The longtime television ad pitchman for Subway, the world's biggest fast-food chain, agreed Wednesday to plead guilty in the United States to charges that he paid for sex with underage girls and distributed child pornography.
Jared Fogle was known in the United States as "the Subway guy" after he claimed that he lost 90 kilograms while he was a college student by eating healthily at Subway restaurants.
The restaurant chain, with about 33,000 restaurants across the globe, subsequently hired Fogle, now 37, to appear in television ads touting his dramatic weight loss and the Subway menu.
Fogle went on his diet while at Indiana University in the central part of the U.S. Not far away in an Indianapolis courthouse, he agreed Wednesday to plead guilty at a later date to charges that he traveled to New York to engage in illicit sex with underage girls and distributed and received child pornography.
Under his plea deal with prosecutors, Fogle will pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 minor victims, register as a sex offender and undergo treatment for sexual disorders. Each person is to receive $100,000. Fogle faces a five-to-12-year prison term.
As Fogle, the father of two children, was appearing in court, his wife, Katie Fogle, announced she is divorcing him. Subway ended its relationship with Fogle when authorities raided his Indiana home last month.
