Jared Fogle facing prison, fines, divorce after child pornography revelations
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For more than a decade, Jared Fogle was the everyman who touted Subway sandwiches and represented a relatable role model for Americans struggling to lose weight. Now, he’s now facing up to 12 1/2 years in prison for his involvement in a years-long scheme to sexually exploit children, he’ll have to pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 victims, and his wife is divorcing him.
Between 2010 and 2013, Fogle, while traveling in New York City, paid to have sex with two teenage girls, according to a criminal complaint. The incidents occurred at the Plaza and Ritz Carlton Hotels, where Fogle was staying, often for business travel.
“Let’s call this what it is,” Josh J. Minkler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “This is about using wealth, status and secrecy to illegally exploit children.”
Fogle admitted Wednesday that he knew that Russell Taylor, a former executive at Fogle’s Jared Foundation, which focused on inner-city kids, was sexually exploiting a 14-year-old girl in 2011, according to prosecutors. Instead of stopping the abuse, prosecutors say, Fogle chose to “receive and repeatedly view” the pornography Taylor produced of the girl. Taylor targeted a total of 12 children between ages 9 and 16, none of whom knew they were being filmed, prosecutors say.
Fogle, 37, will plead guilty to one count of distribution and receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling to engage in unlawful sex acts with minors, according to documents released Wednesday by federal prosecutors.
Fogle appeared Wednesday before a federal judge to hear the charges and was released on home detention with GPS monitoring.
“I think he’s probably going to stay around, but if not, we’ll find him,” Steven DeBrota of the U.S. attorney’s office said. “I don’t think Jared can flee very far without getting recognized.”
The public knows Fogle’s back story well – how he began as a 425-pound Indiana University student, dropped more than half his body weight on a strict diet of Subway sandwiches, and landed a job as the chain’s top pitchman. He began appearing in Subway commercials in 2000, after the story of his dramatic weight loss appeared in Men’s Health magazine, and he soon found himself at the center of one of the nation’s most successful and enduring advertising campaigns.
Fogle became crucial to Subway’s marketing. According to AdAge, sales fell 10% after ads featuring him briefly stopped airing in 2005. He was parodied by “Saturday Night Live” and “South Park.” He started his foundation to fight childhood obesity.
The “before and after” images of Fogle at his highest weight and after his Subway diet were a “very positive association” for the brand, Ira Kalb, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business, told The Times last month.
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When a child rapist is associated with the brand, how can Subway not take a hit? They should have gotten rid of this sicko years ago.
I wonder how this will affect the NBC TV programme “The Biggest Loser?” the contestants have in past seasons put Jarrod on the same level as a god.
The spokesman is not the brand. The brand is the brand and the spokesman is a human being. If a human being happens to fail, then, the brand will continue.
I think that most consumers understand that.
Subway kept this creep around for 16 years. Most spokespeople are only associated with a brand for a couple years. Most people had enough of this disgusting individual even before he pleaded guilty to child rape. Subway’s decision to keep his commercials going for so long means people associated him with the brand. That’s something the Subway bosses now regret.
Chris: You are correct. Subway milked that particular cow (Fogel) to the nines and now, regret. But that’s what happens when you put all of your eggs in one business basket.