An attorney for a former Subway francisee said the company may in fact have had some heads-up notification about spokesman Jared Fogle, who’s been arrested on child pornography charges, because his client expressed concerns about the pitchman to a firm-affiliated advertising executive as far back as 2008.
Cindy Mills, who is being represented by Florida attorney Robert Beasley, said she traded phone numbers with Fogle at an event they both attended, the Associated Press reported. Mills said Fogle started talking about paying for sex with minors, at which point she sent an alert to a regional company contact in Florida, where her own sandwich shops were located, AP said.
Mills then later contacted Jeff Moody, the person in charge of Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, the outfit that oversees the company’s marketing, and expressed concerns about Fogle, Beasley said.
Subway didn’t respond, Beasley said, AP reported. At the time Mills contacted Moody, the Trust Fund was run by various franchisees, though. Subway itself didn’t have much input into the fund’s activities, at least until 2010, when the company won control of it via a lawsuit, AP reported.
Subway said previously it didn’t have records of any complaints made against Fogle.
Mills came forward publicly with her claims after Fogle agreed to plead guilty to paying for sex with minor-aged girls and to receipt of child pornography in mid-August. Beasley said Fogle had told her about paying for sex with minors during one of his trips to Thailand, and for paying for sex with a 16-year-old Craigslist contact, AP reported.
He also said Mills told him she told Moody about Fogle’s claims, and offered to show him the texts. But Moody allegedly turned a blind eye and told her he didn’t want to hear any more details, Beasley said, AP reported.
Beasley also said Moody told Mills that he’d heard similar claims but that Fogle had been introduced to a teacher who would “get him on the right track,” AP reported.
“To me,” Beasley said, AP reported, “it was confirmation that they knew about it.”
Fogle is due to pay $1.4 million in restitution to his 14 minor-age victims and he faces between five and 12 and a-half years in prison. His wife, meanwhile, has announced plans to divorce him.
