NUMEROUS OFFENSES: U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler speaks at a press conference following a hearing in federal court charging former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, of Zionsville, with child pornography-related offenses.

Former Subway sandwich pitchman Jared Fogle will pay $1,400,000 in restitution to his victims as part of a plea agreement that includes counseling and potential jail time. 

Fogle, 37, appeared in U.S. District Court Wednesday morning on charges he distributed and received child pornography and that he traveled to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and attempted to travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Fogle advised the court he’ll enter a guilty plea.

Part of Fogle’s plea agreement requires him to pay $1,400,000 in restitution to the 14 victims — $100,000 to each for counseling, treatment, education and other resources to combat the effects of the crimes and to get them back on track. U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said it’s the largest restitution ever ordered in the Southern District of Indiana for a child pornography or sex trafficking case.

If the plea is accepted by the court, Fogle must pay a $250,000 fine, register as a sex offender, must receive treatment for sexual disorders, may not have any unsupervised meetings or visits with any minor, and a potential jail sentence of 5 years to 12-1/2 years in prison. No specific sentence has been agreed to. Fogle would also be on probation for at least five years, and potentially for life.

“No amount of restitution can undo the damage he’s done to these victims and the families,” admitted a Fogle attorney, Jeremy Margolis, of Chicago-based Loeb & Loeb. Also at a press conference after the 15-minute hearing, Margolis added that Fogle has sought counseling.

Of those 14 victims, 10 are still minors. Some didn’t know who Fogle is, and some didn’t even know they were victims because of the secretive nature in which their images were gathered.

“Mr. Fogle has admitted in court pleadings that he received child pornography involving multiple minors living in Indiana and other countries over the course of several years,” Minkler said.

According to a press release from Minkler’s office, between March 2011 and January 2015, former Jared Foundation Director Russell Taylor secretly produced child pornography involving 12 minors in Indiana between the ages of 9 and 16 then shared the images and videos with Fogle, who knew the victims were minors.

Taylor, who was federally charged in a separate case in May, also allegedly shared commercially produced child pornography videos with Fogle that showed children as young as 6 being sexually abused. Those videos were made outside the United States.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, senior litigator on the case, said the Jared Foundation was not used by Fogle to meet the victims, but he did take advantage of his business travel to solicit sex acts with minors while he was away from home. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office: “From 2007 until June of 2015, Fogle repeatedly engaged in Internet social networking and traveled to other states for the purpose of engaging in commercial sexual acts with at least two underage minors.”

Incidents at the New York City Plaza and Ritz-Carlton hotels were documented by investigators. At those times, Fogle paid a 17-year-old female for sex acts and also offered her a fee for finding another young girl to have sex with him, saying “he would accept a 16-year-old girl, while indicating the younger the better.”

At other times, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Fogle offered a finder’s fee to adult prostitutes to find him minors as young as 14 or 15 to perform sex acts with him for money.

When announcing the filing of formal charges against Fogle Wednesday, Minkler emphasized that when Fogle learned about the exploitation of a 14-year-old girl from Taylor in March 2011, he did nothing to stop it. Instead, Minkler said, Fogle chose to receive and repeatedly view pornography involving the girl and other minors.

“In total, Mr. Fogle admitted in court pleadings filed today that his actions caused the sexual victimization of a total of 12 minors in Indiana before his co-conspirator’s arrest in April 2015,” Minkler said. “He preyed on minor victims who did not have the ability to protect themselves.”

DeBrota said restitution in such cases is vital to getting the victims to a safer place and getting them counseling.

Minkler said the restitution funds will be overseen by the court to ensure they’re used for the victims’ welfare.