her change from investment banking to a career in food (a co-worker suggested she loved food more than investing). To her actions marrying Anthony (the accountant suggested she married him to avoid tax) and defrauding her investors and stealing money from employees. She also said she didn't remember why she fired one of her employees but mentioned they ran into each other a few weeks or months later and hugged and cried so everything was good. 

She must've been an extremely charming boss because I don't think I would return to a job after several missed paychecks and a mass walkout. Did she give them back pay to convince them everything was good? So much missing from this story. I wish Sarma wasn't the main narrator because she is the very definition of unreliable. 

Edited March 21, 2022 by watchingtvaddict

[Rickster]

Sarma has a blog, sarmaraw.com, for anyone who’s interested. She mentions that she was paid by the producers for her participation. The money went directly to an attorney for her former employees to settle a suit for back wages. I think as a result the documentary is not really an objective view of the situation. As others have mentioned, and I agree, one of the big failings of this series is the lack of probing into Sarma - it’s basically her perspective on things, which is often puzzling.

(Full disclosure - I’ve only watched the first two episodes)

[JustHereForFood]

I thought this would be about cheating on a vegan diet ☹️. That, I might have watched. 

[OoogleEyes]

4 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

 

Oooh, he and Alec Baldwin sometimes exchanged tweets! Well, that makes it legit then. 

This is what killed me too. I was talking to a friend about this and she said "Did he even know Alec Baldwin?" 

I had to think about it a minute. NO! He didn't! Only by tweets! Damn, girl. You deserve it.

And people are now giving her even more money for this show and her "memoirs". There's a sucker born every day.

 

[UsernameFatigue]

37 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

I thought this would be about cheating on a vegan diet ☹️. That, I might have watched. 

Ha - that reminded me of another of Samra's sob stories.  Poor baby  was suffering in Las Vegas as she apparently couldn't find a book store, news stand or vegan food. Las Vegas has all three. I am generally more of a vegetarian than vegan, but have had no problem finding lots of great food to eat there. And I've been going there since the 90s. Samra was there in 2015/16.  Her own restaurant opened in 2004, it isn't like vegan food is something that hard to find, even in Las Vegas. Apparently Samra was also unaware that not only do tourists read (not all gamble 24/7 like her hubby) but there are actually people who call LV home. And some of them actually read. Sheesh.

Also it didn't look like where there were staying was some hole in the wall. It looked pretty nice (from the little bit of footage we saw) complete apparently with a Starbucks in the lobby. Ten months is a long time to pay for a hotel in Vegas. Where did she think the money was coming from? Maybe I am a cynic, but I don't believe that she didn't know that her hubby was getting money from her mother. After all, she used her mother as the excuse for needing money from investors to restart her restaurant after it shut down the first time.

I also loved her explanation of covering up her duck tattoo with large bandages. Not because she thought they were on the run. Just because it brought bad memoires of her business failure. But her business was still running when she took off with hubby for Vegas. It did close down (again) because no one was getting paid (again). Odd how she apparently has no bad feelings now towards the tattoo which she had no problem displaying during her interviews for the documentary. 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by UsernameFatigue

[Back Atcha]

32 minutes ago, OoogleEyes said:

And people are now giving her even more money for this show and her "memoirs". There's a sucker born every day.

Does everyone FALL IN LOVE with Samra?  Men and women alike?  They just sit there mesmerized and believe every word?  Bring on Season TWO!

4 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

I'm surprised the Scientologists didn't get hold of her.

It's not too late!  Even more reason for a Season TWO!

[supposebly]

I haven't seen this since I also thought this would be about a fake vegan who ran a vegan restaurant. I wasn't interested in something like that. I am however interested in the reasons people get conned, partially because I worry that it might happen to me at some point in my life since I do have a tendency to think I know better and to not listen to advice from friends or family.

Considering the range of movies about women who get conned for all kinds of reasons lately, I'm a little concerned that there are none that showcase men who get conned. Does it happen to women more? Or are the kinds of cons different?

[Trini]

29 minutes ago, supposebly said:

Considering the range of movies about women who get conned for all kinds of reasons lately, I'm a little concerned that there are none that showcase men who get conned. Does it happen to women more? Or are the kinds of cons different?

I suspect that we hear about it less because men are less likely to admit to it publicly; and they're more likely to afford and/or write off their losses and less likely to seek recourse.

[Adiba]

The more I think about it, and the more posts here and other articles I read, I wonder if Sarma had any diagnosed mental health issues? She married Shane/Anthony so quickly, trusting that he had actual money. She was a Wharton graduate, not uneducated and naive. She bought the “immortality” promise, the “black ops” baloney, etc. She was draining money from her business without getting anything back from Anthony. Was she delusional?

It’s difficult to get a good read on Sarma, as she is an unreliable narrator in the series.

And lastly, as someone posted above, why couldn’t she find vegan food in Vegas— or just go to a grocery and pick up some things? It’s not like she needed to cook on a stove. 

[MaggieG]

I wasn't sure what to think about this or Sarma. The first episode I thought "ok, she was taken in by this guy and believed everything he said". As I kept watching, it seemed more to me that she didn't care, all of it was just an excuse to escape from her life. I'm also confused as to why she kept asking people for money to give to Anthony. Was she using the money too? What they heck did they do in Vegas for 10 months? I know he gambled a lot but what about her? What did she get out of the relationship, ultimately? She gave this guy over a million dollars, went to prison because of him and she's exchanging flirty phone calls with him at the end?

I cannot believe that one guy got the whole kitchen staff jobs at a different restaurant and they all quit to go back to Sarma. He was also the one asking questions and she fired him. She must have been very charming. The guy who was homeless was ready to drive down to TN and break her out of prison. And the guy she met at Chipotle that took care of her dog. 

I also laughed at the one lady comparing Anthony's mugshot to The Hamburgler. 

[FozzyBear]

7 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

So, stupid Sarma thought that she would somehow be gaining entrance to a higher plain of existence and some sort of cosmic immortality by blindly following the "instructions" of this oafish lout? She got nothing in return. He didn't even charm her! He was gross and creepy from the very beginning. Usually con men can use their charisma and charm and power of persuasion on their victims but he had none of that. He was crude. And she tried to excuse herself by saying she fell for his phony New Age mumbo jumbo which mostly sounded like the narratives of video games by saying she was "open minded" about woo woo spirituality? In the 80's she would have played the Airplane Game. I'm surprised the Scientologists didn't get hold of her. She was ripe for the plucking. And stupid. Oh so stupid. She blithely handed over her passwords and banking information! And never ever figured out that he was monitoring her phone and email?? 

I don't know much but I suspect that if someone was really doing super secret Black Ops stuff they wouldn't tell you. 

Oooh, he and Alec Baldwin sometimes exchanged tweets! Well, that makes it legit then. 

Its always greed that gets these marks in the end, and it was her undoing too, regardless of how she tries to excuse it now. 

I immediately thought of the Airplane game or that dinner party  game the mom from Murder on Middle Beach got herself involved in. In fact that’s what I think Samara thought was going on. I think she thought she was part of a pyramid scheme and she would get a big payout if she hung on long enough, but I think she knew it was a scam not some sort of secret organization or magic or something. I think she just thought she was in on the scam.

[Irlandesa]

7 hours ago, supposebly said:

Considering the range of movies about women who get conned for all kinds of reasons lately, I'm a little concerned that there are none that showcase men who get conned. Does it happen to women more? Or are the kinds of cons different?

The Dropout on Hulu is about one woman who conned a ton of mostly rich old white men (name of an episode). It's a drama but it's based on a book and podcast about  a real story.  

8 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

Poor baby  was suffering in Las Vegas as she apparently couldn't find a book store, news stand or vegan food. Las Vegas has all three

I've never been to Vegas but even I thought that it was a stereotypical view of Vegas and not likely the reality of what I understand to be a thriving food scene. 

[watchingtvaddict]

8 hours ago, supposebly said:

Considering the range of movies about women who get conned for all kinds of reasons lately, I'm a little concerned that there are none that showcase men who get conned. Does it happen to women more? Or are the kinds of cons different?

A couple of men were scammed in this show (they might not have all been interviewed though)  and if I recall correctly quite a few men were scammed in the Theranos scandal.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by watchingtvaddict

[Cementhead]

The best part of this?  Finding out that Alec Baldwin met Hilaria here, after being turned down by Sarma.  So, long story short, Sarma gets conned by Anthony Strangis and Alec gets conned by Hillary from Boston. 

 

[Back Atcha]

13 hours ago, Cementhead said:

The best part of this?  Finding out that Alec Baldwin met Hilaria here, after being turned down by Sarma.  So, long story short, Sarma gets conned by Anthony Strangis and Alec gets conned by Hillary from Boston. 

Thanks for this, Cementhead.   I haven't followed "Hilaria" at all...only glanced at tidbits that taught me that she does yoga, married Alec, and had some kids.  This is great!   Hilaria Baldwin was born Hillary Thomas to white American parents in Boston. But since her 2012 marriage to Alec Baldwin, her social-media posts and interviews led people to believe that she was from Spain and that Spanish was her "native language."

[Rlb8031]

On 3/21/2022 at 1:37 PM, supposebly said:

I haven't seen this since I also thought this would be about a fake vegan who ran a vegan restaurant. I wasn't interested in something like that. I am however interested in the reasons people get conned, partially because I worry that it might happen to me at some point in my life since I do have a tendency to think I know better and to not listen to advice from friends or family.

Considering the range of movies about women who get conned for all kinds of reasons lately, I'm a little concerned that there are none that showcase men who get conned. Does it happen to women more? Or are the kinds of cons different?

Someone above mentioned another Netflix documentary about a similar type of con man:

On 3/20/2022 at 12:03 PM, Adiba said:

Another Netflix documentary, The Puppet Master, about Robert Hendy-Freegard in the UK, is similar to this story. He controlled his victims through fear over many years. He had them convinced he was a spy, a member of MI6, and that the IRA were after them. Mind- boggling.

He conned both men and women, the difference being that most of his male victims he met while they were in university together. It seemed as he got older the guys were less of his long con focus, although there were definitely men that he was manipulating as well. Most of them ended up being people he had convinced he was a spy who he would then trot out to convince whatever woman he was scamming to go along with his latest ridiculous request.

As far as Sarma, I thought the same thing about her that I did about the Theranos woman - they profited greatly from their not-completely-average looks. Trust me if either one of these ladies had been a six-foot tall 250 lbs brunette, the willingness to 1) give them the benefit of the doubt; 2) cut them break after break even in the face of mediocre performance and 3) not come down on them like a ton of bricks when stuff finally went bad would have been non-existent. Both of these petite, somewhat attractive blonde women got the kind of breaks I'm not sure an ugly (or not conventionally attractive) woman would have gotten.

[Back Atcha]

3 hours ago, Rlb8031 said:

Both of these petite, somewhat attractive blonde women got the kind of breaks I'm not sure an ugly (or not conventionally attractive) woman would have gotten.

No question.  I'm sure!

[Auntie Anxiety]

On 3/20/2022 at 1:34 PM, Irlandesa said:

And she let the fact that Alec Baldwin interacted with him on a social media platform trust him even though there's no evidence that he's not a stranger to Alec.

Anyone who thinks that any kind of association with Alec Baldwin is an asset deserves what they get. This is the same guy who shot a person dead on the set of his movie and is now making himself out to be the victim. Okay.

And Shane/Anthony/Whatever-his-name-is is Kevin Smith’s doppelgänger. In a 300 pound meat suit. Which he “wears” because it’s a test. Or whatever the excuse was. Got it.

Samra was a willing participant who refused to listen to her friends or family members or employees. Did no one, NO ONE, consider hiring a private investigator? There was plenty of money for everything else.

As far as I’m concerned, Leon deserved a much more devoted owner. 

[Vivigirl10]

Was I supposed to feel sympathy for Sarma?  Sad for her?  Connected to her in anyway?  Because I ended up hating this dull little idiot by the end.  The fact that she didn't apologize to anyone and took zero accountability for her actions is mind-boggling.  "Poor baby" seemed to be all that she exuded. 

Did she and Anthony ever have any type of real "relationship"?  Their timeline and the progression of the relationship was very hard to follow.  Indicated by their taped conversations, it seems they were rarely together.  She was hateful to him on the phone, snotty, condescending and challenging, but then they'd always get together again.  Why?? 

I found it interesting about how they never showed any full body photos of him during the time period they were married.  The staff at the restaurant was dumbfounded as to why she was with him.  Putting two and two together, it was easy to assume he was grossly overweight.  The final reveal of the mugshot and the "Hamburgler" comment was golden!!

I'll be honest, the way Anthony would scream at her and the repeated use of the "f" word at her would have made me run long before I even found out about his cosmic status and black ops job.  Good Lord.  What a winner.

Totally agree that if she had been an unattractive woman, none of these breaks would have happened for her and none of these people would have been so drawn into her orbit.  Goodness knows it didn't appear to be because of her glittering personality.

Leon deserves immortality for being dragged along into this mess!

[Zella]

I finished watching this last night and had a lot of thoughts. 

As with most of you, I did not find Sarma sympathetic. I do believe that she was subject to emotional abuse and manipulation from Anthony, but I also don't believe for a minute that she didn't know what was happening regarding the fraud and theft. It was fascinating to me how she would acknowledge she knew what he was doing in the moment--that she would be aware that her being on the bank accounts was always going to make the business vulnerable to him--but when she was directly questioned, she would never own her decisions or would talk around them.

Like, when she pretended like she didn't remember why the one employee was fired but just preferred to focus on the fact he hugged her when he saw her again. Or the fact that she knowingly was part of the ruse to trick Jeffrey Chorodow into thinking an outside investor was going to buy everything but refused to acknowledge that she did that, well aware that she was deceiving him. 

Honestly, the main thing that I kept focusing on was how if she'd given that 1.7 million to Jeffrey instead of Anthony, her debt would have been largely paid down. 

I think I would have been more sympathetic to her if she'd owned her own role in the scam, regardless of her motives. I do tend to agree with the people on the documentary speculating that she thought she was pulling one over on him when really he was pulling one over on her.

Most of what I knew about the case was tangential to the weirdness that is the Baldwins, but since watching the documentary, I've learned there's a lot of stuff not covered in it. One detail that I found very interesting that didn't make it in is apparently she cut off contact with him a couple of months after they met after he got her pregnant--she said he didn't pull out when she asked him to--so she had an abortion and didn't speak to him for several months. It is not clear to me when they resumed contact, but the abortion happened in January 2012, and they got married in December 2012. What happened in 2012 that made her change her mind?

I've not seen this discussed much, but do y'all think Nazim was in on the scam? At first, I thought he seemed like a more savvy person than her because he encouraged her to start taping her conversations with Anthony, then the more he talked (and especially the more he smirked as he talked), I started to think he was pretty much just like her--aware he was being scammed but also still knowingly part of the scam. I can see why the other employees didn't trust him. 

[peachmangosteen]

 

On 3/21/2022 at 2:55 PM, MaggieG said:

I cannot believe that one guy got the whole kitchen staff jobs at a different restaurant and they all quit to go back to Sarma. He was also the one asking questions and she fired him. She must have been very charming. The guy who was homeless was ready to drive down to TN and break her out of prison. And the guy she met at Chipotle that took care of her dog. 

Hell, even the detectives seemed taken in by her. It boggles the mind!

On 4/1/2022 at 10:55 PM, Zella said:

I've not seen this discussed much, but do y'all think Nazim was in on the scam? At first, I thought he seemed like a more savvy person than her because he encouraged her to start taping her conversations with Anthony, then the more he talked (and especially the more he smirked as he talked), I started to think he was pretty much just like her--aware he was being scammed but also still knowingly part of the scam. I can see why the other employees didn't trust him. 

He seemed like he was pretty freely admitting to being in on stuff to me. He said something about how they all essentially knew what was going on, 'there are no angels in hell.'

Where did they get the videos filmed by Anthony of Sharna lying in bed and crying in the Vegas hotel? Did he film those on her phone? How strange lol.

[Zella]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Where did they get the videos filmed by Anthony of Sharna lying in bed and crying in the Vegas hotel? Did he film those on her phone? How strange lol.

I've seen some discussion--not sure if it is speculation or grounded in more evidence--that he was sending them to her mom, so perhaps they got access to them through Sarma via her mother. I also noticed at least one video on the run had some description that indicated it was evidence, so I suppose it is possible the police had those videos and the documentary makers got access to them that way. 

[TVbitch]

On 3/20/2022 at 10:34 AM, Irlandesa said:

it sounds like she was just ready to give up everything to him because she was tired of having responsibility?

That's what I got. What I gleaned from Sarma's parents suggests a childhood/young adulthood where she was well taken care of and probably sheltered from the more difficult realities of life. She seemed to have some kind of learned helplessness, where she just wanted someone with the means to take care of her and manage all the responsibility. If things went wrong, there were always people around to bail her out. When it all went south, she just went into denial and then to the point of refusing to get out of bed, and finally just literally trying to escape.

She knew what she was doing to others was wrong, though. She is culpable in the con. Her flirting with Anthony at the end sounded, to me, like two con artists wink-winking at each other and chuckling over their big crazy caper.   

[peachmangosteen]

3 hours ago, TVbitch said:

She knew what she was doing to others was wrong, though. She is culpable in the con. Her flirting with Anthony at the end sounded, to me, like two con artists wink-winking at each other and chuckling over their big crazy caper.   

Yea, her phone calls with Anthony really showed she wasn't as innocent as she tried to portray. I assume she gave the show those recordings so I guess she doesn't have the awareness to see that they made her look bad.

[charmed1]

Was I the only dog parent who was holding my breath hoping they didn’t kill Leon? What was Leon’s story? I was confused. She told Alec Baldwin to adopt him and she ended up adopting him instead?  Sarma and everyone in her orbit sounded like bullshit artists. Even homeless guy sounded like the typical tough talker who always blabbers on about what they were “about to” do in some long meandering story where they really end up not doing shit. I did laugh when that one girl said Anthony looked like the Hamburglar. He totally did!

Sarma’s father seemed to be the only one who wasn’t fooled by her. I noticed they were able to scam her mom, but no mention of scamming her dad. She claimed that she and her mother had a sort of symbiotic relationship, but the sister said Sarma is more similar in personality to their dad. I think he’s got her number.

The common theme in all these stories -Bad Vegan, Tinder Swindler, Snapped Killer Couples, every middle-age catfish story - is that the scammer is always some type of Navy Seal, James Bond, Black Ops guy who can’t really talk about his job except to you, girl he just met on the Internet five minutes ago. You’re special. In DC, almost everyone works for the government in some capacity and sure there are differing levels of clearance in which one may be restricted in what details they’re able to share (We just had two scammers arrested who were pretending to be DHS officers). But these guys are usually not broke. Even the fake DHS officers were lavishing bribes on the Secret Service. But somehow these supposedly wealthy, military-trained guys always immediately become victims of violence and in desperate need of money as soon as they meet their betrothed? Does no one ask themselves, “Why would James Bond be broke?” Even Jason Bourne wasn’t begging women for money and he had a traumatic brain injury. He could at least afford his own hotel room. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by charmed1

[Scarlett45]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:44 AM, charmed1 said:

Even Jason Bourne wasn’t begging women for money and he had a traumatic brain injury. He could at least afford his own hotel room. 

This made me laugh out loud. 

[Clawdette]

I wonder if anyone has counted how many times Sarma said “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.”  Sheesh

[Cinnabon]

This forum was hard to find! The search function is not the best here.

[Zella]

16 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

This forum was hard to find! The search function is not the best here.

I usually use Google to find Primetimer forums rather than the site's own search function. 

[Cinnabon]

5 minutes ago, Zella said:

I usually use Google to find Primetimer forums rather than the site's own search function. 

It’s a shame, because there would be a lot more traffic and conversation if newcomers could find some of these shows. Even the alphabetical show index doesn’t help. Anyway, I’m watching this now and it’s batshit crazy! So weird how it all started with Alec Baldwin.

[Zella]

35 minutes ago, Cinnabon said:

Anyway, I’m watching this now and it’s batshit crazy! So weird how it all started with Alec Baldwin.

It's a wild, wild ride! 

[Cinnabon]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:39 PM, OoogleEyes said:

This is what killed me too. I was talking to a friend about this and she said "Did he even know Alec Baldwin?" 

I had to think about it a minute. NO! He didn't! Only by tweets! Damn, girl. You deserve it.

And people are now giving her even more money for this show and her "memoirs". There's a sucker born every day.

 

To be fair, Netflix did pay all of her employees the back wages they were owed. The one positive thing that came out of her participation in the documentary, I guess.

[Glade]

I think what I needed was more reflection from Sarna, not just 'these things happened, I'm very sad and lifeless now.' But rather, some self-analysis/life history to explain why she found herself in such a vulnerable place when this abusive, manipulative sociopath entered her life.  I hope she's been in therapy and has some insight she's not sharing here. 

Instead we got endless footage of her walking back and forth to the restaurant while his painfully disturbing texts were displayed on-screen.  I think this was an overly long, drawn out documentary.

Edited May 30, 2022 by Glade

[SlovakPrincess]

I’m weirdly addicted to all these con artist shows.  I guess if someone tries to con me, I’ll be ready to call out the bullshit?  😂

Yeah this was simply bizarre.  It wasn’t like she didn’t have wealthy and loyal people in her corner, trying to warn her and help her with her restaurant.  Unlike the Tinder Swindler victims, who were not well connected and were duped by someone a lot more convincing!    

[SlovakPrincess]

On 4/14/2022 at 2:42 PM, TVbitch said:

That's what I got. What I gleaned from Sarma's parents suggests a childhood/young adulthood where she was well taken care of and probably sheltered from the more difficult realities of life. She seemed to have some kind of learned helplessness, where she just wanted someone with the means to take care of her and manage all the responsibility. If things went wrong, there were always people around to bail her out. When it all went south, she just went into denial and then to the point of refusing to get out of bed, and finally just literally trying to escape.   

Yeah, there was a very strange dichotomy of her being clearly intelligent and confident enough to grow a very successful business ... and on the other hand being vulnerable to this weird fantasy of being rescued by some big guy who promises her that not only will he pay off her debts, he'll make her immortal.  

Mixed in with all her own hard work and smarts, she had a few rather lucky breaks that involved powerful men immediately liking and wanting to help her ... first, interviewing with the up-and-coming chef to work on his cook book and ending up as a partner in a restaurant and in a relationship, then the investor supporting her in taking over the restaurant (and being a-ok with her extremely slow repaying of the debt), catching the eye of Alec Baldwin, etc.  Maybe after all that, some guy claiming to be an uber wealthy dark ops contractor promising to pay off her $2 mill debt didn't sound so nuts ... and the longer she stuck around listening to his loony theories (which also played into her vague, lifelong idea of her own specialness) the more it messed with her mind.

[SunnyBeBe]

Finally, got around to watching this.  This woman is ridiculous.  Lol. I think most people know by now that if you meet someone online, who has a shady past and says they are CIA……it might be a con. Lol.  This story is quite similar to The Drop Out.  

[rlc]

Late to the party- who exactly was the mafia-type man who staunchly defended her and was interviewed throughout? I was doing many thing while watching and couldn’t figure out who he was, but wasn’t bothered enough to watch again.

Also of note- heard from a friend that lives on the same block as the restaurant that it is rumored to be reopening.