The problems continue to mount for the man who was only weeks ago the public face of the Subway sandwich empire. Jared Fogle who was able to parlay a significant loss of weight – allegedly due to only eating Subway food – into a gig as a national celebrity pitchman now finds himself being probed by the feds over having sex with a minor. It hasn’t been a good month for Mr. Fogle who was jettisoned by the food chain when authorities raided his home after an associate was arrested on child pornography related charges. Now America’s most famous dieter himself is in hot water in yet another example of how those who are put on a pedestal by the media often conceal a very dark side behind their smiling public visage.
Fogle’s latest plight is detailed in a Business Insider story entitled “The FBI Has Subpoenaed Lewd Text Messages Between Subway's Jared Fogle and a Former Subway Franchisee” from which I excerpt:
The FBI has subpoenaed an affidavit containing alleged texts between former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle and a former female Subway franchisee in which Fogle says he paid for sex with a 16-year-old girl, according to the former franchisee's attorney.
The former franchisee shared the texts and her concerns about Fogle with Subway management at the time, her lawyer says, but Subway did nothing. Subway says it has no record of the woman's complaint.
The woman's lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, said the FBI recently subpoenaed his law office for the text-message conversations, which Business Insider has viewed.
In the messages, Fogle repeatedly asks the woman — a Subway franchisee at the time — to advertise herself on Craigslist for sex with other men.
He asks her if he can watch the sexual acts and tells her she can make about $500 per act.
AND
The woman was apparently in a sexual relationship with Fogle at the time. She became uncomfortable with the relationship as Fogle pushed her to post listings on Craigslist and detailed other trysts, according to her lawyer.
Wendy Osborne, spokeswoman for FBI's Southern Indiana branch, would not confirm or deny that the FBI has subpoenaed the messages.
Subway suspended its relationship with Fogle, a spokesman for the brand for the last 15 years, on July 7 after federal and state authorities raided his Indiana home. It has scrubbed every mention of Fogle from its website and stores.
The raid came months after an employee of Fogle's charitable foundation was arrested on child-pornography charges, and Subway said at the time it believed the raid on Fogle's home was in relation to that case.
Fox59 and CBS also reported at the time — citing law-enforcement sources — that the raid was related to a child-pornography investigation.
Fogle always came across like a creepy little hustler to me because the story of the weight loss just never really added up. Our national obsession with finding an easy fix for fatness led to the idolizing of the former scale busting mammoth who lost hundreds of pounds by eating nothing but Subway sandwiches while in college. What was not mentioned (at least prominently) in the constant advertising featuring the bespectacled wonder boy in his post-flubber days, is that his successful weight loss formula was more the result of a drastic reduction in daily calorie intake as well as regular exercise than from gobbling turkey sandwiches from Subway. The chain actually had a disclaimer on their website if you drilled down far enough that stated as much.
But Jared Fogle’s story was pure gold when it came to selling sandwiches to schmucks and he became a national celebrity, appearing in living rooms across the fruited plain like a dear and beloved family member. He even popped up regularly at the end of NFL games during the Subway sponsored post game show. The truth however is that Fogle could have probably lost that same amount of weight by eating at Taco Bell, McDonalds or Popeye’s had he undertaken a similar calorie cut and exercised regularly. But he managed to help sell a boatload of sandwiches for a good many years before he fell from grace last month when the feds came a knockin'.
Ironically Subway was working on repackaging Fogle as a “family man” at the time when his house was raided – so much for that idea now.
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