Jared Fogle, the fast food spokesperson who for years pushed Subway sandwiches as a healthy meal choice, will spend the foreseeable future in prison for having sex with minors and possessing vast amounts of sexualized images of child abuse.
Fogle, 38, was sentenced to 15 and a half years Thursday following a plea deal. He will also give $1.4 million to his victims, and spend the rest of his life in the United States under supervised release once his prison term is completed, the prosecution said.
He had reportedly amassed a vast amount of images and videos. Between Fogle and his co-conspirator, Russell Taylor, who pleaded guilty in September, investigators said they searched through 5.6 terabytes of data over all sorts of devices, including numerous laptops, smartphones, tablets, external hard drives, and digital cameras. This summer, the FBI raided his house and suspected he had asked a minor to advertise sex acts on Craigslist.
Once one of the most prominent fast food spokespeople in the world, Fogle rose to fame as an everyday man who lost significant weight eating Subway’s sandwiches. He was also known for his nonprofit, called the Jared Foundation. Ostensibly designed to fight for children’s health and combat obesity, a USA Today investigation earlier in 2015 found that it hadn’t issued a single grant, nor had it paid taxes.
But in the meantime, prosecutors said, Fogle systematically took sexual advantage of numerous minors. He took several trips in 2012 and 2013 to pay for sex with girls under the age of consent, prosecutors said, and offered to pay at least one minor a “finder’s fee” to help recruit others.
When asked for comment, a Subway spokesperson referred the Daily Dot to a previous company statement, which said that Fogle’s actions “do not represent our brand values.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to provide additional clarity and context.
Photo via Anna Hanks/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
