Jared Fogle’s Charity never gave any money out to charity and spent a large amount on it’s convicted executive director.
According to reports and records by USA Today, a charity formed by former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle for the purpose of fighting childhood obesity never issued a single dollar and spent 60% of its budget on the salary of its executive director.
That executive director, 43-year-old Russell Taylor, would later be charged with creating some of the child pornography that Fogle pled guilty to possessing earlier this month.
In 2008, Fogle announced that the Jared Foundation would collect money in order to fund school nutrition and fitness programs and “help parents identify ‘at-risk’ obesity behavior early on.” However, tax records show that never happened.
But while the foundation raked in donations between 2009 and 2013, it only spent about $73,000 a year, far under the promised $2 million.
“If Jared was really interested in helping children through his foundation, he could have gotten more money,” Daniel Borochoff, president of watchdog group CharityWatch, told the newspaper. “As with a lot of celebrities, the charity appears to be more about image-enhancement than charitable deeds.”
About 60% of those annual expenses, about $44,000 a year, went to the salary of the foundation’s executive director, Russell Taylor. [NY Daily News]
When Russell Taylor was charged with child exploitation, possession of child pornography and voyeurism in April, Fogle released a statement saying he was “shocked to learn of the disturbing allegations” and was “severing all ties with Mr. Taylor.” Despite 40% of the budget that remained, USA Today reports that a large percentage of that money was unaccounted for and missing.
