Jared Fogle's Foundation Hasn't Issued a Single Grant
Last week, in the wake Jared Fogle's guilty plea to possession of child pornography and sex with minors, it was revealed that the former Subway pitchman used his child-obesity charity, the Jared Foundation, to access victims.
Turns out, that was only the beginning.
A USA Today investigation into the nonprofit organization's tax records discovered that the Jared Foundation—launched in 2008 with the goal of providing $2 million to schools and organizations fighting child obesity—has not issued a single grant. According to the USA Today report, the foundation spent an average of just $73,000 a year, with 60 percent of that total allocated to former executive director Russell Taylor's salary and 26 percent unaccounted for. Taylor was arrested in April on child pornography charges, and allegedly conspired with Fogle to produce child pornography and hire underage prostitutes, according to court documents.
And then there's this, from USA Today:
The foundation also hasn't paid the state of Indiana a $5 annual registration fee since 2008, the year the Jared Fogle Healthy Lifestyle Nationwide School Grant Program was supposed to begin. Delinquency notices were ignored. In 2012, the Indiana secretary of state dissolved the foundation, though the IRS still recognizes it.
The mounting evidence suggests that the Jared Foundation was little more than a front for Fogle and Taylor's illicit activities. "If Jared was really interested in helping children through his foundation, he could have gotten more money," Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, told USA Today. "As with a lot of celebrities, the charity appears to be more about image-enhancement than charitable deeds."
