Thank you for updating your post, and letting us know how you resolved your issue. There will be a good chance that someone will need this information in the future.
On a slight tangent, did you try to save your file as an .eps out of inkscape? I'm curious to know if VM would have done the same thing. I'm guessing it might have, since you seem to have isolated it to bend a node issue. (just can't help being curious though )