'She's the vegan Bernie Madoff': Meet the raw food restaurateur who 'stole $2million from investors' and hid from the law in a Tennessee inn - where she was busted for ordering PIZZA

It sounds like the set up of a joke - a devout vegan with a raw food restaurant in New York City was on the run for 10 months until a Domino's pizza order landed her in jail.

But Sarma Melngailis, who had an Ivy League education, two successful businesses, and accolades from names like Alec Baldwin and Bill Clinton, is living 'the worst nightmare you can think of'.

She is accused of stealing about $2million from her trendy restaurant Pure Food and Wine, at least half of which she blew at casinos, leaving disgruntled investors and unpaid employees in the dust.

The 43-year-old and her husband Anthony Strangis were arrested last week at a Tennessee inn and face 24 counts of theft, labor fraud and tax crime charges, for which they could be jailed for 15 years.

Sarma Melngailis, who had an Ivy League education, two successful businesses, and accolades from names like Alec Baldwin and Bill Clinton, went on the run for 10 months with her husband. They face 24 charges

The restaurateur, who is still trying to keep up her vegan diet at the prison complex Rikers Island, told the NY Post: 'It's the worst nightmare you can think of. 

'If I had terminal cancer, it would be better than this, because at least [then] I did not cause it.'

From January 2014 to January 2015, Melngailis transferred over $1.6 million from the business accounts to her personal bank account, reported New York Daily News.

She met Anthony Strangis (pictured) around 2013

Melngailis and Strangis took money from investors, didn't pay $400,000 in taxes and spent more than $2 million at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos.

They also dropped $80,00 on pricey watches and $70,000 on trips to Europe and $10,000 in Uber rides, according to an indictment.

Her bizarre fall from grace has left long-term friends, former employees and family members shocked.

Even Melngailis seemed confused when she told the Post on Saturday: 'Things were going well when I was single.' 

Melngailis graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and landed a series of finance jobs before she turned to food. 

She enrolled in the French Culinary Institute and starting the restaurant Commissary with her ex-boyfriend in 2001.

Three years later, she opened Pure, one of the city's first raw vegan eateries which soon became a trendy hot spot among celebrities such as Woody Harrelson and Jason Lewis.

Melngailis and Strangis took money from investors, it is alleged (pictured with ex boyfriend Matthew Kenney, left, and actor Kyle MacLachlan, right)

They also failed to pay $400,000 in taxes and spent more than $2 million at Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun Casinos, luxury jewelry, trips to Europe and Uber rides (with celebrities Woody Harrelson, left, and Jason Lewis, right)

Friends and employees said Melngailis (pictured here with Daryl Hannah) was kind, devoted and generous, but things took a turn when she met Strangis, a convict who was arrested for grand theft and impersonating a police officer

Friends and employees said she was kind, devoted and generous, but things took a turn when she met Strangis, a convict who was arrested for grand theft and impersonating a police officer.

Strangis was married to Stacy Strangis for seven years, until she published a notice of action in several newspapers to dissolve her marriage in 2010 because he vanished when their son was eight months old.

She called him a 'sociopath' and told the Post: 'When I met him, he said he was a retired Navy SEAL and [had been] shot in the line of action in the chest. 

'I would always see what I thought were bandages [on] his chest. Come to find out, he was just taping his man boobs down.'

By 2013, Melngailis brought Strangis in as a manager, and one employee told the Post: 'He had an air of an Italian-style gangster...walking with a big gait and speaking in a cryptic fashion about money.' 

According to a former director of operations, Strangis would tell him not to deposit the restaurant's earnings at the company bank, and demanded they meet at a Citibank instead, where Strangis had a personal account.

He added the restaurant's account, which had a few hundred thousand dollars, was quickly depleted. 

By 2013, Melngailis brought Strangis in as a manager, and one employee told the Post: 'He had an air of an Italian-style gangster...walking with a big gait and speaking in a cryptic fashion about money.'

A group of ex-Pure workers showed up at Brooklyn Criminal Court to see their old boss in shackles. An indictment shows she owes more than 80 of her former employees $40,000 in back pay

Melngailis struggled to pay her employees by 2014, and Pure closed for the first three months of 2015.

She made excuses and reopened in April after convincing wealthy patrons to pitch in more than $800,000. 

Benjamin Dictor, an attorney for a group of former workers who are owed a total of $40,000 in wages, called her 'the vegan Bernie Madoff'.

Melngailis, who owes nearly $1million to employees and investors of Pure Food and her mail-order snack business One Lucky Duck. She also failed to pay $400,000 in taxes. 

In court on Thursday, Strangis' defense attorney laid the blame on Melngailis, who he said 'ran this business and drove it into the ground and withdrew all the money'. 

She in turn argued she was 'not in control'. 

The disgraced restaurateur vowed to do right by her former employees and said she loved them and would find a way to pay back their wages.

It's clear the rosy feelings aren't mutual - a group of ex-Pure workers showed up at Brooklyn Criminal Court to see their old boss in shackles. 

The disgraced restaurateur vowed to do right by her former employees and said she loved them and would find a way to pay back their wages