Jared Fogle, the fat-shedding “Subway guy” and former face of the world’s largest restaurant chain, agreed Wednesday to a plea deal for possessing child pornography and having sex with underage girls, a precipitous fall for an American everyman held up as a model for healthy living.
Between 2007 and this summer, prosecutors said, Mr. Fogle paid for and planned his business travel around repeated sexual encounters with underage girls. With his partner in the Jared Foundation, a childhood-obesity charity, Mr. Fogle also traded lurid pictures and videos of nude children as young as 6.
Mr. Fogle, 37, agreed to a deal Wednesday morning at an Indianapolis courthouse ringed by attorneys and federal marshals. As part of the deal, he agreed to serve at least five years in prison and pay $100,000 to each of his 14 victims to fund counseling, treatment and other help.
The charges marked a stunning end for the surprise-star role model and suburban family man, whose affable tale of achievable weight loss touched a nerve in a nation growing increasingly overweight. In his prime, Mr. Fogle spoke about his diet struggles on TV with Oprah Winfrey, at Harvard health conferences and to thousands of schoolchildren during national tours dedicated to eating right.
His quintessentially American success story also propelled the no-frills hoagie chain into becoming one of the country’s most popular eateries, further fueling a rapid expansion that helped its U.S. franchises outnumber those of McDonald’s and Starbucks, combined.
Mr. Fogle’s downfall as a prominent pitchman, one of the steepest in corporate history, underscores the danger for companies that crown sports figures, celebrities and inspiring unknowns as the embodiment of their brand. Mr. Fogle will join the ranks of disgraced business endorsers such as O.J. Simpson, Michael Vick and Lance Armstrong, whose criminal charges or public embarrassments upended their corporate partners virtually overnight.
But Mr. Fogle’s case could prove particularly damning, due to the seriousness of the charges and the simplicity of his origin story. While the others were celebrities first, Mr. Fogle became famous solely thanks to Subway’s wholesome ideal. Steve Rivkin, a marketing consultant with Rivkin & Associates, said, “I’m sure this is causing other major brands to look at this situation and say, ... ‘What’s our vulnerability, and what’s our fallback if something awful happens?”
Mr. Fogle, a married father of two, will be required to register as a sex offender and pursue treatment for sexual disorders. Prosecutors agreed not to seek more than 12½ years in prison, though a federal judge could levy a longer sentence.
Mr. Fogle, who made millions off Subway endorsements and motivational speeches, used “wealth, status and secrecy to illegally exploit children,” U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said at a news conference Wednesday. Jeremy Margolis, Mr. Fogle’s attorney, said after a court hearing that “Fogle expects to go to prison” and “will do his time.”
In July, federal agents raided Mr. Fogle’s home in Zionsville, Ind., a suburb outside Indianapolis, after a citizen’s tip sparked an investigation that spread to local, state and federal authorities, including the FBI.
Mr. Fogle’s wife, Katie Fogle, said in a statement that she was “extremely shocked and disappointed” by the charges and will seek a divorce.
After the raid, Subway publicly and abruptly suspended its partnership with Mr. Fogle.
First Published: August 20, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
