It’s been almost one year since Jared Fogle was sentenced to 15 years in prison on child molestation charges, but new revelations about the former Subway spokesman are still emerging.
The latest comes from a lawsuit that Fogle’s ex-wife, Katie McLaughlin, recently filed against the Subway corporation.
McLaughlin claims that Subway execs knew about the allegations against Fogle, but instead of investigating, they aided in an effort to conceal his crimes from the public.
“As early as 2004, Subway’s then Senior Vice President of Marketing received a complaint that Jared had approached a young girl at a promotional event for a Las Vegas Subway franchise for a sex act,” reads a portion of the suit, obtained by Radar Online.
“Subway exploited his family despite knowing of allegations that Jared was a pedophile and failing to properly investigate those allegations.”
McLaughlin alleges that Subway questioned Fogle, but refused to have any contact with his victims, for fear of legitimizing their claims.
“A responsible corporation would take immediate action when hearing of this behavior,” McLaughlin reportedly said in a recent deposition.
Four years after the corporation first learned of the accusations, McLaughlin alleges, Fogle sent shocking text messages to a Florida Subway franchisee, who in turn alerted the company’s CEO, Jeff Moody.
The franchise owner reportedly informed Moody “that Jared had had sex with minors from age 9 to 16.”
Moody allegedly replied:
“Please don’t tell me any more. Don’t worry, he has met someone. She is a teacher and he seems to love her very much, and we think she will keep him grounded.”
“Subway exploited his family despite knowing of allegations that Jared was a pedophile and failing to properly investigate those allegations,” McLaughlin’s lawyers claim.
McLaughlin is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
And if her claims hold up in court, Subway could find itself coping with a PR nightmare that it may never recover from.