INDIANAPOLIS -- Jared Fogle is now asking for $57 million as remuneration for a “conspiracy” to rob him of his fortune he says was orchestrated by judges, the U.S. attorney’s office, FBI investigators and the attorney general of the United States.
Fogle’s latest filing was entered by the court on Monday. In it, the former Subway pitchman – now serving more than 15 years on charges of child porn and sexual conduct with a minor – alleges federal Judge Tanya Walton-Pratt, who sentenced him to prison, two members of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, an Illinois U.S. district court judge and both of his lawyers undertook a “scheme to defraud” Fogle by tricking him into pleading guilty to a false charge.
READ | Full Fogle plea agreement
In addition to his wrongful imprisonment, Fogle claims he suffered at least $19 million in damages. The suit asks the government to grant him threefold damages as remuneration in the sum of $57 million.
The claim – which purports to outline a sprawling RICO case involving fraudulent search warrants, bogus charges and ill-gotten advice from attorneys to agree to pay $1.4 million in restitution to Fogle’s juvenile victims (at least $1 million of which Fogle had already paid prior to his sentencing) – is the latest attempt by Fogle to get out of the plea he entered in November 2015.
Previous such attempts – an apparent “sovereign citizen” defense rejected in November, the demonstrably false claim that Judge Pratt was “biased” because of her two teenage daughters at the time of the sentencing (she had none), and the argument that he pleaded guilty to an “unconstitutional” charge of conspiracy – have so far been unsuccessful. In addition to this most recent filing, Fogle also has two open civil cases against Pratt and the U.S. government arguing he should be released.
READ MORE | Jared Fogle claims his plea was 'unconstitutional,' cc's President Donald Trump in new filing
Fogle is joined in the RICO case claim by two other defendants: James Nathan Fry and Frank Edwin Pate.
Pate, a former resident of Bonham, Texas, was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison in November 2015 for wire and mail fraud in connection to a foreign currency trading scheme and ordered to pay $2.8 million in restitution.
Fry was sentenced in October 2013 to more than 17 years in prison and to pay $41 million in restitution for his role in a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme, according to the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
Pate and Fry are asking for $72 million and $114 million in restitution, respectively, from judges, FBI agents, assistant U.S. attorneys and IRS employees connected to their cases.
In all, the three men’s combined complaint targets 34 defendants and asks for $243 million in damages to be paid to Fogle, Pate and Fry.
At least part of Fogle’s motivation behind the RICO suit may have been made clear Wednesday, when he filed a motion to dismiss in his civil suit against Pratt claiming that, because he has filed a RICO suit naming her as a defendant, the entire U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana is now a “conflict of interest” forum.
Fogle is currently serving his sentence at the federal correctional institute in Englewood, Colorado. He is scheduled to be released on July 11, 2029.
MORE FROM THE CRIME BEAT | Indianapolis sets all-time homicide record for third year in a row | MAP: Indy's most dangerous neighborhoods | The Night the Sky Caught Fire: The Untold Stories of Richmond Hill | Convicted child molester reveals how he selected & groomed his victims | Teens killed man over weed and a pair of Air Jordans, police say | MAP: 2017 Indianapolis homicides
