Subway executives helped protect Jared Fogle after learning about his sick child abuse - source

(NaturalNews) A former franchisee for sandwich chain Subway says that the company's disgraced former spokesman, Jared Fogle, admitted to her in 2008 that he traveled abroad to have sex with underage girls, the UK's Daily Mail reports.

The paper's online edition reported that Fogle specifically traveled to Thailand to have sex with minors and that he also paid a 16-year-old for sex over Craigslist, according to allegations.

The franchisee, Cindy Mills, told the paper that Fogle told her about his underage sex travails overseas after the two swapped phone numbers at an event. According to a lawyer for Mills, Robert Beasley, she reported what Fogle had told her to advertising executives at Subway back in 2008 but she was rebuffed.

He didn't want to hear it

The Daily Mail reported:

Jeff Moody, head of Subway's marketing at the time, even sought to reassure Mills that Fogle was receiving help, implying that the company already knew about his crimes, Beasley added.

Mills said that after she began to tell Moody about what Fogle had said and texted, she said he stopped her and said he "didn't want to hear any more." She said Moody told her Fogle was working with a "teacher" to help him get his proclivities under control.

In recent days, Fogle agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he went to New York City to have sex with minors while staying at upscale hotels. He has also agreed to plead guilty to possession of child pornography, some of which was produced by his associate and executive director of his childhood obesity charity, Russell Taylor.

As part of the plea agreement, Fogle also agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 underage victims. He also faces a jail term of up to 12 years.

However, new allegations have arisen stating that Fogle also traveled abroad to have underage sex, which he also did in the United States.

As further reported by Business Insider, Mills began chatting with Fogle at an event before the two swapped phone numbers. Shortly thereafter, she says he began calling her and sending her disturbing text messages.

"He would just tell me he really liked them young," Mills said, according to BI.

Mills was a franchisee in Pensacola, Florida, from 2006 to 2012. Fogle was Subway's pitchman for 15 years.

Mills initially told BI she wanted to remain anonymous, but after Fogle's arrest went public, she said she was comfortable with the publication using her name.

She also said that after Fogle began making his claims in early 2008, she decided to hire a lawyer.

"I thought, 'This man has a lot of money. Subway has a lot money. They have made each other a lot of money,'" Mills said. "I was worried. I was scared to death."

Years of crimes

She advised her lawyer to explore legal action against Subway for a potential breach of the franchiser-franchisee contact. However, Beasley said that Subway could not be found culpable because Fogle wasn't actually an employee of Subway; instead, he was employed by the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust (SFAFT).

Subway has "pretty well isolated themselves from Jared's acts," Beasley told BI. "We couldn't find an avenue to pursue where it would connect his acts and statements to any legal liability to Subway. Combine that with [Mills'] unwillingness to get out in public and say this and you end up staying silent."

The Daily Mail noted that it had previously been reported that Fogle's crimes dated back to 2007 after a former journalist, Rochelle Herman-Walrond, recorded conversations with him for federal authorities.

In describing Fogle as "a monster," she told WWSB-TV in Sarasota, Florida, that she recorded her conversations with Fogle for the FBI over a span of more than years.

"He would tell me the ages he was interested in, boy or girl. He indicated the fact that he has done it before and told me in gross detail what transpired," Herman-Walrond said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

BusinessInsider.com

WFLA.com