Subway: Review finds 'serious' complaint about Jared Fogle

[link to news.yahoo.com]



INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The Subway restaurant chain said it received a "serious" complaint about Jared Fogle when he was the company's spokesman but that the complaint did not imply any criminal sexual activity.

The company announced in a statement Friday that it has completed an internal investigation into whether it was alerted to concerns about Fogle, who agreed last month to plead guilty to allegations he paid for sex acts with girls as young as 16 and had received child pornography. The company has severed its ties to him.

Subway's investigation included a review of more than a million online comments and interviews with past and present employees and managers with both the company and an advertising fund, the statement said.

Subway spokeswoman Kristen McMahon said the company received the "serious" complaint in 2011 from former Florida journalist Rochelle Herman-Walrond, who says she worked with the FBI to record Fogle expressing interest in sex with minors. The company's statement said that while the complaint "expressed concerns about Mr. Fogle," it included "nothing that implied anything about sexual behavior or criminal activity involving Mr. Fogle." McMahon would not elaborate on the nature of the complaint.

Nevertheless, the company said it regrets the complaint was "not properly escalated or acted upon," according to the statement.